A great story for your Saturday from Pam Nickles of Pam Nickoles Photography: While photographing in the McCullough Peaks HMA in April 2008, I came upon one of the most unusual and dramatic situations she seen since began documenting the wild horses. My husband and I were told that there was possibly an abandoned foal in the company of a bachelor stallion known as Chaco. Two of the more plausible reasons why this foal had been abandoned are that a visitor had gotten too close to a new mother who consequently abandoned the foal, or, that the mare foaled very close to the fence line (as seen in the photos) and the foal simply rolled under the fence where the mare was unable to reach her. In any case, Chaco became this foals guardian and he took this responsibility very seriously as evidenced when another bachelor stallion, Chiricahua came to investigate the pale Palomino-colored youngster. The images depict the longest and most fierce stallion battle I have ever witnessed. Were we about to watch this little foal get caught up in and probably trampled during this stallion confrontation? That was not an image I wanted to capture. (Maybe Chiricahua simply wanted the baby as a prize, like a mare. I dont know that his intentions were to actually hurt the foal, but he certainly gave his all vying for possession). As night fell, we knew we had to leave, but I was sick about it as I felt sure there would be no happy ending for this little baby. When we returned to the HMA in the morning with Tricia, the Wild Horse Specialist from the Cody BLM, we expected to find that the pretty little foal had not made it through the night (since no mare was nursing this baby). To our amazement, the foal was up and walking and still being tended to by Chaco. As we watched from a distance, Chaco coaxed the little foal until she was finally through a gate. I was told later that Chaco guided that foal all the way down a hill to its mother, Sierra - a mare in Olathes band. Thanks to Chacos efforts, the mare and baby (a filly named Little Medicine) are still together and doing well.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:00:01 +0000