Carrying the theme … 🙂 Here’s a little girl who makes it easy to celebrate what’s right with the world! Gemma – daughter of Grey/Traveler and Houdini. I don’t think I posted this photo previously, though I did post some from this visit, about a month ago. The fastest-greying foal I’ve seen since I’ve started the documentation. Love her curiosity and big, bright star!
Gemma is officially the fastest-greying foal I’ve seen since I started documenting the herd. She reminds me of a youngster I saw in Sand Wash Basin last fall.
See? Even big sister Terra is less grey than little sister. Like the brothers, these sisters stick close.
Daddy Grey/Traveler, looking handsome as always.
They always think the smallest bushes hide them. 🙂
Mama and her girls.
Some more pix from the first day of our visit last week.
Hayden and Jif. They were relaxed but shy and grazing.
Grey/Traveler’s band. Gemma is going grey first right over her butt and from a distance looks a little like an Appaloosa with a blanket pattern.
We saw a collared lizard on our walk back to Wildcat Spring, but it wasn’t interested in visiting with us. This guy, however, defended his rock – right in the middle of the road – while I drove right by him! He looks fierce, eh? But I think this was his way of venting some heat – although getting off that cooker of a rock may have helped, too! We had a nice breeze (not enough to rid us of the gnats), but it was warm – up to 92 by the Jeep’s gauge. I love these lizards’ bright colors and muscley little legs!
Hook’s band was only mildly interested in us. Right to left: Hannah, Sable, Hook, Ember and Pinon.
Toward the end of the day, we decided to take one more pass past Wildcat and had a nice surprise: Bounce’s and Kreacher’s bands, right off the road.
From left: Raven, Corona, Kootenai, Kreacher and Mona
Whisper and Liberty. They’re not as close as they appear, and Liberty is standing a bit farther up the hill. They look pretty similar in size here because of lens compression of the scene, but Liberty is still noticeably smaller than Whisper.
Whisper in the foreground and Alegre at right.
T spotted the almost-full moon coming up over the eastern ridges. This is looking out toward the east pocket. A little farther to the right would be McKenna Peak and the unnamed promontory.
Mona and Kootenai caught in a rare moment of affection. Usually Kootenai bugs Mona, who is very laidback, and Raven usually comes to her rescue by pinning her ears at Koot.
Kreacher, Raven and Kootenai walking toward us.
Kreacher, Raven and Corona. You can really see Corona’s wide blaze here in her mother’s shadow. She’s also still nursing.
We were able to sit with them for a bit in the evening light – wonderful! There’s Bounce in the background … and they’re watching some newcomers.
Seven and his band – Roja, Ze and Spring – were coming up toward Wildcat for an evening drink. They hadn’t been visible when we parked and walked out to sit just off the road with Bounce’s and Kreacher’s bands, but as it turned out, I had parked a bit “ahead” of where the trail comes out, and Seven was not pleased. (As a side note, can you see the extreme resemblance to Grey/Traveler??)
He trotted back and forth, looking hard and blowing at the Jeep while Roja stayed some distance back with Ze and Spring. I keep coming back to this, but they haven’t forgotten and so neither have I. It was almost two years ago that they were chased by a man in a truck. They remain extremely wary of not only people but also vehicles. It’s important to know here that although I was parked in their line of sight, the Jeep was not blocking their wayS to water. But because of their extreme sensitivity, it might as well have been. Most of the other bands respond very well to quiet, careful viewing, but Seven’s have never gotten over that incident – maybe others? This is their home, so we quietly walked back to the Jeep and drove away, taking the “danger” with us.
Roja and Spring – pic taken from the Jeep. Look how big Spring is! (I haven’t taken many pictures of her *because* of their wariness.) She looks so much like Molly. She has little black spots on her knees, and I’m sure her legs will darken. Check out Roja’s loooooong dredlock!
And Seven and Ze … now much calmer and at ease. A great sight to leave with.
Gemma loves her big sister, and big sisters Terra loves her little sister. Some of the older foals are really good with their younger siblings … and some don’t seem to have much to do with them. Terra is really good with Gemma, and they were scratching each other quite a bit. They’re the lovely daughters of Grey/Traveler and Houdini.
I chose this for the day I drive … my beloved Grey/Traveler, napping in mid-afternoon with his girls, on an island in the basin.
Remember this?:
That was last week.
This is now!:
Welcome, Gideon, to your world! (from Emmy Lou Harris’ “Red Dirt Girls”) This is the first time Luna has had a colt since I’ve known her – and no, he doesn’t match the colt of my dream …
But this little one almost does:
I found Kestrel first and her nearly-brand-new buckskin filly! I named her Winona, which means “first-born daughter.” Coincidentally, she may share her birthday with my grandpa – my dad’s dad – who lived with my grandma in a town called Winona all their married lives.
