Shiny boy Maiku couldn’t be bothered to give me any notice at all during an evening visit. The grass was more enticing, and the bugs were more, well, buggy.
Growing up handsome.
All the little “bokeh spots” are the infamous gnats. Yes, they’re out. Yes, they’re bad.
It’s not only the stallions that have moves. Piedra plays hard to get with Hollywood.
Do you see them? Copper is easier to see. Gray Seven, not as easy to see, though he’s right behind Copper. The band is out of sight.
Big country, and the mustangs are – to me and to all of you, I think – a big part of this little corner of it. To see them for even moments is to experience all the magic of the still-wild country we’re privileged to know in this particular country. Here, bears wander and mountains lions prowl, bobcats and coyotes blend with the tawny earth, and elk and deer and pronghorn drift, following what they all follow: water and forage. The mustangs are more easily seen in this circle of wild life, and they bring magic to the land as surely as the slanting sunlight sets fire to grasses full of seed.
I’ve had a couple of wondrous days with the horses – hiking, sitting, drifting, napping, watching – and in the magic – and mundane – I feel such beauty, it’s enough to break and mend and break and mend – and lift – your heart a million times over. In all my travels, I haven’t found this – the *this* that keeps me returning to hike and sit and drift and nap and watch.
The horses – wild and gentle and brave and strong and curious and forgiving – make this land immense, and intimate, and incomprehensibly beautiful.
Can’t go wrong with a handsome mustang and a background of mountains (however hazy). Grey/Traveler is following the grass and water across his wild home.
Pretty mustang girls Maia, Alegre and Houdini against the setting sun.
Skywalker and Apollo graze together on the evening of the longest day of the year.
We had a glorious hour or so of luscious light toward the end of the day, before the sun sank into clouds above the horizon, and we watched several bands too far away for anything but enjoyment. But what better way to spend the first evening of summer? None better than enjoying the beauty of the basin and the magic of all the wild things that dwell within.
‘Tis the season when the ponies are using any sort of bush or small tree as a whisk to brush off the bugs. Storm seems surprised at being caught in the act. He had already walked nearly all the way around this small juniper. The wind helps, but most of the horses seem to take advantage of any trees or sufficiently stiff bushes they come across!
Mysterium in the wind and smoke. Pretty girl. Not-so-pretty day. But the content of the day was gorgeous. 🙂
Seven and Tesora on a very windy, very smoky day in Spring Creek Basin. A fire is burning near Gallup, N.M., and some pretty crazy-strong wind is blowing it straight up Colorado’s tailpipe.
Comanche and Bounce put on a show for the ladies, none of whom were terribly interested.
Unless you count this one; I thought they looked terribly handsome. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 