It was April 3 last year before I reported in my notes that I did not see cattle in the basin. Shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that some cattle remain in the basin past their deadline to be out again this year.
That’s the herd area boundary fence. I’m on the road, just before crossing the cattle guard into the horses’ home.
She looks dark – she’s dark red. No calf. The other cows I saw both have calves.
This was just one of those stellar kinds of day. It included horses and hikes and back to the Earth, staring wide-eyed and grateful at clouds in the turquoise heavens. Can you imagine it? It was warm, but there was a nip – still – to that returned March wind (ooh, yeah, it’s back). Perfect day to be walking around the far-out outback, a place filled to the brim with wild still-muddy magic.
So it’s a bit messy … life ain’t perfect. 😉
Steeldust’s mob were the first visible, so I made for them. They were napping as early clouds gave way to sunshine. Aspen and Hook are still hanging on. Storm, Hannah and Alpha were lying down when I arrived; Comanche, Pinon and Kestrel laid down while I visited. Ol’ Steely Dan has a few new scars. He continues to stick close to Alpha; Storm continues to take advantage of the mommy bar.
Nap time (back, left to right: Alpha, Storm and Steeldust; front from left: Sundance, Mahogany, Sable, Luna and Pinon)
Did you see this in the background of the above pic?
Then there was this …
How familiar does this look? (Notice Comanche giving them a wide berth in the background as Steeldust guards Alpha.)
Boy’s got it bad for the girl. 😉
Ember’s hanging out with big boys Aspen and Hook.
Kestrel and Mouse
Sleepy tired boy Pinon
The sun finally cleared the clouds, and I left the ponies to their naps (Butch makes an appearance here, behind Luna; SunnyD is beside her, Kestrel behind them).
All hills make for good mysteries – what’s over the summit? What’s around the bend? In the basin, the potential for horses to be around every bend, on the other side of every hill, below every ridge, is enormous.
Seven’s were out on the saddle, relaxed and soaking up the shine of late-winter sun.
At first glance, they were alone, but guess who was around another bend – or three … a ridge or two?
Pinto ponies
And look who else was closer:
Bruiser …
David and Shadow (oops! I thought I had put their picture into the post but realized later I didn’t) …
… and Cinch and Twister!
It was great to see them, but our visit didn’t last long. They decided they’d rather be on the other side of that hill, and I just didn’t have the oomph to continue on through the mud in the “away” direction. So I went back to share lunch with Seven’s.
OK, so they weren’t interested in what passed for my lunch, but we shared a little stretch of real estate between hills, bounded by ridges, together under the sun.
They were as relaxed as I’ve ever seen them, OK with me sitting on a branch, elevated above the mud.
They’ve been playing in the mud fields …
I might feel compelled to eat my shoe if I ever found out he was NOT a son of Grey/Traveler’s. If he was aged correctly, the boy is 10 this year (hard to believe, eh?). He certainly has gone grey-er in the past couple of years. Handsome, handsome mister … just like daddy.
Speaking of, two white “dots” sandwiching a dark speck way out yonder turned out to be my boy and Houdini and Terra. Seven decided to take a nap under a tree, so I hit the trail.
Headlights caught my eye, flashing as the truck to which they belonged popped over a hill on the road out yonder. The road was a little soft, a little dry, a little damp … I was surprised to see it. But before long, it stopped … hit reverse … discharged a camo-clothed passenger … swapped end for end, re-admitted the man and headed back the way it had come. I found their ruts later.
Bounce’s band came into view … then Hollywood’s. Then … Jif! She was walking up out of an arroyo kind of between me and Bounce’s band, and pretty quickly, Hayden and Cuatro, then Chrome, then Two Boots followed her. What a wonderful surprise! And a reminder how easy it is for horses to be out of sight very nearby.
Hayden is nursing.
Cuatro grazing with stepdaddy Chrome.
Cuatro grazing with stepbrother Hayden!
