This was toward the end of the 15 or 20 minutes I spent with Buckeye’s band while it snowed. There’s a fair bit of snow cover on the ground – and on the horses!
I thought the horses would likely turn their butts to the strong wind that was sending the snow straight at them broadside, but they grazed around as though it wasn’t windy at all. I kept *my* back to the wind and the snow because I didn’t want the flakes hitting my lens inside the lens hood and making it even harder for the camera to find focus on the horses (as opposed to the flakes in the air)… but the tradeoff was that the snow was hitting the eye piece of the camera, which meant I couldn’t see anything but watery blobs! So I was trusting that my camera’s focus beeps indicated that it really was finding focus on the horses and just sort of guessing at composition. Amazingly, it did a great job at finding focus on the horses through the air that was THICK with fat flakes blowing crazily past us. The wind and snow started out of the southeast, and by the time I left the horses, it had shifted a bit and was coming more from straight east.
The horses were getting pretty coated in snow by the time I left them – maybe 15 or 20 minutes after the snow reached us? – and I didn’t think about it until I was brushing myself off for the trip home, but I also was covered in snow. Ha! It’s like not noticing the biting cold when I’m with the ponies … but only later. Their magical bubble encompasses me and blocks out any adverse conditions (heat or cold, snow or sharp sunshine). 🙂 I’m completely sure that my presence doesn’t act in the reverse, for *them* … but I wish it did!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
TJ, we know the mustangs are your “calming/peacefilled bubble”… great pics! Glad you are getting moisture!
They sure are. 🙂 The pix over three days might be misleading; that was just one snow event (and only one band), and it dropped only about an inch in the basin. Being at the leading edge of it and then in the middle of it sure was fun, though!
Those nice thick coats are doing their job insulating the warmth underneath!
They are elegantly and perfectly designed by Mother Nature. 🙂
What great pictures of the snow covered horses! So glad for the moisture!
🙂 We’re ALWAYS grateful for any moisture. … I wish it had been more widespread and lasted longer. Ha. And I already want more!
Wow. TJ! I can’t believe how your snowstorm was like the real deal and not the pretender we got! What great photos of snow-covered mustangs even if your camera had to be your eyes. 😁 And I can truly understand that when you’re in the presence of those magnificent creatures the conditions – whatever they might be – are an “afterthought.”
It ended up being only about an inch of accumulation. It just looked wonderful in the moment(s)! 🙂 We were back to brown ground by the next day – well, some parts of the valley (the entire lower valley) got pretty much ZILCH.
I wonder how it feels to them.
Great question. However it feels, they handle it a lot better than humans do!