Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

All that lovely snow is gone now (well, most of it, and especially in the scene seen here), but it’s too hard and too damaging to try to get in Spring Creek Basin in the mud, so for the next few days, at least, enjoy these scenes of winter white!

Corazon and his band were grazing when I first saw them up a hill in the northwestern area of the basin. By the time I trundled up to them, that ol’ Colorado sunshine was starting to melt the snow (and the trees’ roots were slurping it up thirstily!), and the horses were napping in the bright warmth.

If Punxsutawney Phil lived in Colorado, I imagine he’d see his shadow on most Groundhog Days (and the marmots at our Groundhog reservoir (a few thousand feet higher than Spring Creek Basin and snowed in) surely see theirs!). With his still-fuzzy coat, Corazon is not at all worried about six more weeks of winter … and we’re still hoping for more snow!

Our tan world got very white again yesterday morning! It was a snowfall of about an inch, and much of it melted during the day, that liquid goodness seeping into the soil – and into the catchment tanks. The last time I was at the first new catchment, water from the melting snow was gurgling noisily from the roof to the gutter and down the pipes into the tanks. What an absolutely MARVELOUS sound!

Tenaz may have been watching the clouds swirl around McKenna Peak and Temple Butte and the far eastern and southeastern ridges, but he was the star of the show to me.

Sweet Mariah is so lovely, but she’s with a new band now and eager to stay out of the spotlight. … Or at least, not so eager to be *seen* in the spotlight.

Fortunately for us, there’s no mistaking her loveliness.

With her perfect coat of winter finery, you could say that Seneca’s cold-weather suit is perfectly suited to her wild, wintry world!

Winter time is snowy-schnozz time!

The mustangs make practical use of being surrounded by frozen water to “eat” it as casually as they graze. It’s very handy for them to graze and browse and nibble mouthfuls of snow along the way. They do seem to relish it – like ice cream, perhaps!?