Fuzzy-fuzzy!
See the white dot, the dark dot and the grey dot “above” Jif? That’s Grey/Traveler, Terra and Houdini.
Sweet, sweet day in the company of many of those I hold dear. Always a wonderful way to spend a day.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
Awww that sounds like a perfect day to me. I am starting to see some fat baby bellies showing up!!! I cant wait for that time to come, as stressful as it may be. My cows are about to start calving and i have Piglets on the way on Sunday. I did not breed for any foals due to the bad acconomy and i need to work on the ones i have now. I cant wait to see what everyone will have this year and all the interesting color combinations. Hope all is well and i wish that all of the lovely horses stay heathly and safe in this hard time of year.
Horses look good. I again love the pics and the unique opportunity to view them through your lense. Blessings for you spending time with them.
Nicole – piglets! Definitely spring is closing in on us! Spring is like Christmas for animal-loving folk like us, eh? 🙂
Pat – they do look awesome!
TJ
could chrome quatro’s dad???
No, and I say that just because he had no access at the appropriate time. The two misters in question would be Grey/Traveler and Twister (the orphan who was with Houdini and Two Boots when Grey stole them from Seven and is now with Cinch and Bruiser (he was with Cinch and Corazon before he ended up with Houdini and 2B)). Given Two Boots’ and Cuatro’s ages (both born in 2007) and obvious bond, and taking into account that Grey would likely relate to baby 2B as, well, a baby, and just my sheer observation that Cuatro looks and moves a lot like Twister, my guess is that Twister is Cuatro’s daddy.
My experience – not having come across any injured or sickly foals during my time with the herd (thank goodness) – is that the stallions protect the foals in their band, whether they were born into their band or came with the mares the stallions stole – or even, in the case of Corazon and Cinch, whether they found an orphan wandering alone (Twister would have been 3-5 months old, depending on his birth month). Maybe this is a function of frequent roundups in Spring Creek Basin, which has a very small AML (population range) – maybe they know the importance of every “body.” Maybe it’s built into their DNA to protect all members of the band, no matter what or who.
I’ve seen the stallions play with foals, tolerate their antics, stay close to them when the mare was leading the band at a faster pace than the foal could or wanted to keep up with. I do not dispute survival of the fittest, but I’ve seen an amazing amount of care and tolerance shown to foals and young horses by the stallions – band stallions AND bachelors. Terra, especially, used to hang back with Chrome while he was dogging Grey’s band. Look at the young horses in Steeldust’s band hanging out with bachelors Mouse and Comanche, Aspen and Hook.
I hope I’m answering another sort of implied question to your question … Stallions seem to have a rather fearsome reputation – and certainly, they can be fierce when protecting families and territory! – but I’ve seen some incredibly gentle behavior from them that upsets the “all the time” notion. I’ve had people tell me straight up that “a stallion will kill any foal that’s not theirs” – even while I point out that several stallions’ bands do not include their biological foals/offspring (this was particularly true in the year of and the year after the last roundup). This makes me crazy because it’s not – as a blanket, absolute statement – true!
If I’m off, I still thank you for the opportunity to get that off my chest! 🙂
Wonderful post as usual TJ. I so enjoy your visits with the horses. 🙂 And I’m with you (from personal observation), a stallion doesn’t kill any foal that’s not his.
Pam, I was thinking about your wonderful sequence of photos set to music, “The Stallion and the Foal,” when I was writing that comment. 🙂 Such a dramatic portrayal of the lengths some stallions will go to in order to protect a precious life.
Great job, as usual, TJ! It’s ESPECIALLY important to educate those folks out there that really care, but are getting some seriously incorrect information – that’s only one reason why what you do is such a gift to the rest of us!! Can’t wait to get back and see if we still know “who’s who!”
Lynn and Kathy
Thanks for sharing your wonderful day with us! All horses look great!
