Wolves Chase Horse…Or Horse Chases Wolves?

March 27, 2015

So much for springtime in the Rockies!  The warmish weather that grew some green grass evaporated, and we were sorting beeves 2 days ago in a pelletized blizzard.   Cowboy Josh forgot his hat, and his crewcut wasn’t doing much good from keeping his head out of the snowblaster.  I guess he thought that the brilliant sunshine and heat he was feeling earlier in the day would stay, but the ground frosted white with snow by yesterday morning.  Today, two days later, it is nearly T-shirt weather.  Change is the word for mountain weather.  As the saying goes, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes.”  At 5300ft, heat can be fleeting.  But spring work rolls on…we get horses ready for the range, pastures harrowed, and fences mended.

We note spring changes not only in the plants, but animals as well.  The beeves and horses have commenced the scraggly shedding of their winter coats.  Both animals buck in celebration of spring, with tails held high.  Herds of elk appear in weird places, nibbling on that green that comes with abandon on the south facing hills.  Several big black wolves came wandering through the home ranch yesterday, probably on the move as elk herds that were serving as the wolves’ primary winter food source moved to new country.

The wolves were aggressively run off by our infamous paint mare, Roxy, whose attitude was more than even a top-of-the-food-chain predator could handle.  After all, Roxy has bucked off most folks who have gotten on her.