Grey | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Celebration

15 03 2009

Until I got to this point, I thought I had a lot to say about my most recent visit with the horses. Now, again, I’m speechless. The last time I was in the basin with them, I felt like I had walked into a painting, a place with the most lovely light and subjects so heavenly I could only weep with joy. The weather last weekend wasn’t so great, and I was still riding the high of the gift that was the previous weekend, so Saturday was my first visit in two weeks – it felt like forever.

Last weekend, I saw all the horses; this weekend, only the northern horses with the exception of Bounce and his girls. But – again – it was one sublime experience. It was sunny; it was cloudy. It was warm; there was a nip to the air. It was calm; it was breezy. The horses were as relaxed as I’ve ever seen them, I was the only two-legged for miles, and it was a day beyond treasure. Yes, again. I’m doing my best to spread the karma.

Piedra, Baylee and Aspen

These ponies were the first I saw, in the flats by Spring Creek where Kreacher had his girls the last time I saw them.

Hollywood

Yep, he’s still with ’em.

Bored Baylee

Leggy girl got bored watching me with the others, so she started grazing.

Come on over

I guess Hollywood thought he was being ignored, so he trotted over.

Come closer

Which, of course, made Aspen get a little closer to the girls.

Hanging out

One little happy (kinda) family.

Horses and clouds

And there they stayed while I walked back to the Jeep.

At that point, the only other four-leggeds I had seen were two cows – black and black baldy – both with tiny calves – in the valley below the water catchment, so I hooked down across Spring Creek again and up onto the road headed toward Round Top. Beyond eyesight, I caught sight of Mona, Kootenai and Kreacher way out on top of the east end of the east-west hill. Raven was out of sight. Also from the road, I spotted Grey and Houdini and Jif and the kids out toward Flat Top … and farther out between Round Top and Flat Top, Seven and his girls. I parked at Round Top and hit the trail. I decided to go find the threesome first because they were farthest away. By the time I got to the far trail, they had dropped down to the valley below the saddle.

Seven

Seven, if he was aged correctly by the contractors at the roundup, is coming on 9 this year. The wind was brisk by this time, so I dropped off the saddle on the calm side of a ridge and hunkered down where I could see the boy around the corner. I had seen the girls from the top, so I figured he’d go toward them and I could inch out to the end of the ridge and sit there and watch them. But no, he decides to walk in the opposite direction, which put him right down the hill from me – and me in plain sight. I sat there long enough in an uncomfortable position on the side of the ridge that my right leg and foot went to sleep. Ugh. Can you feel the pins and needles? It finally did wake up as I shifted weight as slowly as I could so I wouldn’t startle him. Finally he walked back toward the mares, and I could wake up my leg and move down to where I could see them all. He went behind some trees, so I went down the hill and over another, lower ridge, where I got in position among the roots of a gnarled old pinon (or juniper; I didn’t actually pay attention to which), which gave me a nice little frame to shoot through, though I was still pretty much in plain sight.

Roja, Molly and Seven

I kept thinking they’d hear my shutter click, at least, but the wind must have blown the sound away.

Seven going on 9

(Any Star Trek fans?) I think I know why Seven didn’t see me – he grazes with his eyes closed.

Molly and Roja

You can see old Molly is a bit on the thin side (she should NOT have a foal this year), and you can see just as well that pert Roja is as chubby as a fall apple (should be a baby in there).

I watched them for a bit then quietly got up and walked back up the nearest ridge to the saddle. Seven saw me and watched me walk away, but if the mares saw me, they never even looked up. Great visit with these wary ponies.

I picked up the trail to the yucky water hole to pick up the trail to the other water hole which leads on out around Flat Top. Got a yucky surprise.

Yucky from a distance

It’s almost dry! Just two weeks ago there was more water. It’s never been a big puddle, but now it’s almost just mud.

