From a very low perspective in the arroyo below Rowan and Buckeye, the sun creates a halo behind these wild angels.
But seeing THIS light rimming the horses truly made my heart go pitter-pat.
All I did with these photos was resize them, nudge the contrast, clean up the dust spots (from my camera’s poor, abused sensor), sharpen them and put my name on ’em (which is about all I do for most of my photos).
Mustangs + light + shadow = magic.
It is a great goal of mine to share not only the mustangs and scenery of Spring Creek Basin but hopefully a little sliver – pulled through that screen – of the amazing and transforming peace and joy I feel every time I’m out there, with them and their neighbors in the wild world.
I thought he’d get up when Rowan approached from her standing nap several yards behind him.
Any second now, thought I, he’ll rise. … Usually, they do when another horse approaches them while they’re lying down, especially the adults.
But he didn’t, and Rowan settled in to continue her nap, watching over her stallion.
I wasn’t feeling the peace so much at this moment … being terrified that I’d mess up the focus or fall over and the resulting crash really WOULD wake them up.
But no. They just kept on snoozing, as peaceful between themselves as any mustangs ever.
I should take this moment to mention that Dundee was down in the bottom of the drainage with me (the arroyo is between us and Buckeye and Rowan), Aiyanna and Bia were still up the hill a bit behind Buckeye and Rowan, a band of three also were on that side of the arroyo, farther to the right behind Aiyanna and Bia, and a band of several more were behind Dundee and me on the farther side of the drainage. It’s not like there were no other horses – or even other bands – around. It *could* have been tumultuous.
It was one of the most peaceful, zen, wish-I-could-stop-time and please-let-me-bottle-this-memory-for-all-time moments ever. And you believe me when I say that, right? Because you’ve shared some of these unbelievably peaceful moments with me – on this blog if not beside me in the basin.
These moments brought to you from several evenings ago in Spring Creek Basin because I just couldn’t bring myself to process any of the photos right away. I needed time to process them in my heart and mind first. And even now, as I’m drafting this post, I couldn’t pick a favorite image from this favorite of moments.
Do you have a favorite? Let me know.
And it’s not quite over. … I still have at least one more image to feature from their continued nap – Buckeye standing then – at the edge of the arroyo, in the most beautiful, peaceful, wonderful wild place I know. (OK, really, it’s going to be a few more images. It was THAT gorgeous, and they were THAT peaceful.)
Buckeye was napping not far away from Tenaz the same evening, above the arroyo (the bank is visible in the very near foreground, along the bottom of the photo). The butte is behind him; the ridge is behind me.
He appears to be watching something, but I don’t think it was the floating strand of spider silk drifting through the air. … Or maybe it was. It certainly caught my attention on that beautiful, peaceful evening.
A few days ago, Tenaz’s band was napping low in a drainage between a butte and a ridge. As I walked out to them, I could see Temple napping lying down with a couple of her band mates standing over her. A few were grazing, including a couple down in the shallow arroyo through the drainage. I didn’t see Tenaz until I crossed the arroyo slightly “downstream” of him, and then I waited for one of the young mares to mosey out of the arroyo so I could see him lying in what must have been the very comfortable, relatively flat and definitely-not-prickly bottom of the little arroyo. (The vegetation is dry and prickly currently, as opposed to the cool, relatively smooth, dirt bottom of the arroyo bed.)
He wasn’t too bothered by presence. I think it was his little mare walking away that roused him.
He heaved over into a mighty, wriggly, hopefully satisfying roll but couldn’t go all the way over because of the short bank of the arroyo nearby.
Then over again …
And up into the light of the still-lit side of the drainage, split by his arroyo nap-spot!
This pond may be one of the basin’s smallest, but it’s wonderful to see it still holding water this late in the (another) dry year.
While Storm’s band drank, Storm went off to have a chat with the stallion of the band who preceded them to the pond. Storm then returned for his own long slurp before following his band out to graze nearby.
Walking back to the road a few days ago from my visit with a band, I spotted these lovelies making their way down the hill. It might not surprise readers to know that I was alerted to their presence by those marvelous ears, which gave me time to sit down on the ground with the hopes of photographing them as they passed and NOT alarming them.
Before long, the clicking of the camera’s shutter gave away my presence. 🙂
Though they were well aware of me, I think I achieved my goal of not alarming them, and they continued on their peaceful way down the hill.
Today is the last day of the second rifle season. … Two seasons to go.
Because I’m a logophile, I subscribe to a daily email from dictionary.com. Recently, the word of the day was “dapple,” defined as “[dap-uhl] – verb – to mark or become marked with spots.”
EXAMPLES OF DAPPLE
Where, I ask you, is the absolute main and obvious example of *dapple*!? As in dapple grey, as in a coat dappled with good health … as in HORSE-related!?
Interestingly, “dapple” was the word of the day on my mom’s birthday, the day on which Kestrel was featured on the blog. That pic didn’t show enough of Kestrel to show off her fabulous good-health dapples, so I offer you the above pic, which, I suggest, is the very definition of “dapple” in picture form. Most beautifully shown. 🙂
Thank you, Kestrel. You model your dapples gorgeously!
A few chilly mornings ago, as I parked at the old Perkins corrals, I noticed the slightly-past-full moon setting toward the western morning horizon. Before I headed up the hill to turn off one of our water catchments for the winter, I took advantage of the old wooden rails and ramp/chute to take some pix.
A moon-photography lesson that probably many know (but because I mostly shoot moonrise, I haven’t particularly thought about): When the moon rises and is just above the horizon is the best time to photograph it for the details in the surface that aren’t overwhelmed by the moon’s brightness as it rises higher. When the moon SETS and is just above the horizon is not particularly the best time to photograph it because it’s sinking into the Earth’s haze, and those details are obscured.
That said, I do love our lovely celestial neighbor, any time of day or night – or any distance above the horizon.
(The old Perkins corrals are so named for one of the former permittees (there were two then) who ran cattle in Spring Creek Basin back in the not-too-long-ago days. Now, of course, Spring Creek Basin is closed to livestock grazing, but the corrals – on the southwestish edge of the basin – are still used by the permittee who has the allotment south of Spring Creek Basin on BLM land.)
Lady Houdini is showing her age more these days, and she still warily avoids the photographer, but she seems to be doing well with young Flash. I was so happy to catch sight of the pair this gorgeous – and very cold! – autumn day at the end of October.
Sundance glows in afternoon light while waiting for his band to follow him to water.
Even in the most mundane moments, he’s just handsome!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 