Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

A couple of days ago, with their attention fixed between a lone bachelor (there were three other bands to the left, behind them) and my two visitors, I finally got an all-together family portrait of Buckeye’s band. Bia’s attention, of course, was on the most important thing of all. 🙂

Oh, so casual. 😉

Odin (Hollywood x Shane) is a precocious little stallion-to-be! This is the second time I’ve seen his band and Buckeye’s band in proximity to each other and Odin visiting (but probably not at all only the second time it has happened). Mostly, he grazes with them. Occasionally he tries to engage sweetheart Bia.

The first time I saw them together was very brief, and I didn’t get any pix. Bia seemed to be ignoring him then. She mostly ignored him this time, though the babies did graze together a fair bit. Just like any boy, at first, he took his time working his way oh-so-casually over to where she grazed. If she gave him even an inkling of interest, he resorted to brute boy tactics – too rough! – and she quickly put space between them.

Here, Odin seems to be trying a different tactic: buddying up to the daddy of his young heart’s desire, Buckeye. 🙂 Good move, kid!

Pretty soon, mama Shane called her little boy for a snack, and he dutifully went on down the hill.

(Odin does also get along very well with the stallions (yes, there are kinda two) that stole his mama and other mares from Hollywood.)

Seneca wonders what her wandering bandmates are doing down the hill from where she stopped to nibble on a four-wing saltbush. Her cocked hind leg is partly because of the slope and partly because she’s just so relaxed. I took multiple frames to catch the background with her head up, and her hip is cocked in all of them. She’s definitely not one to put out more energy than at all necessary. Leave that to the youngsters, I’m sure she’s thinking.

We got another wonderful infusion of rain the day before yesterday. I’m loving these early-autumn (can I call them that? it’s starting to feel like fall) rains and cooler weather.

Like many mustangs, Skywalker thinks trees will hide him as he makes sneak attacks on the rest of the band. In about two steps, though, he’s visible again, and the band is moving on.