Yucky close up

There is water to the top of that awful pipe, which is jagged all around its top edge. There’s more water at the next puddle, but there’s also another pipe – under the surface of the water and also jagged. All you horse folks out there are cringing just like I was. I can’t believe a horse hasn’t stepped on or in that pipe yet and sliced his or her pastern open (good karma! good karma! good karma!). At the rate things are drying up out there … well, please help me pray for rain – or more snow. March is typically our wettest month, but it’s been dry and windy so far. No pix of the other water hole because I had put my camera back in my backpack.

When I got down (up? north) to Grey/Traveler and his band, only Jif was above the arroyo, and she was headed into it. If she saw me coming, she didn’t acknowledge me. So I waited until they came up to graze, then went down to investigate what they’re drinking. I didn’t take pix, but it will look like the picture where Bones was drinking later in the program – from muddy hoof prints. Dry, peeps; it’s damn dry out there.

Are you ever so happy, so in love, the emotion spills out of you in waves of tears? Guys, you can stop reading; I know this is the equivalent of a chick flick. Girls, am I right?

Rose-colored hills, silver stallion

Is he not gorgeous? He amazes me.

The light was crazy. Clouds were low on the southern and southwestern horizon when I got there in the morning, but during the day, they covered the sky, they parted, they played tag with the ridges and hillsides, they turned Spring Creek Basin into a painter’s canvas, and the horses moved through that light like angels. I swear to you, it was unbelievable.

Grey and rose

He came to stand at the edge of the arroyo while I stood in the bottom. He cocked a hip and listened to me ask for just a little more wild horse medicine for my friends (one of whom came through surgery last week with flying colors and a great prognosis). He stood in the wind and made my heart sing.

Grey and youngsters

The babies tried not to act very curious – Twister at left, Two Boots at right.

Twister and Traveler

A little land, a lotta sky.

Comfort

Twister, right, adores Two Boots and doesn’t mind telling her so.

Two Boots

Houdini’s daughter Two Boots will be 2 around April 21. She was born black.

Greasewood buffet

Twigs, that’s all that is. How do they get nutrition from twigs? Iya and Jif snack on twigs and look great.

Iya

Big baby girl will be 1 on April 27! She still has a glint of red in the right light, but from a distance, she looks black.

Shades of grey

Houdini and Grey/Traveler

Expectant mothers

First (that I know of) for Jif, many-th for wise girl Houdini.

Sunlight and shadow

See what I mean about that light? This is looking to the north, maybe slightly northwestish.

Youngsters

Iya, Two Boots and Twister follow the adults to the arroyo, which they crossed.

Pyramid

On the other side. I like their arrangement, even though not a one of them is paying attention to me anymore.

It was a good walk back to the Jeep from where they were, and I had spied glowing Alpha up by the roller-coaster ridge, so I walked on toward them. They were out in the open when I got to them, grazing and moseying toward-ish Round Top, with the boys bringing up the rear.

Duke and Chrome were standing together again, and Hook was a short distance ahead of them, toward the band. These boys are the remnants of the Bachelor 7. Kreacher won the new girls; Aspen hung out with Hollywood until he stole those girls; Mouse slid into Hollywood’s old lieutenant spot reporting to Steeldust; Comanche, who was with Aspen until Aspen won the girls, is sort of Mouse’s sergeant now. So Duke, Chrome and Hook stick together loosely, wandering after the big band. And they’re all still hanging out down there in the roller-coaster ridge area, probably because there’s still water in that pond. It’s shrinking like the wicked witch, but it’s the best source of water out there now – still.

Boys

Duke, left, Chrome and Hook when Hook got nervous and ran back to Duke and Chrome.

Play time

When I was walking toward them, before I had the camera out, I saw Chrome and Hook mix it up. A few minutes after Hook rejoined the boys, he and Duke had a little talk. Who’s the common denominator there? Although in this case, at least, Duke was the instigator.

Back to normal

Knife Edge getting the sunshine as I left the boys to go see the family.

Hook

Almost forgot this one of Hook. He really did have a little hook at the end of his snip once, I promise. Still has a hint of his rosy shade.

