Yesterday I spent the entire day on the range with our new darter. Caroline lives in California and took the training months ago. Weather, fires, my health all kept her from coming up for training. But here we were, our second time on the Nevada desert looking for mares to dart.
Our priority was Sunny’s band. We hunted for hours, passing by Blondie’s big band, Zorro’s band, Carson’s band and some bachelors. But traveling north to Blue’s valley and South to Pine Nut Road and all places and every trail and valley in between, we gave up hours later..
Caroline was driving back and wanted to leave by dark. As we reached Windmill Road we saw Blondie’s big band on the hill. We decided to hang out with the horses and our camera’s for a few more minutes. The horses were more than happy to keep us entertained.
Blaze hung out on the hilltop, looking over the bands. His young mare Puddin’ was standing by herself quietly. He just stood and stared. Suddenly he gives out a throaty call to one of Bodie’s mares and trots down the hillside to say hello. Bodie takes notice and charges after Blaze.
He sinks his teeth into his backside and leaves with a mouth full of Blazes hair. Duke hears the commotion and flies across the desert to do his job as lieutenant.
Bodie stands back and mentally cheers on Duke. Blaze knows he needs to walk away and the fight ends. They take a minute to discuss it all.
Pawing and squealing the way stallions do. Blaze heads back to Puddin, who is still standing on the top of the hill. She is lonely and wanted him to win and bring her a mare to spend her days with. She would love it if he would bring home Bunny. Maybe one day Puddin. maybe one day.
Beautiful crisp weather and fresh air are good for the soul. Caroline loves to hike and one day soon will get an opportunity to dart.
With the majority of the mares darted we have only a handful of the most difficult to get done. I wonder how many more wonderful days in the Nevada desert we will spend hiking and hunting for these last few mares.
And then traditionally Intruder will appear in March and stay just long enough for us to get his mares darted. If we are lucky. We love what we do….. even when we are not successful every time.