Sunny is the mother to Laser, Brass, Derringer and Rangely. Her dam is Chrome and her sire was Atomic. She was born in March of 2011. She has been with Ruger’s band for most of her adult life.
I am a sucker for a bay horse. I love their rich, red coloring and the black mane and tail and if they have a little “chrome” that is nice too. Just love them. Here is one of my favorites. Laser was born in 2015 and is currently a bachelor. He has been dogging another band off and on for a couple years . Hopefully, this year will be the year he gets a band.
There are currently 17 horses on the range that are 20 years old and older. The oldest one is 33 this year!! There are only 2 stallions in this group, the rest are mares. This is the time of year that I start wondering who made it through the winter, and this winter has shown us more snow than usual. Who will answer “roll call” come spring. I do not have current photos for Boone, Sweetheart (our oldest horse), Briscoe or Solo. These horses have all been seen this winter and looked good. A few of the others have been seen as well but most live on the upper ranges and we won’t see them for another month or so. Ragtail’s Mare was not with her band when they were seen this winter. Spring will tell if she is with another stallion or has succumbed to age and winter conditions. Here are photos of all but the ones I mentioned above. All photos were taken last year or the year before.
Traveler really had his “hands” full with this group. He was defending his mares against at least six bachelors. He did not lose a single mare to any of the young upstarts!
This is where good, consistent documentation comes in handy. This is Phoenix as a foal and now. Doesn’t even look like the same horse. Documentation is key.
A little bit about Tundra. Tundra was born in 2015. His dam was Tonkawa and we do not know his sire. He was a bonus horse for us. His dam, Tonkawa was one of the mares that was introduced to the range from Wyoming. This is done periodically to help with genetic diversity. She escaped to the desert below the Book Cliffs with one of the stallions from the North Soda area. Unbeknownst to us, she was pregnant, and that is where Tundra was born. The stallion she was with eventually died (he was old) and Tonkawa and Tundra were bait trapped and returned to the upper ranges. Tonkawa disappeared in 2019. Tundra was a bachelor by then. He is the sire to possibly two foals. He acquired a band of his own in 2020 and has managed to keep those two mares and their offspring. He is one of two black and white paints that are on the range. Pretty sure the other one is his offspring. He is a laid back, gentle stallion. He treats his mares well and keeps intruders at bay. He is a great addition to the Little Book Cliffs and I can’t wait to see more of his offspring.
Did I ever mention how much I love bay horses. 
Well here is one of my favorites. Her name is Cat and she just glows! She has that long, lovely mane and tail and a cute little spot on her nose. She is a beauty. She was born in 2003 and still looks marvelous!
Brass – what can I say. I am a sucker for those dark bays and he is a prime specimen. He is so protective of his siblings so I know he will make a great band stallion when his time comes. He was born in 2018 and is currently still with his natal band. He is of the age now where he can help protect the band. I wonder if he will still be with the band next spring or if he will be out on his own or hanging with a bachelor buddy or two.
Here are three of our gray boys. They all reside in the same area of the horse range. While they all differ slightly in coloring sometimes it is difficult to tell for sure from a distance. Moscato is very white with dark mane and tail, Poco still has some black and Rojito is flea bitten. However, here is another easy way to tell the difference in these boys. Moscato has just a little snip of pink on his muzzle, Poco’s muzzle is mostly pink and Rojito has a gray muzzle.
Moscato with the dark mane and tail and snip of pink
Poco with a bit of black on his body and a pink nose
Rojito with a black nose.
I usually share photos of the beautiful horses that call the Little Book Cliffs home. Today I wanted to share some photos of what their home looks like. Visitors come to our range and get very discouraged because they can’t find horses. Maybe this will show you why it is so difficult. Also, this range is not right off the road like many of the ranges. You have to travel over some not so great roads to get to the actual horse range. It is not near anywhere. There are signs on the interstate that say the horse range is one mile. Those signs are deceptive. It is one mile to the exit then another 20-30 miles over rough unkept roads, but go slow, take your time and you will get there and if you are lucky you will find horses
Horses of the Little Book Cliffs 