Mahogany

Looking for a mid-May baby from this gal.

Pinon

Tall, dark and cute as a bug! He’ll be 1 around May 13.

Pinon and Daddy

Steeldust was pretty content … but just wait.

Belly-rific!

Luna-girl was first to foal last year.

Ember

Old-soul girl will be 1 around April 18.

Luna and her babies

Kestrel, right, will be 2 this spring.

Storm snack

Do you see the crazy-light beauty I was blessed with?!

Storm and Alpha

Our little Storm-chaser is closing in on his 8-month birthday. Big boy.

Hey, look over there

This was immediately after Steeldust had a little chat with Comanche – a little reminder, really. Steely Dan is looking back at the bachelor boys; Comanche may be looking at deer (I saw them later).

Taking action

Comanche may have missed the message, though, because right after that, Steeldust took off after him. The butt just at the edge of the frame is Mouse’s.

Frustration

Then Steeldust left Mouse in charge of putting the point on the argument; Comanche at right.

Back again

And Steeldust moved the band back in the direction from which they had just come. (Again, that light!)

Now a little visual story:

Just walking along

Kestrel and Sundance. All looks well so far, but note the ear.

Perturbed

Now she’s feeling crowded – you know how boys can be – so Kestrel pins her ears and shakes her head at Sundance (who might, maybe be her brother).

Intervention

And that’s when mama Luna steps in.

Punishment

Swift and sure are mama’s teeth! I don’t know if you can see it in this small pic, but she actually has a hunk of hide in her teeth! I don’t know if Luna had a goal in mind, if she went for Sundance because daughter got out of the way, but it sure put an end to that mischief!

At some point while I was with the band, I had spotted Poco farther eastish, so when the band swapped directions, I went on out to say hi to P, B & R – couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Copper in a cloud of dust

Roach apparently thought I was one of the bachelors when I first approached because he came trotting out to greet me (they were some distance away but visible). I wish this photo even began to do justice to the scene, but Roach was just glowing like he was in a spotlight from the heavens. Once he realized it was me, though, he turned around and walked back to his pals.

Guardian

See them all? Bones through Roach’s legs; Poco at right.

Bones went down to get a drink, and Poco turned to watch after her.

What do you see?

Lemme tell you what I see. She’s so relaxed she’s not even looking at me while she drinks down in an arroyo (where I’m standing is low, but in front of her is a big “wall”). I see muddy water filling sandy hoof prints (this is what it looked like where Grey and family were drinking). I see a big belly … And you can see how her right hip bone sticks up.

Show is over

Just for laughs. 🙂

See ya

Soft light on the big red boy.

And that was the end of that visit. I didn’t know if Poco and Roach had been down to drink yet at that point (I didn’t think so), so I left ’em to it and headed back toward the Jeep. At this point, I was on the northeastern side of Round Top, kinda near where that weird guzzler is, if you know where that is.

When I got back up on the flattish area where the band was (flat as in no arroyos for at least 100 feet), I spotted a group of muley does and last year’s fawns moving north in front of me. They were totally backlit by the sun, and I must not have been visible to them because they had their heads down and I was “behind” a high spot in the ground. I didn’t think I’d be able to get anywhere close to them to take pix before they took off, so I kept walking. But they didn’t see me, so when I got to a shallow arroyo, I hopped the line and moved north to come out a little ahead of them.

I see you

The big girl on the left may have been an alpha doe – if deer have such rankings. She froze like a statue and didn’t take her eyes off me – and what beautiful eyes she has! She stood like that so long – and I stood like I stood so long – that most of the others got bored and went back to browsing. Finally I stepped out from behind the camera (on my monopod), and they decided that was enough of that. Looks like they wintered as well as the horses.

It took me about four hours to visit those four bands (counting the bachelors with Steeldust’s band). Had a snack when I got back to the Jeep and just rested a bit to marvel. The temperature may have inched into the lower 50s. I saw 60 once on the Jeep’s display, but I don’t believe it for a second. Cool enough for a sweatshirt; warm enough to work up an arroyo-inspired sweat. You really just have to take time to sit back and take it all in while you’re out there. It’s not all picture taking and getting from point horses to point other horses.

