If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I’m not a big fan of the ubiquitous “stallions fighting” photos.
But I couldn’t resist Chrome!
That’s Comanche at left. His band and Hollywood’s and Chrome’s and Kreacher’s and Cinch’s were up in the northwest bowl.
No ponies were injured in the flying of those dreds! 🙂
And another …
Can’t resist these faces!
Curious Briosa – from my visit with Hollywood’s band.
Comanche’s were nearby, as they have been lately. While I was photographing Holls’ band, Comanche’s grazed their way around behind me, and when I looked back, Juniper had laid down.
That’s Comanche in the foreground, and wow, does Juni look more and more like him.
Bri ambled – really, there’s no other word for it – over toward them, and I practically held my breath, thinking I was going to see some adorable interaction between Juni and Bri … but it never materialized because Bri never made it all the way to Juni.
Briosa walking over … notice the rain on the far western hills (outside the herd area). Thunder boomers were rumbling nearly the entire time I visited the bands, but the rain moved straight down along the hills and didn’t come over the basin. In fact, once the rain passed by yonder, sunshine came out over the whole area!
Eliana stayed behind – that’s Piedra in the background. She doesn’t seem to be as outgoing as Briosa. You might think (despite the mud) that Briosa and Eliana are sisters, but you’d be wrong. However, it’s very possible that Eliana is Briosa’s aunt (half-sister to Piedra, who might be a daughter of Eliana’s mama, Mahogany).
But as I was saying … Briosa got a little distracted.
Bri gives Comanche a sniff-er-oo while he watches Hollywood’s band. He practically ignored her, though, and made a circuit on farther out, then back to Kestrel and Winona, who were to the left and slightly behind Juniper.
Juniper was not phased in the least.
I wish more of her face was visible, but I love her legs tucked up so tight while she rolled. 🙂 She’d roll and right herself … roll and right herself … laid there for a while longer … then lurched to her feet and burst into a gallop to and past mama, where she stopped and looked back as if to say, “Didja see me? Huh? Didja?”
Yes, baby girl, I saw you! 🙂
The northwest “meadow” is the new east pocket.
There’s grass. There’s water.
Horses are there.
Four beautiful bands … and Kreacher’s – and Duke – were just to my left.
Beautiful day. How could I have thought he wouldn’t still be there?
I realize that by the time I publish this, I’ve already published my “education” post, that you’ll read it – if you wade through it at all – after you look through these. Nonetheless, I’m calling this post “return” because hopefully it marks a return to photos of the horses and place I’m so passionate about.
Without further ado … These are from the day of the tour.
Bounce’s band, early morning before anyone else arrived, just west of the east pocket.
The helicopter. I never even took pix Grey’s band, just hung out while they napped.
Later in the day, after the tour … before I knew about Twister:
Comanche’s band was very near Hollywood’s – still – and had done a bit of traveling during the day (though I can’t comment definitively on the particular cause). Earlier in the day, we could see them north of Spring Creek Canyon; here, they were just off the road above the dugout (east of their earlier location).
Hollywood’s band
Piedra and Briosa. Comanche’s were just up the hill to the right. This was taken from just off the road.
Briosa. Isn’t she a stout big girl?
Eliana, Spring Creek Canyon in the background.
Comanche
Winona
Eliana
I so enjoyed visiting with them, taking these pix of the horses against the Colorado sky with the favorable clouds we’ve seen so little of this year. I didn’t want to leave, though I was headed to check on Twister. I wasn’t aware yet of what I would find with him.
After I’d finally gotten in touch with BLM about Twister, I couldn’t stay in the basin (I didn’t leave the area so I could lead BLM to Twister in the morning). Almost didn’t even stop to greet David’s band when I found them, just inside the fence along the Disappointment Road.
Shadow and Coal
Yearling Wind wiggling between mama and baby brother. You can see the fence strands in the foreground – that’s how close they were.
Handsome baby Coal
Horrible day … and yet a good day, too. Seems to be a contradiction that settles over my entire mustang experience. Can’t explain it … and I guess, overall, I really wouldn’t change it. The “good” is really just that phenomenal.
