OK, they’re not *all* grey. 🙂 From left: Terra, Corona, Deniz, Gemma and Houdini in back. Terra, Gemma and Deniz are Grey’s and Houdini’s daughters. The black clearly visible on Corona’s legs is mud from Wildcat Spring. Corona is pale, pale, ever-so-pale palomino (genetics she inherits from her sire, Corona, of Sand Wash Basin).
The beloved boy himself. So I’m biased … aren’t you?!
This little beauty is nearly as light as her mother is dark. She’s a year older than the baby girl on the right. I was a little shocked at their similarity in size. Two-year-old T is the same age as C there … but noticeably bigger.
I can’t get over how not only comfortable they are with each other but HOW close they seem. Because of weather, it had been two weeks between my visits instead of my usual one … a lot changes in a short period of time!
Have I wracked your brains long enough? 🙂
Ignoring me as usual, my beloved silver boy, Grey/Traveler, and his band, which now includes …
Corona! (I didn’t realize until I cropped in on this how cocked her hip was, making her hips look so uneven!)
Interestingly, he’s watching Kreacher (his band is Corona’s former band – black and white pinto Raven is Corona’s mama), who was ahead on the road. All these photos were taken from my Jeep.
I could watch him forever …
Terra-girl. I don’t really have a photo that shows it – every time I noticed how much bigger she is than Corona, I was watching, camera slack in my hands. She’s an amazing girl with incredible genes!
And of course you want to see this darling girl – Deniz! Look how she’s changed! Lighter, “browner” – and look how big and stout! Notice the faint striping on her legs, too. I think I mentioned it with Juniper. I’ve seen it on most of Grey’s babies, I think, and some others, too. They eventually fade or become less noticeable as the babies grey out.
Grey and Houdini do have a knack for making beautiful babies together, don’t they? 🙂
I’m happy to see Corona with Grey’s family. A lovely match!
Truly, sometimes I have no words. In the basin, with them, I just hang on tight to the moment, the moments, the glorious beauty all around me, us, them. They carry it with them … the world accentuates all that they are.
What’s the saying?
When God created the horse, he said to the magnificent creature: I have made thee as no other. All the treasures of the earth shall lie between thy eyes. Thou shalt cast thy enemies between thy hooves, but thou shalt carry my friends upon thy back. Thy saddle shall be the seat of prayers to me. And thou fly without any wings, and conquer without any sword. ~ The Koran
How could it be said any better?
These images were all taken from about half an hour before sunset to a little past the same day as the pictures in the “Till Dawn” post.
It’s plentiful, it’s prickly, it has slender, rubbery “leaves,” and the horses seem to think of it as candy. I’ve seen them surrounded by grass – actual grass – and still nibbling (as Gideon here) on greasewood.
Grey/Traveler and his daughter Terra
Mama Houdini, baby Deniz and yearling Gemma were out of sight in a little draw down and behind Grey and Terra.
King, emperor, knight in shining silver of Spring Creek Basin.
Alpha, queen, empress, once his favorite …
Mouse
Varoujan and daddy Butch
And good night …
Here are some pix of – mostly! – Deniz … and some of her with mama Houdini. What a sweet, curious baby girl!
Sisters Terra and Gemma
Do Grey and Houdini have beautiful babies or what?! 🙂
Sorry about the lack of recent posts. I’ve been working on one that’s more of a rant, and I keep deciding not to post it … and I keep reading things that make me really want to post it.
Suffice it to say that no budget for roundups this year will put the Spring Creek Basin herd on rough ground, literally. It’s hard to feel so nearly alone in this “advocacy.” Thank goodness for the work Little Book Cliffs and Pryor Mountain and McCullough Peaks are doing to stop/slow their roundups.
Here are some pix of Grey/Traveler’s band getting water from a bit flowing through Spring Creek a couple of weeks ago. I was walking back to the Jeep, and they were walking the ridge, and we met in the arroyo.
It doesn’t look like much – and it’s not – but it’s actually trickling through (from beyond them (east) toward my direction and past).
Grey and his girls.
All the family. Love the water droplets.
Gorgeous girl
Sharing a moment with daddy … How many foals has he sired? How many has he helped raise … sent away, seen taken … and yes, I still say a roundup is necessary, and PZP is the best thing to put it off in the future. Where would we be now if PZP had already been implemented? He is so good with them …
I have so many hopes for this herd … . I know the public as a whole sees the trauma of roundups – and their aftermath – and focuses simply on stopping them from happening. Think deeper.
Spring Creek Basin needs to have a roundup this fall. We’ll have it this year, when there are more horses than optimum (90-95) but they’re in good shape, or we’ll have it next year and maybe call it an emergency (with around 130 horses). Why should we have to wait until the horses are in bad condition? Why can’t we do it now, when they’re in good condition – and able to withstand the stress? Argh.
Prepare ye for gorgeousity.
This little girl doesn’t often find the spotlight, but when it finds her – wow! Gemma
Big sister Terra – isn’t she divine?
Handsomest. Does he glow? He glows.
Some from before the light returned:
Gemma and daddy
Does it seem that, whatever lack of light there was, they seem to enrich what IS there?
I just love them.
Daddy and his daughters …
Sisters
And back to light:
Enjoying the sunshine …
Do you recognize these poses?
He comes by it naturally, eh? 🙂
I told you he glowed.
Gemma in light …
She loves her daddy! He wasn’t too keen on public displays of affection. 🙂
Grey/Traveler and Gemma
Daddy and his gorgeous girls
Mama in the background
Mama in beauty
Public affection – gotcha. 🙂
Gemma
What a visit!
Grey/Traveler and Houdini. I wish his eye was visible, but this is a common view – Grey grazing nearby and Houdini farther away.