I spend a lot of time thinking in practical terms – how old the foals are, when which mare might foal, how dry it is, how much we need more precip – but I also spend quite a bit of time wondering how to balance all I GET from the horses with how to give back. Is it even possible? What do they want from me? What can I give them that even comes close to comparing with all they give me? So I share with them, and I share them with you, and if you take a moment in your day to thnk of them and bless their wild hearts, maybe that’s a little bit close to enough. Maybe. 🙂

Looking for Bounce and his lovely ladies, I drove the roller-coaster ridge road to where it drops off the east side, then turned around and headed back without seeing them. Driving back toward the dugout, I looked for ’em; never saw ’em. They might have been feeling crowded and gone to the east side of Knife Edge. I also looked for Kreacher and the girls as I drove along the east-west hill (I suppose it’s probably more a northwest-southeast hill), but I didn’t see them, so I had started to think they had dropped down into that little valley between Knife Edge and Lizard Mesa (I think Bounce may have been down in the eastern end of that valley, but who knows).

Bada-bing. Up ahead, split on either side of the road: Mona and Kreacher on the west side, Raven and Kootenai on the east side. Black and apricot joined dun and grey, and I found them taking in the view …

Ever so soft

The sun was heading toward the far horizon by this time, below a cloud bank. I’ve been there when the sun heads to California behind the clouds the whole way, and I’ve been there when it drops out of the clouds and floods the basin in gold so pure you wish you could bank it. Guess what happened? Just a little longer … The above pic is looking southwestish from right off the road close to the dugout intersection.

Against the fingers

Just a tiny bit east (of what I call the finger hills), really. They had decided they wanted to re-cross the road (don’t ask why the horses cross the road).

Kreacher

Mr. Big, looking all kind of handsome.

And then …

Light and light and light and grey

That light … Kreacher-feature never looked so fine!

Apricot and turquoise

Spin me a story about complementary colors, and I’ll tell you the perfect complement to a blue-bird sky is a horse wild as the wind.

And just when you want more, I have to disappoint you. Sure, I took more photos, when I remembered to hit the shutter for enjoying all that amazing light on the horses, but the horses were (are) very uncooperative, showing me mostly butts as they wandered off over the hill to graze and nap. Kreacher actually walked away out of sight! Meanwhile, the girls let ‘im go; Kootenai nibbled, and Raven and Mona stopped to enjoy the sunshine with cocked hips and closed eyes. Imagine it. … Believe me, no picture could be better than what you can imagine.

OK, one more. Just before I dropped down the last hill on the road to cross Spring Creek, guess who surprised me? I took this from near the dugout, I think, to get the background:

End of the day, laddies and lasses

Can’t end on a much better note than that, eh? 🙂

Wild horse magic! Pass it on!

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Alpha, Bones, Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Luna, Mahogany, Molly, Mona, New girls, Pinon, Poco, Raven, Roach, Roja, Seven, Steeldust, Storm

Following the magic

8 03 2009

The following photos are from my time last Sunday in Spring Creek Basin. When Grey/Traveler’s band and a stunning red-tail hawk are among the first things I see, I know it has to be a great day. And it was.

Red-tail with La Sals

Mona, Kootenai and Kreacher

Kootenai and Mona

Kreacher and Kootenai

Raven

Mona

Slim belly

Bulgey belly

Kreacher

One more Raven

Two boys, two girls

Piedra, Baylee and Aspen

Hollywood

Piedra, Baylee, Aspen, Hollywood and Filly Peak

Seven

Seven, Molly and Roja

Seven and girls at yucky water hole

Molly, Roja and Seven

Molly and Roja

Grey/Traveler and band

Napping

Traveler

Sleepy in the sunshine

Peaceful ending to a peaceful, magical weekend.