Some pix of Comanche and Hollywood from the other night. Their bands were close to each other in this beautiful little meadow at the top of the basin, on the northwest side. All was calm until curious Georgie – I mean, Winona – grazed her way close enough to Holls to not be able to contain that curiosity any longer! Comanche then strutted down to put an end to THAT nonsense. Ha! Later, Duke came whinnying out of the trees across the valley to the north, and that got the boys’ attention, too. Comanche did go racing off to greet him, but I had crossed an arroyo to seek shade and was blocked by trees. I wish this “boys” post included pix of him, but I pulled a dumb newbie mistake and didn’t have an empty memory card in my pocket like usual – and I had no idea I’d taken so many pix – until right after Eliana left the pond. I just sat and watched while the horses grazed into the overtaking shadows, but when I walked back to the Jeep past Duke, it was just to greet him and admire his sleek and shiny bayness – not to take any pix.
He had a little fit of pique when Juniper got “too close” to his own girls, and this is him encouraging her to return “home.”
Comanche with a most-recognizable backdrop – McKenna Peak and the unnamed promontory.
Watching Duke, but he didn’t leave his mares … which is interesting because I watched specifically to see if he would. But maybe he’s learning, and it seemed to me that he quite remembered Comanche stealing almost all his family earlier this year (not long after Cougar was born). He has lost Piedra at least twice before because of his penchant for running off to spar, leaving her unprotected.
So handsome. So wild. So awesome.
Holls
I love his walk!
Hollywood and his little girls – Briosa (back) is his daughter, and Eliana is Sundance’s daughter … but her mother is possibly Briosa’s mother’s mother, which makes Eliana Briosa’s aunt! And Mahogany – Eliana’s mama – Bri’s grandma!
Comanche with Kestrel and baby Juniper. Love that background!
Kestrel and baby girl Juniper were among the first to greet me last week.
Hiya, handsome!
Yearling Winona and stepdaddy Comanche
Juni and her daddy, Comanche
Juni with daddy Comanche and big sister Winona
Hiya, beautiful! She looks a little rough while she’s shedding her baby coat, but isn’t she cuuuuuuute?!
Comanche
Juniper
Growing up gorgeous!
By the next day, the band was way up in the northwest, visiting with Hollywood’s band (and Duke)!
What cost, freedom? What value? What would we do to preserve it?
That others fought and fell – fight and fall – so we may live independent of tyranny and oppression, we must never forget.
I visited my friend Claude Steelman yesterday at his gallery in Durango, and he asked me the identity of a horse in a photo he had taken in about 2009. I had been eyeing it, and as best I can tell by the angle, it’s Comanche. Then he pointed to a bronze sculpture on the counter, “Dust Devil,” and said it’s Veryl Goodnight’s rendition of Comanche in the photo.
http://verylgoodnight.com/Subpages/DustDevil2.html
Photos of it are featured in her new book, No Turning Back; The Art of Veryl Goodnight.
I don’t think Claude has the photo on his website, but if you were to look at the sculpture from the back left, with him facing more forward than in the pic of the sculpture on the website, that’s the photo Claude caught of Comanche, backlit with dust wreathing his hooves.
Our Comanche –Â in bronze. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
To all our daddies …
… from all your children and mamas and families who love you …
We love you and appreciate you and thank you for all you do!
Happy Father’s Day!
XOXO
Us
Just some pix of a super-cute baby (really, is there any other kind of baby?!) and her family.
Juniper with mama Kestrel and daddy Comanche.
Juni and daddy
Baby girl isn’t quite a month old yet, but look how big she is! Baby Winona – in my memory – was just a petite little thing. Juni looks big and stout!
Kestrel and her girls – baby Juniper and Winona
Juni-girl – doesn’t she look big? And in the background … way back … see those white dots? That’s Two Boots on the left and Chrome on the right (I cheated – I kept looking back at them through my binoculars), and darker Jif is just to the right. Who else was back there? Seven’s, Grey/Traveler’s and Cinch’s. Nearby? Spook and Bruiser and Luna’s – and Aspen. A little farther but still in this general area? Hook’s – with Twister – and Hollywood’s and Kreacher’s. Not tooooo far away, Iya’s. 🙂 They’re finding plenty to eat, and they have a couple of water sources – they’re happy.
Dazzling sweet girl!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 