TJ, hello from Canada. I’ve been following your wonderful blog (wow, the pictures) since June 08 – the outside of mustangs are good for the inside of me, too! And I’m totally hooked and I can prove it. Here it is…..you may be interested to learn that more than half of the horses in the basin are gaited (walk with one side, then the other). Apparently this trait passes dominantly and comes from the original Spanish horses, most of which were bred for gait because it was pleasant to ride. Grey, Seven, Steeldust, Hayden, Terra, Jif, Kiowa, Bruiser are some of gaited horses. In this post, there are photos of Comanche, Hayden and Jif gaiting. Keep up the great job. Cheers, Roxanne
Hi, Roxanne,
Glad you’re following our herd dynamics here! People talk about gaited horses in wild herds, and although I don’t doubt there may be some genetics related to that in Spring Creek Basin, I have not observed any of our current horses gaiting. I do see how the pictures you mention could look like the horses’ legs on one side are moving together, but they’re not – they’re moving in a distinct, four-beat walk (the hind hoof is already on the ground while the front hoof on the corresponding foreleg is just about to hit the ground). I just think this phase of the walk is most attractive, so I capture it most often with my camera. And everybody trots – nobody paces or does anything resembling a foxtrot or “Tennessee walk.” I will say most of the mustangs I’ve seen have very long strides and tend to bend their knees and hocks more (lifting their legs higher) than most domestic horses (though not to the extent of the horses specifically trained to enhance that feature). These guys just have a lot to step over. 🙂
Thanks for pointing this out! I hadn’t thought before how the pictures might portray this particular thing.
Hi again TJ: Thanks for your charming reply. And sorry, I may be off the mark here. Just noticed something lateral and thought the topic would be of interest to you. What I think I see is the “Indian Shuffle” but I’m not 100%. This “shuffle” is different than what paso finos, TWH and foxtrotters do, and perhaps mustangs do not have this characteristic. At walking speed it is four-beat, lateral and subtle. A friend of mine raises appaloosas and the foals, right from birth, sometimes use this lateral gait instead of a regular walk. See info at http://www.masterscreekappaloosa.com/Indianshuffle.htm. They can also kick it up a notch – see my friend on YouTube “Magic Snowflake Indian Shuffle”.
I checked out those links, thanks! Very interesting! My Internet connection is such that the video itself was a little choppy, but no (current) Spring Creek Basin mustang has a gait like that. I was trying to recall, too, if any of our horses “paddle” or “wing” like a Paso Fino or Peruvian Paso, but none of them do it to nearly that obvious extent, and I can’t think of any that do it beyond a slight notice. Pretty straight legs, our ponies!
Definitely an interesting topic! And definitely something I’ll be watching for in the future! I’m not much for video, being a still-camera person, but I actually have been thinking about trying to figure out how to not only get a video camera but then be tech savvy enough to actually post anything!
Very cool! I have ridden a friend’s Missouri foxtrotter, and the ride was something else. Very different at first, coming from trotters, but very comfortable!
I’m going to post the YouTube link (and let me know that I was watching the right one) so other readers can check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utrJMzeAklY&feature=related
Wow – I didn’t realize the whole thing would come up in the comment! Ha – I’m so easily amused by technology. 🙂 Do let me know that this is the right one.
TJ, yes that is the video, thank you for adding it. But I am not a good writer like yourself, so I must add a post script here:
What I should have said is that the “hard-wired” Indian shufflers can kick it up a notch (as in the video). The majority of horses seem to use it as a “faster walk”.
Cheers and I look forward to spring in the Basin, Roxanne
Had to go to a meeting. I think all of us here are looking forward to spring – as you must be in Canada! More snow here lately! We hope it translates to good water and grass in the basin!
Can’t wait to see you Friday ;]
Me, too! I’m excited! You girls are so talented – I’ve been reading and viewing the stories, poems and photos you’ve all posted on Girls Horse Club! Can’t wait to get to know more of you! Thanks again for suggesting this!