Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Even at the end of the year, where does the time go? It’s that short light … except I have that problem, too, when the days are long!

Some more pix from my visit with Grey/Traveler’s band last week … Alegre and Aurora. Starting to see a bit of  a belly there. 🙂

‘Rora on the ridge.

Beloved boy, quiet and watchful – Alegre and Aurora were just to the left.

Corona with the big view. She ought to be pregnant with Grey’s foal for spring.

Beautiful mustangy mustang Houdini-girl. She’ll be pregnant with Grey’s foal.

Alegre should be pregnant with Bounce’s foal, and Gaia should be in foal to Cinch.

Houdini leading, Aurora and Alegre following. Can’t beat that dramatic background, eh? We’re about in the heart of the basin, and those are the eastern ridges that form that side’s boundary (the unnamed promontory, McKenna Peak and Brumley Point are southish … to the right).

On top of the ridge, they could see Storm and Shadow grazing not too far away (but separated by some broken ground including one decent arroyo). Grey’s looking at them while little Miss Curiosity checks on my whereabouts.

My new favorite pic of Storm. 🙂 He’s galloping after Shadow, who broke into a run as the paths of the horses started to converge up near the pond. As far as I could tell, they (the bands) never did get particularly close to each other, and I saw them later, from another part of the basin, separately grazing.

They do use the roads in the basin – particularly in the winter – for easier walking where it suits them. Grey’s band took the Flat Top road, and Storm and Shadow took the north-south road. The snow last week ranged from a pretty light dusting (from overnight) to at least 6 inches back near the Round Top area. It hasn’t snowed again since then and, in fact, has been fairly warm – into the 40s! La Nina is supposed to give us less snow but cold temps – we have less snow and not very cold temps (the overnight lows get pretty chilly with the clear skies). We always worry about snow – more is better for the coming year. But it’s early yet … the days are just on their way to getting longer. 🙂

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!