Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Reya paused on her way up the hill from an arroyo seep where her band had an evening drink.

In the background, the hazy amber sky is from smoke, but I think it may be from the Arizona fires instead of the one southeast of Mancos. It’s at 2,764 acres.

The wind has subsided from brutal to merely strong, and with that relief comes another plague: the gnats. They’re here. My guess is that they’ve been out … just blown away like the rest of us. Both’ll drive a body insane.

Temple and Madison do some dust-devil dancing. I wish they were romancing the rain, but the forecast is bleak.

Maiku watches over his band (he’s a lieutenant) as they graze among the boulders of Filly Peak. Spring Creek Basin stretches dry and parched in the distance.

Remember yesterday’s image of Skywalker marching across a hill in the basin? If he looked like he was on a mission, he was. *I* thought he was heading toward a water source, but through a cleft in the edge of the hill that he headed down, he showed me a bigger prize: a couple of bands in the distance, right near the basin’s western boundary, above Spring Creek canyon.

Those bands both have lieutenant stallions, and there’s one (of previously two) bachelor still interested and following one of those bands. So when Skywalker showed up … things got, shall we say, even more *interesting*!

Not very often do I get the opportunity to photograph the horses running and moving and interacting with other bands and bachelors. It’s pretty peaceful here in Spring Creek Basin. But on this evening, wowza – it was action central.

*Important: Although there definitely was some stallion action and interaction, no mustang was injured (beyond some cuts/scrapes) in the excitement of the evening.

In the pic above, one could think that the horses had their own little rain dance choreographed, eh?

Little Shadow-girl kept wandering too close to a neighboring band, and Killian had to get fierce to keep her with the family. She’s really not much bigger than a large pony, but she has a big stride, doesn’t she!?

Temple picks her way through sun-kissed grasses at the end of another dry – and beautiful – day in Spring Creek Basin.

A bachelor stands sentinel between two bands at the base of Filly Peak at sunset in Spring Creek Basin.