Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Before I could get my camera out of its pack and myself out of my Jeep to aim my camera, Skywalker ceased his “wild stallion on a ridge against big, Western-sky clouds” pose with pal Sancho and headed down the ridge, following the rest of their band.

But before he disappeared, I managed to catch him in a good stride.

Some photo-geekiness for you: I rarely shoot in very low light, with high ISOs, but I had been doing just that the evening before. In my rush to get untangled and take advantage of the view, I didn’t check my camera’s settings. So the ISO was WAY high, and the shutter speed was WAY high, which accounts for the high-key look of the images. Still, that whole “wild stallion on a ridge against big, Western-sky clouds” thing. For the purposes of this blog, they work. 🙂

We like rising clouds out here because (a lot of times) they rise into thunderheads and promise rain – and sometimes even deliver. These (pictured) didn’t … here. Somewhere, maybe. Somewhere, hopefully. Sometime here, hopefully soon.

Highlighting our need for rain, Storm’s band wanders to better grazing after drinking at a pond, raising dust just during their slow mosey. We did get a little rain, but while much of Colorado is apparently rejoicing in a wet spring, we’ve mostly missed that rain.

‘Tis the season for the little buggies.

And frequent head shaking to get rid of them.

Mountains and desert and mustang and wildflowers and grass all in one image.

Love.

Flash proves to be an excellent wildflower model. 🙂

Larkspur, the blue flowers, are toxic to cattle, “and rarely horses,” according to Colorado State University. Flash and his mates seemed to relish eating the flowers.

According to South Dakota State University, “(low) larkspurs are palatable to cattle and contain high levels of alkaloids, making them especially toxic. Because of this, larkspurs cause the second highest deaths in livestock from poisonous plants across the western United States. Five pounds of larkspur consumed within an hour is a lethal dose for a 1,000-pound cow.”

We almost always have larkspur in the spring. Fortunately, at our elevations, it doesn’t seem to be so thick that it’s an issue.

Randomly, our wild onion also is blooming like crazy right now. Despite the interest of a couple of friends, the horses do NOT eat it and therefore do NOT suffer from “onion breath.” 🙂