Happy Independence Day!
One side effect of more horses drinking at the water catchment is that Chrome has more “visitors” to his territory than previously. Here he’s marching out to greet Hollywood, who was there with Comanche’s band and ever-present Bounce.
**********
Please keep in mind the ultra-dry conditions, and celebrate safely this Fourth of July!
Winona and Chrome. She was shifting her position, maybe rubbing away flies. Chrome takes it all in stride.
********************
Happy 18th birthday to my cousin Kayla! XOXO!
Not elephants. Although, as this drought continues, it’s beginning to look a lot like the sere plains of Africa out here.
I call this photo “La Sals, Imagination”:
Whaddya mean you can’t see the mountains … through the smoke? Use your imagination. 🙂 Although Grey/Traveler’s band seems to also be looking for the mountains, they were watching Chrome’s band walking toward them on their way to the water catchment.
Smoke from this fire – way, way, way east of here – apparently has drifted into New Mexico then blown back north and west into Colorado. But it’s not the only fire burning in the region.
Earlier, Grey/Traveler’s band had been drinking at the water catchment’s trough:
Maia, clearly at her leisure, worried me; I thought the worst, that the storage tank had drained and the trough was empty, and she was waiting for someone to come fill it, darnit!
Not to fear.
The trough was full of water. Whew. (The big green tank is the storage tank that holds water from either rain or snow or direct-fill.)
Because of the drought, BLM has been checking to ensure that the horses have enough water sources, and we – National Mustang Association/Colorado – recently got the green light to deliver a load of water – 4,000 gallons – to the catchment tank. Donors and silent-auction-item buyers at the Pati Temple Memorial Benefit Bash, this is the first use of the money you helped us raise! Interestingly, the area of the catchment is used primarily by Chrome’s band and rarely by other bands. But some other bands have started to find the water – and the good forage in this area. Water is a good way to disperse the horses’ grazing and get them to use under-used areas.
Chrome’s band at the catchment trough, drinking clean water. This is an important water source because it’s the only clean source of water in the basin. The others are high in alkalinity and salt because of the basin’s soils. The dusky, hazy color cast is because of the smoke.
The temperature hit 110 degrees Friday. On Thursday, the high was 108. Smoke, wind, heat, zero moisture = ugh.
Cecil Foster, owner of Foster’s Water, to the rescue.
The storage tank is about 15 feet tall, so Cecil brings his ladder to access the hatch at the top. At right is the hose from his water truck.
Seen here are his water truck, the hose to the tank and the water trough in the background at right.
Thanks, Cecil! He also donated a load of water for the benefit’s silent auction. Cecil is a super nice man, and a friend of the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin.
Thank you, NMA/CO, for the delivery of water to the mustangs!
Sunlit Chrome at the end of the day.
A pronghorn doe was nearby, and I think Chrome knew the whereabouts of her fawn. The shadows already had claimed his mares and Kwana, and I couldn’t resist mister handsome with that lovely light. He was calm, as always, but he was distracted. A couple of nights later, visitors and I saw a doe and her fawn. 🙂
Chrome on a windy, hazy, dusty day. Note the blooming cactus in the bottom right corner.
The claret cup cacti are starting to bloom in brilliant shades of scarlet.
The prince’s plume has come on in plentiful blooms, right on spring schedule.
Chrome snakes Terra to follow Kwana toward Winona, who was grazing a little distance away.
The story behind the story involves the dots behind these two in the distance. See them? Way back left of Chrome?
When I first saw those two dots, they were three dots: two grey, one dark (bay): Chrome and Kreacher and Duke. And yes, they’re really about as far away as they appear, so Chrome had left his girls and his boy to have a little man-to-man-to-man chat. I parked not far away and walked out on a trail, and I was sitting on said trail at the moment I pressed the shutter on this shot. I reached his girls and boy before he did.
Kreacher and Duke went on grazing as peacefully as Terra and Kwana and Winona, even after Chrome returned to reassert his “dominance.”
Love.
One up, one back. His attention is divided. As usual.
I love those ears.
Who is that wonderful artist who “hides” her pinto horses in snow and rocks and trees? Does this photo remind you of her art? Maybe I’m just crazy! Terra and Kwana, out in the open, were easy to spot this particular morning before sunrise, but Chrome and Winona were “hiding” in plain sight among the boulders of Filly Peak!
Not long after Chrome’s band lined up for this portrait, the snow dropped in over the basin! It left exactly no trace of its passing. While the rest of Colorado is getting snow, my fingers are crossed that it doesn’t miss us. That pic sure doesn’t look like February in Colorado, does it?
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 