From left: Dundee, Rowan and Aiyanna. A little golden girl bookended by two dun girls – one with awesome spots! Not only is Aiyanna now our only dun pinto, she’s the only pinto in Spring Creek Basin with all solid legs. Raven, our black-and-white girl from Sand Wash Basin in 2008, has one stocking. 🙂 All our homebred pinto ponies have white legs.
The Sunday after their release into Spring Creek Basin, I looked low and high, down and up, forth and back and forth again and all around for those girls. But though I saw most of the Spring Creek Basin mustangs, for the life of me, I couldn’t spot even a swishing tail or flicking ear of the new girls. My hunch was that they found a sheltered swale and hunkered down for the day and took long naps punctuated by contented grazing and deep swallows of good pond water.
Monday morning, I was in the basin shortly after sunrise, and voila! Not only were the mares right in sight, they were with a young stallion. A young stallion who had been, the night before, with his family a few miles to the south.
Even if I hadn’t known that, by the swirling movement of the horses, it was clear that introductions had been made later that night or even just a bit earlier that morning. His family was a bit split – his uncle, in particular, seemed perturbed that the young prince and not himself was the one to win the mares – and there was another family just up the hill from them, who also had been miles away the night before.
Here, the bands are going to water at Spring Creek Basin’s original/main water catchment. In the low-center of the pic are the two long, heavy-plastic aprons (inside a high fence) that catch rainwater and snow and funnel it downhill to the tank at lower left. Out of sight in this pic, farther left, is the trough. Just above the line of horses you can see at lower right, see the other, farther line of horses? That’s the other family that was nearby. When the scuffling started, they headed for the hills (Flat Top is just out of sight to the right) and another pond.
Two *other* bands were above me on the hill when I first spotted the new girls and stopped to watch, and we hung out together to watch the action unfurling below. Before long, they went back to grazing, and when the new girls and their semi-blended new family(s) dropped out of sight over the edge of the ridge east of the catchment aprons, I continued on to see where they were going.
As it turned out, they went south, and with my ankle situation, it was too much for me to follow on foot, so I went back out and around … thinking that, to see the new girls in their new home, with their new stallion, I’d by-gosh make the fairly short hike up the hill above the county road. As it turned out, they’d very thoughtfully and politely come down to within easy viewing of that road. 🙂
So polite, these girls! Could they have paused for a nap in a more delightful setting than one with sunflowers blooming like sunshine all around them?! … You can just see the belly of their new boy beyond Dundee.
Another introduction is in order … for you readers to young Flash, the splashy grey-and-white pinto stallion at left. He’s a Spring Creek Basin native, and he’s the one who’s been keeping company with and stepping out with the young mares from Sand Wash Basin these past few days.
He’s the same age as Dundee, and so far, the association is working well for all concerned. 🙂
I haven’t seen the girls drinking at the pond above which we welcomed them to Spring Creek Basin … but they’ve most definitely found the main water catchment. 🙂 Water bar with a view! Hard to beat that!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
This is a great commentary with fabulous photos of the beauties AND their stand by stallion, Flash!
Thanks for the Beauty of Spring Creek Basin that I love.
It’s an honor to share the mustangs and Spring Creek Basin through photos – and sometimes in person! 🙂
Great photos, TJ! And so it’s Flash then! He’s grown so much since I last saw him and now he’s got his own little band. I won’t lie ; I had hoped it was Skywalker. In fact when I looked at your pics of those girls coming out of the trailer I was thinking – hello, Skywalker, are you seeing this? 😊 But Flash is so pretty ; he and the new girls will make beautiful babies!
Skywalker is hanging out still with his best pal and two family bands. He may not have mares of his own yet, but he does have family. 🙂
Thank you so much TJ, for keeping us informed on the new girls. They seem to be fitting in well.
Yes, they are fitting in very well, indeed! They’re very calm and peaceful and exploring their new home.
Nice story and pics.
Don’t you love it when its green?
Thanks for sharing it with us!
I DO love it when it’s green! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you so much for taking these beautiful girls. I follow SWB on Facebook and watching the Roundup has been painful. I did a family tree for Picasso’s family and I try to remember that when he was released was when that tree began, so with that I hold hope for SWB. The way you work with the BLM is great and I feel we can do so much more working together. Praying those that see where these ladies landed will take what you do as a lesson in making it work for the horses!
Sand Wash Advocate Team and Wild Horse Warriors and others do work hard in various ways to protect the Sand Wash Basin mustangs, and they work with BLM to that end. I agree that we can accomplish much by working together. Thank you so much for following both our herds!
Yes they do and I so appreciate them but “some” Facebook followers…well I’ll just leave it at that!🐴💞
OH it’s all so fabulous!!! 💚
These girls are doing very well with their new beau!
they are so beautiful. I’d go for that young stallion, too. 😉
He’s awfully handsome, isn’t he? 🙂
Yes he is. He has good taste in mares, too.
Great news!
>
🙂
I am so glad the ladies have a handsome young escort around the Basin. It would be nice if he could retain them, but for now, they will all enjoy eachother’s company.
The girls are all still together, but alas, the youngster couldn’t hold onto them. They have a new beau, and he’s also pretty handsome. 🙂 More to come.
Hi, TJ. Do you sell prints of your photos? I’d like to have a print of the three new fillies and the young stallion at the water tank. Flash…… I think that might be the stallions name…… Thank you for all that do. 🙂