I never saw the flowers even though I make it a point of hiking through this area regularly. Due to the chewed off tops, it is quite possible if I had visited a few days or a week later I may not have seen these plants either. bboy - not sure if you are referring to the plant's odd name or if you think they were eaten by horses, but on that note, while I was looking up info about "horse gentain" it was noted that nobody really knows why it was given this name :-)

A Polemoniacaea; Linanthus or Leptosiphon.

Thanks! I think you nailed it. Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

Yup, agreed on the ID. You could probably take cuttings a few nodes long & pot them back into mother plant's pot, to make it look even more full & lush.