With about five months of carrying still to come, Kestrel looks pretty and plump.
Juniper, bashful, behind her.
Is she not the spitting image of her mama Luna?
Baby girl gives mama some love while she naps.
They’re still hanging out with Hollywood and Piedra – one little happy family.
Baby’s feeling goooooooooooood!
And why not? He lives in the most beautiful place on Earth! At least, I’m sure he shares my opinion. 🙂
He was playing with Mysterium, and this was his reaction to baby girl getting some momentary mama protection.
Pretty Piedra. Haven’t had any pix of her up lately. This is from the week before last.
As much as I love the warm, rich colors of dun and sorrel and bay against the snow, I love the white-on-white of our spectacular greys. OK, she’s not “white,” being still fairly young (about 5 now? 6 next year), but I still love the more subtle contrast of her soft shade against the “soft” sage and shadscale and saltbush and snow.
Sublime.
Our forecast has changed from all sunshine to lots of snow – again. Good moisture, banked against summer’s dry. So far, La Nina seems to be turned slightly inside out – supposed to be not as much snow but cold. It has been not so much snow – and warm.
Busily getting out Christmas cards and calendars – wait, shopping?! I knew I was forgetting something!
So these are fairly disjointed posts, I know, but here are three more from last week’s visit:
Apollo. They’re not visible in this image, but Comanche’s and Hollywood’s were out on the east-west hill there in the background beyond this ridge where Sundance’s band was grazing and napping.
Raven, blissed out on snow. 🙂
Sundance – love the 3-D feel of this image with the light and soft color.
A very far view, but it gives you a feeling of the basin that closer pix just can’t convey. Though here to there is a lot farther than it looks because of the compression of my lens! Aspen’s band, minus Roja and Killian. That’s him bringing up the rear, Mona leading and Shane behind her. They’re on what I call the north-south road heading north from Flat Top. In the far background, you can see the fog lingering over the western hills (outside the basin).
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
~ Mary Oliver, “The summer day,” New and Selected Poems, 1992
At work yesterday, my secret Santa gave me a copy of Mary Oliver’s book of poems titled American Primitive. I’ve been seeing Mary Oliver’s name lately … I can’t remember where, and it’s not anything anyone would know – would they? My secret Santa remains just that. S/he wrapped the book with a typed note. We’re copy editors – our writing is distinctive. I used the Google machine to seek more info about Mary and found the above. It reminds me of those we’ve lost … all wild and precious lives … some went out fighting, and some laid down at the end. All our lives are wildly precious.
What is it I plan to do?
Just this, and I thank God every day that I can do it.
Had a big day on this, the 40th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act. What better way to recognize the people who recognized the need to protect our wild horses and burros?
Love seeing stallions with foals – nurturing the next generation. Sundance and curious Mysterium.
Lots of snow, but this time, lots of mud, too. Mostly under the snow still, but it has been warm. On the drive out, I dropped from much-missed sunshine illuminating blue skies into the Dolores River canyons and Disappointment Valley, almost entirely shrouded in fog. Would you believe the basin, across to the east, was glowing under a break in the clouds? On this blog, of course you would, and you’d be correct. 🙂
During the day, the sky over the basin cleared completely, though the fog line stayed over the western hills, then floated back and came up from the south, obscuring Brumley Point, McKenna Peak, the unnamed promontory and the far southern ridges and hills before sunset.
What I would have given to have horses in front of that delicious light! But the original horses I went in looking for were the ones I didn’t see hide nor hair of – nor even hoofprints! The pinto ponies proved elusive.
Saw most of the horses from a distance but had a wonderful visit with Sundance’s band.
The big news is what I didn’t see.
Explanation?
Who stole Roja and Killian?!
Aspen doesn’t have them! Not Grey/Traveler. Not Sundance. Not Comanche. Not Hollywood. Not Bounce, Tenaz or Seven. Probably not Storm or David (distance … trees …). Those are the ones I saw. 🙂 Maybe next week will provide an answer!
In honor of a woman, Velma Johnston – aka Wild Horse Annie – and the wild horses and burros she ought to protect …
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 is an Act of Congress (Pub.L. 92-195) signed into law President Richard M. Nixon on Dec. 15, 1971. The Act made it a crime for anyone to harass or kill feral horses or feral burros on federal land, required the departments of the Interior and Agriculture to protect the animals, required studies of the animals’ habits and habitats, and permitted public land to be set aside for their use. In addition, the act required that mustangs be protected as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West,” and that management plans must “maintain a thriving natural ecological balance among wild horse populations, wildlife, livestock, and vegetation and to protect the range from the deterioration associated with overpopulation.” Although feral horse ranges were principally for the protection of the horses, the land was required to be maintained for multiple use. The BLM was also permitted to close public land to livestock grazing to protect feral horse and burro habitat. – Wikipedia
Although in many places – and for Spring Creek Basin until the last year – it seems like not a lot has changed, I am thankful that we have good people in the Tres Rios Field Office who recognize the horses as important to the ecological fabric of the land and are willing to make them the priority on that range. NMA/CO and Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners are working through partnership and education to accomplish our goals for this herd.
To the outside world, it may seem like not much has changed here, with the helicopter-driven roundup this year. But an annual fertility control program has been implemented, and we’re on track to move to bait trapping. Our goal – and that of our BLM partners – is sustainable management with as little disruption to the wild horses of Spring Creek Basin as possible.
Everything we do is built on everything that came before – nationally and specifically. Their light is shining.
Wordless.
And a million other colors, too.
Baby Aurora nuzzles mama Alegre … whose dredlocks grow ever longer. The ends brush over the sage and saltbush when she grazes.
Talk about a splash of color! Against the glare of sunlight and snow, from a distance, she looked as black as ‘Rora.
With sister and mama.
It’s not an easy thing, photographing a wee black girl against a big white world.
Easier to shoot white on white!
Especially sprinkled with a dash of copper color!
Pale girls stand out against far blue hills.
She looks serene but for the settling toss of her mane! Caught a pause while she was rolling.
Isn’t she shiny and gorgeous? Looks so much like daddy Bounce.
Beloved boy is taking excellent care of her …
… of them all.
Silver, shining.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 