Yesterday was simply gorgeous from about daybreak till about 2 p.m., when the clouds just took over and hogged the formerly turquoise sky. No rain till about midnight last night, though, which was good for my visit … but a real bummer for the dozen or so people who had signed up for the wild horse tour today as part of the Mesa Verde Ute Mountain Ute Birding Festival. We did see a little yellow bird (goldfinch?), but, because of rain, we couldn’t even drive into the basin and therefore didn’t see a single horse. Last year, I was so happy to be able to show folks all the “northern” horses … but this year, it just wasn’t to be. Interestingly, the very first time I went out to see the horses, it was with a smallish group, and it also rained, and we also couldn’t even drive in and didn’t see horses. I went back later by myself … and the rest, as they say, is history!
Hopefully, if any of you are reading this after the fact, you’ll be able to “virtually” see some of the horses I saw yesterday and early this morning.
Kestrel’s was the first new foal I saw yesterday, but her group wasn’t the first of the day. Pinon was leading Ember and Hannah along a ridge down by Spring Creek … and Hook was nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t believe he’d gone off and left them, but that’s exactly what he did. Where did I find him? Running circles around Kestrel and filly, fended off by Comanche, with Sundance, Mahogany (close but not yet), Sable, Mouse and Aspen right nearby. What a goofy boy. Like he has any chance of getting one little mare of two mares guarded by four stallions! This morning, he had reunited with his flock, and all was well.
Isn’t she divine? Almost the spitting image of her mother – and her grandmother!
Just a little bitty thing
She doesn’t seem to have a speck of white on her unless it’s just hard to see right now on her light coat.
Kestrel has never really taken on any babysitting duties that I could see, but she is a doting mother.
So where was Steeldust? Well, the Steeldust-led big band is no more. Not only have youngsters Pinon, Ember and Hannah gone off to seek their fortunes with Hook, Steeldust and Alpha and Storm have followed Luna and Butch. I’m not sure who Winona’s sire is … possibly Mouse, who I noticed was very interested in Ember last year. Kestrel never seemed to draw the same attention, so daddy is just unknown.
But I am assuming Steeldust is Gideon’s sire, as I assume he’s at least Hannah’s sire and possibly Ember’s.
The little guy is the same color as Tenaz, Piedra’s son. The edges of his mane and tail look dark here, so I’m guessing they’ll darken – like their legs – and both boys will be bay.
Grey/Traveler’s band was close by …
… as was Bounce’s band. No baby yet for Alegre, and she doesn’t look like she’s close, despite being a week past her due date. All the bands were very cordial of each other, and there was no interaction at all.
Seven’s – I saw later – also were in the vicinity. I watched them nap this morning, but no pix because I couldn’t get into position to take pix without suddenly “appearing” on them, so I didn’t take any and just crept away. Right after that, I realized I was in trouble of getting rained upon – I did – so I boogied out of there! But that was today.
Here are more pix from yesterday:
The always lovely Alpha …
Alpha and her almost-2-year-old son, Storm sharing a scratch …
Storm looking for a little snack while Steeldust looks on … but I think that free lunch is about at an end. The PZP-22 did work on Alpha (and only on Alpha), so we may be looking for another July baby from the girl.
He’s just as sweet as can be …
!! And look how big her “baby” boy is!
Gideon nursing with Terra, Gemma and Houdini in the background.
Speaking of Gemma, here’s the 3-week-old girl:
To give you an idea of her size, here she is with mama Houdini:
She’s a big girl!
Daddy Grey/Traveler with his 2-year-old “baby” girl, Terra.
Gideon
He’s going to be cheeky, like big sister Hannah … I can see it coming.
And he’s off!
Keep those legs untangled, mister!
Didja see me, Mama? I was RACIN’!
Every growing little boy (and girl) needs plenty of milk …
… and plenty of shut-eye.
🙂
Babies have lots o’ itchies!
No question this little girl will turn grey.
Big sister is going grey, too.
Daddy, of course, is pure silver!
Isn’t he gorgeous??
I took some also of Bounce’s family members, and at the end of the day, I found and took pix of Chrome’s band. I’ll have those up later.
It’s still one-day-spring, the-next-day-winter in Colorado on the Western Slope (and I think the Denver area got slammed Tuesday with snow?), so these babies have to be tough right out of the womb. Good thing they have excellent mamas watching over them. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 