Seneca
Has anyone heard the phrase “knee high by the Fourth of July”? To the Ohio farmers in my family tree, that refers to corn.
We’re a little past the Fourth now, but here in Spring Creek Basin, some of the grass is as high as a mustang’s knee. We’re kinda likin’ that a whole bunch. 🙂
Ty
Stately boy under a stormy sky.
We have been getting rain! Different areas of Disappointment Valley get different amounts of rain – sometimes wildly different. The horses are in pretty darn good shape for grass and water this year.
R-E-L-I-E-F. And mucho gratitude. 🙂
The Colorado chapter of the National Mustang Association plans to host a fundraiser from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, July 10, with the film “Roaming Wild” at the center of the event. Funds raised from ticket sales and the silent auction will benefit Spring Creek Basin mustangs and other wild horses in Southwest Colorado (potentially those in Mesa Verde National Park).
Find more information and buy tickets on NMA/CO’s website.
According to promotional material provided by the film, “Roaming Wild offers an insider’s look at an invisible battle unfolding in the American West over wild horses on public lands. Wild horses find themselves at the center of an age-defining controversy where the demands of modern development are colliding with the needs of the wild. A fiery activist rescues horses from slaughter, a cattle rancher struggles to keep his way of life viable in the modern era, and an unlikely hero invents new possibilities. Each searching for a solution to the pressure on their own disappearing ways of life in the West, they can agree on one thing – the current ‘bandaid’ solution is failing them all.”
Among other things, this film addresses the benefits of fertility-control vaccine PZP, which has been used in Spring Creek Basin for four years. By slowing the population growth of the herd, at least one roundup has been prevented, a trend we hope to continue.
Sunflower Theatre in Cortez will provide the venue. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for the silent auction, with appetizers and a cash bar available. The film will start at 6:30 p.m. Afterward, NMA/CO board members will be available for a question-and-answer session about issues challenging wild horses and burros, their advocates and managers.
We hope to see “old” friends and meet new ones interested in our mustangs!
… handsome fellow …
Hollywood
Do they *know* how gorgeous they are? He’s also really good to his mares.
Comanche
Oh, to be a mare. 🙂 He’s really good to his girls, too.
Alegre and Houdini
These grey girls are golden. As Americans celebrate 239 years of freedom and independence today, remember the horses we rode in on, and celebrate their enduring spirits of wildness!
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Monsoon season may have started! We got some isolated storms around Disappointment Valley yesterday evening, capped by a spectacular and long-lasting rainbow that “embraced” Spring Creek Basin and its mustangs, as friend Kat said. Those storms, some within the basin’s borders and some above, were enough to raise Disappointment Creek a few FEET in just a few hours and send it roaring downstream. Not only that, but Spring Creek ran – again! The water already was *down* 2.5 feet from its high point by the time we saw it! That gorgeous sight stopped us from going deeper into the basin, but that was perfectly OK; horses in a couple of bands came over a ridge to watch us curiously while we danced and laughed and cried like madwomen.
Water is life. After weeks of (normal) hot, dry weather, to listen to the sound of rushing water – watching mustangs while listening to the music of a chortling creek?! – is absolute magic upon magic.
“Thank you. Thank you, for the horses, for the water,” I whispered to the giant sky, over wide, rushing Spring Creek.
My gratitude knows no bounds.
Pretty pinto ponies pondering life and bugs at the Round Top pond.
Apollo and S’aka
How sweet are they? Wee S’aka is just the right height for big Apollo to use for bug relief. Such pals. 🙂
Mmm, greasewood. Yummy!
Though prickly greasewood looks rather unappetizing to humans, the horses eat it like candy – in all seasons, even with grass at the ready.
Speaking of ready, we’re ready for monsoon season to start.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 