Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

If one picture is worth a thousand words, the wild ones have filled me for a lifetime and beyond.  So here are a few favorite photos from the weekend to fill you, at least until next weekend.

Alpha with her band mates

Alpha seems perfectly content and in absolutely no hurry to have her foal.

Heave-ho!

Alpha laid down and rolled, and this is one in a sequence of photos I took of her getting back to her feet. That’s one big belly.

Rivals

Hollywood, having successfully “wooed” Piedra and won her favor, now takes his duty to protect her very seriously. Mouse, meanwhile, doth protest. There’s a definite pecking order to the bachelors, and Mouse is on top. He gets the closest to the band, and his closest pal, Comanche, is allowed to get next closest. When they’re bored of standing around napping, Steeldust and Hollywood will go out and tease the bachelors, nibbling and sniffing, but never letting them anywhere near the band.

Stop following me!

Does Pinon look slightly annoyed? His mama is just another step ahead of him, but he must have thought Steeldust (daddy) and Sundance were crowding him. Look at those ears and curled lip.

Lunch time

Pinon takes a lunch break.

Adults are so funny

Ember and Pinon seem to find Steeldust’s and Mahogany’s ground-level antics entertaining.

Pintos at sunset

I found Kiowa, Spook and Chipeta with the rest of the pinto family just before sunset. They like to come down into a little “meadow” near the county road at dusk. I saw them one evening when I was leaving the area, so I checked the area Saturday, and sure enough, there they were. I’m really glad of every chance I have to see this band; they’re one of the most elusive.

Pintos at sunset

The pintos went back up on a ridge, and I took this last shot of them at the end of the day.

Seven's band near sunrise

Around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Seven and his band were near the dry water hole off the doubletrack. Beautiful light illuminated the horses.

Seven and his girls

Molly is thin, but she’s feeding her baby well. The band didn’t find water at the pond, but they did find it in an arroyo a bit south.

Seven

Beautiful boy.

Bounce

Bounce, Alegre and Gaia were above the road on one of those little hills around the loop in the east. Bounce took an intense interest in something just out of sight, but I didn’t see anything. Maybe, like a mother bird that will feign a broken wing, his feigned interest is meant to throw the observer off the trail so Bounce can lead his small family to safety. Alegre is usually quick to leave, but she didn’t seem too worried about me … maybe because of their height advantage.

Alegre and Gaia

Pretty girls. All the babies are still pretty fuzzy, but it’s interesting to watch their colors. I think Gaia, Ember and definitely Iya all will lose their sorrel coats and turn grey eventually.

During the weekend, I saw all the horses except Poco, Bones and Roach. It rained Saturday evening, but I did make it once around the loop. I was hoping to see Poco and see if he managed to get rid of the cactus spines in his face, but I never saw those horses. I was surprised to see that the water hole below the roller-coaster ridge road still has quite a bit of water.

The coolest photos I did NOT take this weekend: a bobcat that crossed the road ahead of me as I was leaving the basin to go down and check on the pintos, and two rattlesnakes – one coiled, one slithering – on the road in the dark. I looked at them with a flashlight from the safety of the Jeep. Youngsters, I think, with just a couple of buttons each.