Horses of the Little Book Cliffs

In 2025 there were 17 documented foals but sadly, only 3 survived. There are several mountain lions on the range and it appears that they have developed a taste for horse meat. While they do help in keeping the population down, it is still sad when we lose any let alone large amounts of horses.

Java is one of the remaining 2025 foals. He lives in the North Soda area of the range. Troya and Pyro are the other two and they live in the remote, hard to access, Monument Rock area of the range. I do not have photos of those two.

Dynamo is one of our varnish roan appaloosas. She was born bay and then turned this color. She was born in 2022 to Phoenix and Waco. She has had one foal, who disappeared shortly after birth. She lives in the Round Mountain area of the range

Bacardi is a handsome bay stallion born in 2016. He lives in the North Soda area of the range. He has sired three foals, two remain on the range. He is a current band stallion with two mares and three year old colt. I bet that colt will be booted out soon.

Jessie is one of our older mares. She was born in 2000. She has only had one foal and that foal was removed when it was young. She is a beautiful buckskin mare. She is currently in Bacardi’s band

Conifer is still a bachelor at 9 years old. I wonder if this will be the year he gets a mare or will he be a confirmed bachelor for life. He has tried to get mares before. He spent one year bugging Tundra! Tundra wouldn’t share though.

It is said that horses don’t form bonds in the wild. I disagree. Here at the Little Book Cliffs many mares form bonds and live together most, if not all of their lives. Most of the time it is with the same stallion. I have even seen a mare leave her band to go with another mare that had just been “stolen”. Sometimes it is a mother and daughter bond, other times it is just two “friends”. Sometimes even the stallions seem to be bonded. There have only been a few. Little Joe and Buttermilk were brothers and while they had their own bands, they stayed together. If you saw one band the other was usually right there as well. Sometimes the mares would intermingle but when it was time to move on, they went with their stallion. Traveler and Toby are another example. They hung out together as bachelors and then Traveler picked up some mares and Toby tagged along.

Below are a few examples. Most of the mares have been together 15 years or more. Traveler and Toby were together for about 8 or 9 years.

Cloud and Butterscotch were a mother and daughter pair. Butterscotch was removed in the 2024 gather. Cloud and Concho remain together

Mariah and Wild Eyes have been together since Wild Eyes’ stallion died in 2010.

Traveler and Toby have been together since about 2016 until Toby was removed in the 2024 gather

Tundra was conceived in Wyoming and born on this range. His dam was one of the mares that were brought in to boost the genetic diversity for this range. His dam, Tonkawa, was located to the North Soda area of the range. She got with an older stallion who then took her to the desert floor below the Book Cliffs……off the range. They lived out the winter there. The old stallion died and left her alone with a new foal. She and her foal were eventually captured and returned to the Indian Park, Round Mountain area of the range. This was in 2014-2015. Tundra has remained in the same area and has since become a successful band stallion and has sired four offspring, most still remain on the range.

He is a beautiful black and white pinto. When he was younger he was more brown than black but most definitely black now. Currently he has a satellite stallion with his band. His current band, including the satellite stallion, are all pintos…..except for Sonoma who is a roan.

Lance is an 18 year old stallion living in the North Soda area of the range. He can almost always be found in what we refer to as “the pasture”. That is the big field behind the cabin. The pasture was once a big sagebrush field and the BLM had it chopped down and reseeded to give more useable area to the horses. It looked more like a pasture than a big brushy field, hence the new name for it. Anyway, I digress.

Lance is a loner. Yes, he has had mares from time to time and we think he has sired at least two foals through the years, but he just can’t seem to keep a mare. I am not sure he really likes the company of other horses. When he doesn’t have a mare he rarely hangs with any bachelors either. He is a solitary kind of horse.

He is snorty and flighty just like his sire Challenger. He is the only one of Challenger’s offspring to still reside on the horse range. His sire was the late, great Challenger and his dam is Wild Eyes, who is still out there.

Why does he choose to be a loner is a question that we will never have answered. So, we will just enjoy his beauty and his wildness