Just looking...

Yesterday we got a call from Ida saying she was in the process of moving our horses...back to the mountain.  Yeah, we really prefer they be on the ranch's mountain pasture.  We feel it keeps them more in their natural state,keeping their instincts better honed and better on their feet.  They have naturally very hard hooves, which tend to grow too fast and get soft when kept on grassy fields.

Today, we decided to hike up to see if they had settled in OK, pretending they really needed us.  It was a great day for a hike and on the way, we saw the Rocky Mt. Bighorn Sheep on the road.  What a great sight, and they posed for pictures....

A few miles further down the road, we parked by the bridge, put on hiking boots and gators, and headed up the long trail to the back side of the horses' favorite mountain.  We know most of their grazing spots from the previous years, so we thought we could just head to the farthest one and work our way back.  Right!  After hiking uphill for an hour, we got to the meadow; lots of hoof prints, no horses.  So...this is where they spent last night.  A good sign.  We scout around and find some fresh sign (poop) in another pasture - not very old.  No horses.  We were running out of time, but did some more quick scouting, looking for tracks leading away from these pastures.  Nothing.  We finally headed back to the car, going the way we knew the horses would have come up from the road.  Sure enough, we eventually find some tracks from the previous day and nearing the end of our trail we found some obvious signs of play:  snow pegasus (horse version of snow angels)!  We never saw the horses, but we know they are doing well!
Juanita