Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

“If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes and it will change.”

I’ve heard that phrase spoken by locals in different states, and it’s true in all of them. Weather is especially changeable at the cusp of seasons, and as Friday was the first day of this year’s spring, was it any wonder that although March purred into beginning as a pussycat, by the second day after the beginning of a new season, the winds were roaring like a lion?

Sunday started with blue skies and fluffy white clouds and a wind howling like a … what howls with more power than a banshee? I’d never felt it so terrible. The wind was rude and pushy – literally. I do believe it carried and deposited half of Arizona into (at least) Southwest Colorado. By mid-afternoon, there was about 300 pounds of dirt per square air inch. One of the freakiest things I’ve ever seen.

Within minutes of driving into the basin, I spied Kreacher and his multi-color girls in their current favorite haunt along Spring Creek north of the first crossing. Compared with the wind, I was a creature not worthy of much attention.

Into the wind

Raven, Mona and Kreacher at ease. Is that a belly I spy …?

Napsters

Kootenai snuck up behind Raven, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Outward bound

Not even when Kootenai drove Mona away did Raven get involved.

Wind in her hair

The epitome of innocence (not).

Do you notice the abundance of sunshine? The blue sky?

By the time I got to the double ponds, I hadn’t see another horse. The wind was howling. It was – obviously – dry. The road was amazingly dry.

I thought I might find horses back in the east pocket. Nope. I did check the pond there. Water? Check. I thought I might find horses around every bend. Nope. The road was never bad enough to turn back. Dry. So dry. Where on Earth were the horses??

Finally, almost to the cutoff road to Horse Park, I spied Steeldust and his band and hangers-on below the long east-west hill, maybe somewhat protected from the worst of the wind. I turned around and headed back to a place closer to hike out.

The wind was enough to actually push me backward when I stopped to look around when I topped a hill farther south than where I had thought the horses would be. I thought I caught a glimpse of them around the bend, below the hill, but I decided to cross the little valley and see if Bounce, Alegre and Gaia were still in the same place I had previously seen them. When I topped the next hill, I found Bounce facing into the wind, watching … Steeldust’s band heading down the hill toward the far road.

Bounce at attention

I sat down in the wind (the better to be steady in the gale) to watch Steeldust’s horses through the binocs, and when I looked back at Bounce’s band, he was bouncing up to me, trying to figure out where the heck I had appeared from.

Alegre and Gaia

Let me tell you, shooting with the barrel of my lens straight into the jaws of the howling beast was, uh, not impossible but difficult as hell. Pretty, pretty girls.

I didn’t stay with them long. It’s hard to even describe the power of that wind, so I’ll let the next couple of pictures illustrate it.

Dust bowl

Do you recognize Filly Peak? Do you even see the outline of Filly Peak? I promise, it’s out there like a whale beached in the fog of the sea.

Brumley in the dust

The wind was out of the south, so (I guess) that’s why there was still some visibility to that direction. Meanwhile, it was all settling in the north of the bowl, err, basin. 

Exit plan

You might be able to barely pick out the road down to the trap site in the upper middle part of this photo. Straight out is the first hill you drive in past the cattle guard and interpretive sign.

The road to oblivion

Filly Peak again, a little later but a little more visible – at that moment in time.

Renegades

The (at least) two cows and calves still in the basin. Their time was up the end of February. At least two other trucks were in the basin Sunday, but I don’t know whether they were related to the bovines.

Not in Oz anymore

This photo of Mona, Raven, Kootenai and Kreacher was taken about four-ish hours after the blue-sky pictures of Mona, Raven, Kootenai and Kreacher. Don’t adjust your monitors. These pictures were sharpened only – no other tweaking for contrast or color (I usually only boost contrast and sharpen anyway). That’s what it looked like. Spooky as all get out. This is from the road in the “flats” just below the water catchment looking north.

My Grey/Traveler boy and his family were down in the valley south of the catchment where it opens to the valley that runs southeast between what I called “bachelor ridge” last year and the hill above (east of) the hill above the corral off the county road. Did you get all that? They were hunkered down finding their own protection from the wind.

It was still daylight – sort of, in an eerie, horror-film kind of strange Hollywood-film way – so I headed out of the herd area and south on the county road with the idea that I’d park and hike back into the basin to look for the pintos and/or David and Shadow and/or Cinch and Bruiser – whichever came first and/or at all! This brings up another question for photographers: What white balance setting do you use when it’s not cloudy or shady or sunlit? Or otherwise? When it’s like looking through dusted rose-colored glasses – except the only reason you’re still wearing your shades is because your eyeball sockets are now the repositories of about 13,000 pounds of grit – each. I set white balance to auto. I never set white balance to auto.

Guess who I found right beside the road??

Painted ponies

And Copper, who suffers from being boringly solid (but shhh, don’t tell him!). Bonus points: Can you pick out the other boy in this image? Right to left: Spook, Reya, Kiowa and … Corazon … BETWEEN Copper and the girls?! As far as I know, Copper-nicus is still king among the spots, but he wasn’t at all worried about Corazon there. In fact, while I was watching them, it occured to me that no one passing by on the road who stopped to watch would know that this modern, dysfunctional family contains four boys, two mature ladies and two young ladies, let alone who was who or which or what. It works for them, eh?

Mesa

Ty

Auto white balance in a rose-dust world. Weeeeeird.

Girl between boys

Stallion Corazon, left, Chipeta-girl and stallion Ty.

Flirty girl

Chipeta chooses Ty.

Rejected girl

What is he, nuts?!

Copper and Kiowa

Easy-going.

Kiowa and Spook

The trouble with weaning your babies is that you then have to compete with them for every blade of chow on the ground.

I’d like to interrupt the progression of photos for just one minute and say that this was my best visit ever – bar none – with the pinto band (and their boys). For whatever reason, alpha-Kiowa-girl was cool as steel in the face of that blustering howler, and so was everyone else. Crazy wind isn’t usually the kind of weather where you expect your horse to be calm as a cucumber – am I right? Thank you, painted ponies!

Sissies

As in “sisters.” As in ain’t scairt of a huffy little wind that hides the sky and tangles the hair. Reya, big girl of almost 2, nuzzles baby sister Spook, who has a first of May birthday coming up.

Lookin-good girl

I wanted to include this pic of Kiowa because she’s looking good with baby weaned and winter (almost) over. She has some fat over her ribs, which were visible just a few weeks ago when last I saw her.

So it took a little longer than 10 minutes for the weather to change from blue to rose, but by the time Monday morning rolled around, it would change again – to white. 🙂 Stay tuned.