Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Mama Kestrel and her girls Madison, 2 1/2 months old, and Juniper, yearling. Her first daughter, Winona, is buckskin. Juni is going grey like her daddy, Comanche, and baby Madi is bay like … ? Her daddy also is Comanche; his background unknown.

Great news on the pond front: The trapsite pond has about 3 feet of water as of today! Thanks to C (and intern from South Carolina D) for the great news! The Forest Service dozer operator still was working on it some but had to abandon. J will finesse the spillways of the northwest and roadside ponds and then be done with those two. They look great – nice and deep. We had amazing rains yesterday and Saturday – particularly Saturday. Disappointment Creek started flowing again (not that it helps the horses because it doesn’t flow through the herd area, but it’s a marker for the overall valley).

The hills are green – for the first time this year really. So amazing to see what some good rain can do for this high desert environment!

This was taken at the northwest pond late last week looking northish. Sundance’s band is in the scene; can you spot them? Trick question. 🙂 They’re really not visible in this image, especially at this size. But they are there. See the promontory at the top of the image? Below that, on the open hill, the trees? The horses are near/under the leftmost of those trees. I kept looking up there, thinking I saw something … and telling myself “no way.” But I *have* seen horses up there before … and sure enough, when I finally went for the binocs, Sundance’s band. Those mountain goat-ponies. 🙂

But really, look at the foreground: grass! This area was seriously *burnt* as recently as a week or two ago (I hate it when people say/write “burnt” when they mean burned, but this area was seriously crispy, and there’s really just not another word for it).

This is looking northwestish from the middle-ish area of the basin. Duke is there.

Rain. Green. Love.