My header today shows you the huge and vast area of the Book Cliffs around Grand Junction, Colorado
Iit is here where the wild horses call home!
They actually live in the area call the Little BookCliffs. The Horses and the area are managed by the Bureau of Land Management of Colorado and the Friends of Wild Horses, of which you can read more by clicking the blue words in this post.
I hope you enjoy your visual tours!
Your friend,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
I had no idea of any of this. You live in such a fascinating region.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorta like a frontier —- sorta
LikeLike
Oh, how breathtaking! You live in a western movie, my friend!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
In some ways we are still frontier!
LikeLike
To have wild horses in addition to this beautiful scenery is really something special.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well getting up earlier than usual was well worth the effort.
The photos taken by the Colorado government bureau are stunners
of the mustangs in the region.
The herd stallions particularly make themselves so prominent and what
magnificent specimens they are.
I think I recognised one particular photo of the cowboy on the pickup trying
to rope a mustang – “The Misfits” film – Clarke Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery
Clift.
The stallion fights for herd control are great.
I suppose yearly round-ups are conducted to “cull” the herds for better
control of numbers. The old and lame being humanely put down and some
of the young colts and fillies being caught/broken in for stock horses.
Here in the high country ( Snowy Mountains region) and in the far outback
this is done for herd controls and environmental protection.
Also means that the herds are not too big for the area and that the grasses
are sufficient for survival of all.
Must have been fantastic to view this area from your plane.
Cheers and many thanks for the wonderful photo display
Colin
Weather: Still remarkable – I pinch myself wondering if August
came and went during a population “Rip Van Winkle” Sleepover???
LikeLiked by 1 person
un fortunately “culling” locally is done many years. believe or not, there are “wild horse adoptions” some years! the one year we were interested and tried to adopt, we were UNACCEPTABLE as, among other factors, our corrals were not high enough (had to be ~ 6′ ! or so), . the larger (i think) herds further north are in the news periodically as “being too many” for the area to sustain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Once more, Thanks!
LikeLike
hope i don’t bore you with a story of some of those horses, and a lesson they taught (tho’ not for long) to my dogs. i was on a desert/trail run up the valley (Coal Canyon) which eventually winds to behind Garfield (fairly visible in your excellent photograph), accompanied by our 3 dogs. they tend to chase any- and everything which runs away — usually rabbits. well … there were some horses about 50 yards ahead and the dogs took off after them. the horses disappeared around a corner in the canyon, followed by the dogs. SECONDS LATER the dogs, all 3 of them, are running back towards me, running for their lives, with 5 or so big horses running just fast enough to NOT run over the dogs. the dogs whipped past me heading down-valley and a couple of the horses gave me somewhat wide berth (maybe 5 or 10 yards) as they slowed to a trot following the canines. the dogs were pretty well-behaved on the rest of that run …
(yeah, i have fun memories of that area)
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh: while i’m at it ~ my silly WP ‘avatar’ picture was taken ON TOP of Garfield a few years back (the tall circular mesa at the extreme left of the plateau in the pixure)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now how cool is that! I wondered where you took it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
If they would have caught them they would have stomped them to death. Good thing they realized they were just domestic dogs. Cows will do the same thing to predators.
Great story, thank you for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
what a wonderful thing to learn! Have you ever seen any of them?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, not here. But I have seen them in Green River, Wyoming
LikeLike
OMG, what a beautiful site and I would love to see the horses. Is Green River close to where you live and do they migrate down in the winter like the elk?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The BookCliffs are not far from us…about an hour! I don’t know about the migration.
LikeLike
the Green River itself is about 100 miles west of GJ, which is about 35 miles or so west/northwest of ColoradoFarmLife. Now, there’s A LOT I DON’T KNOW about wild horses, but it seems they tend to stay in whatever range —
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Betunada!
LikeLike
Amazing images .. Book cliffs. .. What a super name! I bet those wild horses look beautiful cantering around these spaces
LikeLiked by 1 person
A ride on the beach on a pure white horse would be wonderful, wouldn’t it? It could make you feel like an ocean sprite princess!
LikeLike
Love the horses…and the people who care for them are just as special as the horses themselves! I’m an artist and have an oil painting of the some of the actual herd on the Bookcliffs…they and their environment are awesome! It’s important for us all to preserve and recognize their importance!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Tesha! This has been ever so much fun learning about the wild horses in our area!
LikeLike
Hi Linda, Loved your 8/11/15 post regarding the Little Book Cliff Wild Horse Reserve. I’m an equine artist and did an oil painting of the herd amidst their habitat.. A friend of mine took photos of them and let me use them as the focus of the painting. The white rock/stone formations (left side of picture) are referred to as the “goblins”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much Tesha! I loved your horses on FB.
LikeLike
WOW = wonderful pics… gorgeous to see horses in their wild state…we have a few places here in NZ where there are also wild horses… now often culled and broken in… they’re very popular…
LikeLiked by 1 person