Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

The days in the basin are quiet, muffled by silent snow and earth absorbing much-needed moisture. Early, you can hear the snow crunch and crackle – it’s powdery, flaky on the untouched surface, crusty where it has thawed and frozen and thawed – and, I swear, you can hear it melt, a sort of expanding as the soil drinks it in. A greedy, grateful sound … so I imagine. (Really, you can hear it.)

Steeldust’s and Hook’s bands were visible in the interior of the basin from as far as I was willing to drive in on quick-thawing roads. Cattle were visible, too, of course. It’s rather annoying to spot more cattle than horses. Dunno how many are in (200-some?). Every day, their days are shorter.

From the county road, a welcome sighting – especially because I hadn’t seen them for a while: the pinto band. When I hiked in to visit them, another welcome surprise: Seven’s!

They were fairly close to each other – the bands – but out of each others’ sight. I went first to see Seven’s.

Seven, Roja and Ze

Handsome Seven

Don’t they look wonderful?

I kept my visit with them short and went back to find the pintos. As it happened, I came over a hill with them below me. Little Milagro was first to spot me, and we exchanged seemingly conspiratorial glances for several minutes before anyone else became aware of my presence.

That’s mama Kiowa at left.

Milagro and Kiowa were up the hill to the right; Corazon, Spook and Reya were down a little farther to the left. You can see Copper, Ty, Chipeta and Mesa.

Copper, nickering to Spook and Reya. But silly boy … he didn’t go down to them.

Shortly after Chipeta realized I was there. I had sat down on a bare patch of ground and was focused more on Milagro. It was several minutes later before she decided to get up – and stretch.

At this point, Kiowa – head down, grazing – still hadn’t realized I was there (or so it appeared).

Scroll back up to the picture of Copper. Daddy’s little man. 🙂

And there they are together.

And the boy and his mama. He got her bay shade but not her spots.

Milagro’s sisters: Spook, left, will be 2 years old this spring, and Reya will be 3.

Different angle as I was leaving them – Reya hadn’t moved. Spook moved on, and Corazon, left, moved up to stand/nap with Reya.

I’ll leave you with this mama-son portrait. (That’s not timothy. ;)) Don’t you love how fuzzy and wonderful they look?