LITTLE SORREL'S BAND

When we left Little Sorrel on the last posting of this blog, he had succeeded in chasing Cruiser away, but we didn't know how long. On this trip, as we drove past the Park to Medora, we saw Criuser--------Alone! It seems Little Sorrel has again prevailed. We were rather disappointed because Little Sorrel has too many mares and it would be good if the band was divided, but, small as he is, Little Sorrel must be very strong to fight off outside stallions and maintain the largest band at fifteen.

On a rainy day, heading back to the office to avoid getting soaked and do some paperwork, we ran across the band huddled together in the rain. Freckles had left Shadow and her two older fillies to come back to her band with her new colt, Cooper. Soggy little Cooper was born a sorrel, but he looks like he will roan or possibly even gray like his dam. He wasn't appreciating the rain on the day of his birth, but a few days later, when the sun shone warm on his tiny body, he ran and bucked with the pure joy of being alive.

While we were recording the band 's behavior, his bigger brother by a few weeks, Buck, awoke to find his dam missing. He first went to Grandma Roan to seek comfort from her, but she just ignored him and continued grazing. He then went to his big brother, Butte, a three year old. We expected Butte to run him off, but Butte was very tender with little Buck, allowing him to hang out until mama reappeared.

On a previous day, Butte and his best buddy, Socks, put on a show for us, demonstrating their prowess as fighting stallions. They were mostly ignored by the rest of the band until Butte ran headlong into several of his band mates just trying to rest and get some sun. He scattered them like bowling pins, but never slowed down to look back. Check out the photos below. Little sister, Annie, thinks those boys are just silly and boring!