This also is common: Daddy with his girls … or … the girls with their daddy!
Isn’t he gorgeous? Doesn’t he glow? (Really, he does – I have evidence coming later.)
With the broad band of clouds covering the rising sun, the color of the day was fairly dull at this point … but I think you can still see a bit of light illuminating the horses’ coats – and here also, the far background of hills … But it was starting to edge away, that big cloud … revealing brief moments like this:
A teaser of light to come …
So many more photos, so little time!
Here’s a shameless plug (which I need to learn to do more of, I’m afraid): I’m speaking at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Wilkinson Public Library in Telluride – scroll down on the right – about the horses, the upcoming roundup and adoption and, very particularly and specifically, about fertility control and the annual program we hope to implement in the basin this fall. The little blurb is, unfortunately, misleading, and that’s not my photo and those are not Spring Creek Basin mustangs. I am in that film, “Mustangs and Renegades” (formerly “Disappointment Valley”), but I have not seen it, and I will not be talking about the film. It was shown there last month, which is the library’s connection.
If any of you are local and can make it, please come and please introduce yourself/ves and let me know about your experiences with the horses!
I mention that, too, because I’m going to try to get more pix up in the next couple of days, but then I’ll be in the basin Wednesday and part of Thursday leading up to my talk in Telluride … visiting with the horses again and collecting more photos and observations. We’re about a month away from the start of our foaling season, and most of the mares are showing definite signs of things to come. Most of our foals should be born in April and May, but our season will go through the summer and into September with at least a few mares.
If you’re praying for a suggestion of what to do, the upcoming scoping letter here will be another chance to do something positive for better management of our mustangs – this scoping letter in particular, for our Spring Creek Basin mustangs. I’ll provide a link to it as soon as I know it’s out (I assume it will be linkable). Public comment helped McCullough Peaks and Pryor Mountain fertility control programs become a reality (and Little Book Cliff’s at the outset – and continuing!); we’ll need them from you here, too.
Because of my meetings last week, I wasn’t able to get out to visit the horses, and I’ve been missing them. So I went back through photos from the last visit to pull out some more before I hopefully get back out tomorrow.
I see you, beautiful girl! I was sitting on the edge of a shallow arroyo across from where they were grazing.
Sister girls: Gemma, left, and Terra. Gemma will be a year old April 23, and Terra will be 2 on May 1.
Both girls (this is Terra) love their daddy, Grey/Traveler and can often be found grazing close to him. I don’t know where Terra gets her weird and wondrous blaze marking … I’ve always thought it looks like a swan.
Right at the edge of the little arroyo …
He doesn’t very often give me his full attention anymore – I have to be quick to catch it! So handsome and crazy-intelligent!
I especially love to sit with his band and soak up all his wisdom (and Houdini’s). Linda on Beautiful Mustang has been posting about natural horsemanship and observations of her herd, and passive leadership, which her horse Red exhibits. Grey definitely has that quality, and it showed with the big bands he had before the last two roundups. In fact, all the band stallions seem to have it … and I’ve wondered if that might be part of Mouse’s “problem” in getting a mare. He’s the highest ranking bachelor, but he’s a little gruff and grouchy (though he seems to be mellowing). Kreacher and Steeldust are two excellent examples of deferring to their girls, but when need be, they’re incredibly protective.
Can’t wait to see the horses again!
Thick, fuzzy winter coats must get itchy, shedding or not. We’ve had a wide range of conditions this winter – from crazy-warm (50s?) to very cold (well below zero), multi-day snow events (around New Year’s) to gaping areas without snow. Winter means survival mode for wild animals … but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for a little fun.
Walking up out of an arroyo, Grey/Traveler surprised me by stopping for a roll. Houdini and the girls went on without him. I thought it looked a little steep, but he made it look so easy, I thought he had found a little “bench.”
About to get up … Hi, big, I’m lookin’ at you!
Terra apparently thought this was a capital idea because she came back to investigate while Grey prepared to lie down on his other side …
He didn’t give up his spot, though, so she had to find a steeper spot above him.
And down they go!
She gave it a good effort but didn’t go all the way over.
It must have felt great to both of them because they leaped up with bucks and hops …
… before heading on up the hill to join Houdini and Gemma.
After they disappeared over the top, I went over to explore and was surprised by the angle of the slope where they had rolled – definitely not flat! I’ve seen a lot of places where they’ve obviously rolled, and some spots look like “habitual” places – places they seem to know and roll on frequently. Some, I think, are just found when the mood strikes them. No doubt Terra will remember this as a good place to roll, right up the hill from what seemed to be a water source in warmer weather.
I should add that between last night and this morning, we got about 3 inches of snow on the southwest flank of the La Platas, so hopefully the basin got some snow … which means water this spring and summer! Thanks for the dances! It adds up in every sparkling flake!
But nearly full sunshine and blue!
This Grey(/Traveler) …
… and these greys (yes, Terra is going to be grey) …
… and these greys (Gemma is greying even faster than big sister Terra) …
… mama Houdini … getting to be very Alpha-like in her coloring – or lack thereof (still with grey mane and darker tail) …
… daddy Grey and his grey girls …
… those faces …
… bold grey girl checking me out when I first walked past them to the edge of the ridge to look down on Seven’s and Bruiser and Spring …
… shy Gemma …Â Almost like daddy – every time she’d look up, I’d be too slow with the camera, and she’d had gone back to grazing by the time I got positioned and focused.
North-facing slopes still have quite enough snow for heavy walking. South-facing have much less – even none. So weird to see such lack of snow … but I also remember Februarys past when I’ve driven around the basin on perfectly dry roads. At least snow is in the forecast:
*Dancedancedancewithwildabandondance*
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 