Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Corazon, rimmed with late, low light; grasses in the background afire with that same light.

Love.

This one might take you a minute to puzzle out. 🙂

That’s Piedra and her stallion flirting. His butt is toward me, and that’s his tail you see framing their faces.

An intimate portrait of two big, active mustangs that caught my eye as soon as it came up on my screen.

In other news, happy anniversary to very dear mustang friends Frank and Pat Amthor. They’ve been part of our story since my (at least) beginning with Spring Creek Basin. Much love to you both. 🙂

Winona made me work hard for this image, which is a millisecond away from a head shake against annoying flying bugs.

What caught my eye first, as I was walking back to my vehicle from a visit with another band, downslope, after the sun set beyond the ridge we were on, turning our near-world to shadow, was the still-lit-and-glowing red-rock knob to the north. Then, Winona’s band.

Her pearl-shimmer grey against that glowing red?! Yes, yes, I did stay and try very hard to get her in front of it while she grazed head-down among the fourwing saltbush.

I think I finally succeeded. 🙂

(I’ve heard that formation called Klondike Basin, but as it’s a ridge, outcropping, something (?), it doesn’t look much like a basin. On maps in that area is something called Buck Knob. Which/whatever its name, it’s as identifying to Spring Creek Basin as some of our other landmarks, though because of its location and rarity of catching the horses in proximity, it doesn’t show up in many pix.)

We’re ALL loving the grass these days of late summer. 🙂

What you see in the above pic with Maiku is galleta, a native, warm-season grass. It is *splendiferous* this year!

(Gratitude, of course, to Katharine Lee Bates for the title of this post, from “America the Beautiful.”)

I was with another band and a fair distance from Skywalker when I looked over and saw him highlighted against the storm-shadowed far ridges with a bit of billowing cloud above him. Skywalker knows how to work the dramatic backgrounds, even while sedately grazing along.

(No, we didn’t get any of that rain, but hopefully our neighbors to the southeast did!)

Two of my very favorite boys: Storm and Buckeye.

Buckeye in the universally known stallion dance at the end of the day.

Piedra and Kestrel and their bandmates – indeed, the whole herd – are taking advantage of the bounty of (particularly) galleta grass this summer. The grama and sand dropseed and alkali sacaton also are particularly good. Mustang heaven as the days shorten.

At the very moment of sunset, Flash and his young pals were taking a break from harassing the other stallions and their bands. Fortunately, the break gave the other stallions a much-needed breather, too!