Due to the shut downs resulting from the Global Pandemic of COVID-19 we are keeping ourselves in Arizona. We do move north of Tucson into the mountains in the hope it will stay a little cooler than in the Tucson area. We also feel that our lifestyle as full-timers helps us to be safer.
This is a great demonstration that plans are nothing but current intentions and not a series of activities set in concrete (unless you are building a river dam!).
While we are staying in Mesa, Arizona we were told about the Wild Horses (Equus ferus) in the Tonto National Forest. Someone we met told us that he had been going in search of them for four years and only seen them twice!
We must be blessed because we saw some each time we went looking for them and once when we weren’t.
There are over four hundred wild horses in the Tonto National Forest. As they are descendants of the horses introduced by the Spaniards they are really feral horses. But they are just gorgeous anyway.
When we visited the Deerwood Wild Horse Eco Sanctuary in Wyoming in 2017 we learnt that the beautiful condition of their coats was due to the fact that they “buddy up” and groom each other. Again we saw some of this happening with the Tonto Wild Horses.
Grooming Buddies
In the large group we met in the forest we were fortunate to see a new colt foal. The foal was very distinctive to us as it had blue eyes. Apparently this meant at least one of its parent had blue eyes.
Blue Eyed Colt
Our second encounter of a group of the wild horses was as we were taking a hiking trail along the Salt River looking for birds. We saw a group emerge from the trees on the opposite river bank and proceed to drink and walk along the river upstream then disappear back in to the trees. We were simply amazed when further up the river the group emerged from the trees and proceeded to walk out into the river.
Wild Horses Emerging from the TreesWild Horses in the Salt River, Tonto National Forest Second Emergence from the TreesWild Horse Wading in the Salt River
What a great day.
Gear: Nikon D500, Nikon MB-D17, Nikon GP-1, Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VRIII, Nikkor TC-14 EII, Sony Digital film