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Categories : Grey, Hollywood, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Molly, Mona, New girls, Raven, Roja, Seven

A living prayer

6 03 2009

Words are useless to describe my experiences with the horses last weekend. So I’m not going to try. It has taken me several days to even get to where I could look at the photos I took because the memories – and the emotions they evoked – are so vivid, the photos really are just aids to remember.

It’s about the horses. Always about the horses …

Reya, Copper, Spook, Ty, Kiowa

Spook and Kiowa

David and Shadow

Shadow, David and Mesa

Shadow and David watch Corazon and Mesa

Corazon, Chipeta and Mesa

Shadow and David leaving

Pinto band settling down

Bruiser and Cinch nearby

Shadow and David later

Hook, Chrome and Duke

Duke and Chrome

Steeldusts band in front of McKenna Peak

Ember and family

Mouse and Comanche in front of Brumley Point

Steeldust and Comanche

Steeldust and Hook

Mahogany

Pinon under a juniper

Luna

Ember

Storm and Alpha

7-month-old Storm

Poco

Roach

Bones

Bones and Roach

Gaia and Bounce

Alegre

Gaia and Alegre

Two Boots, Iya and Twister

Houdini

Houdini and Two Boots

Jif

Jif, Iya, Houdini and Grey/Traveler

Grey, Houdini and Two Boots

Twister and Iya

Two Boots, Grey/Traveler and Iya

Although not everyone is pictured above, only Seven’s band did not make an appearance Saturday. The pictures of the pintos, David and Shadow and Bruiser and Cinch were taken early in the morning, and the pictures of Grey’s band were taken with the last bit of sunlight and after the sun had gone behind Filly Peak. A full day of horses.

Pictures from Sunday to come …

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Categories : Alegre, Alpha, Bones, Bounce, Bruiser, Cinch, Corazon, David, Grey, Houdini, Jif, Luna, Mahogany, Mesa, Pinon, pintos, Poco, Roach, Steeldust, Storm, Ty

Guardian angels

23 02 2009

I have some friends battling cancer. One of those friends is helping her mom fight this dreadful disease, but they’re all fighting. Two of these friends are advocates for our wild horses – one has adopted several and currently has three at her house; one photographs them all over the country. One has an artist husband who expressed interest in painting wild horses from my images.

Out in the basin Saturday, in the middle of sunshine and wild, magic wild-horse medicine, I sent out a little prayer for them. Later, I realized I had just met someone who watches over the basin and the horses just as fiercely as I do – but he’s a whole lot closer and there even more. A guardian angel. A month or so ago, he gave some guys hell for four-wheeling out there, and he picked up the trash they left behind at Wildcat Spring – just as I did last hunting season. You can imagine how glad I was to meet him and know he’s a watchful pair of eyes and with the “oomph” to back up his words. (Thank you!!) I hope each of my friends battling cancer also has a guardian angel watching over them … and a little bit of wild-horse medicine to help them along the way.

Now on to the horses.

Moving forward

The first band I saw was Steeldust’s, north of Flat Top, but from the road by the water catchment, I spotted Grey/Traveler’s band almost exactly in the same little area where I had first seen them two weeks ago, tucked away on the southeast side of that little valley below the catchment. They went on the move again, but this time out into the valley and toward me. Two Boots, Houdini’s coming-2-year-old daughter, is behind Jif, so you can’t see her, but that’s the whole family. Jif on the other side of Grey, Iya with the big blaze (look how dark she is! I realized I still think of her as reddish from when she was a bright copper penny!), Twister and mama Houdini at far left.

Family portrait

Grey/Traveler went right on by me, after a pause behind a rather bare greasewood bush, and crossed a shallow ditch that later becomes a deep arroyo, but the band seemed to realize I was standing farther up along the ditch and stopped to have a look. You can see Two Boots now, between Jif and Twister. Aren’t they beautiful?!

They eventually caught up to “daddy” and moved out into the open “valley” where they settled down to graze in that gorgeous golden sunlight. I headed back to the Jeep to decide on a course of action to get out to see Steeldust’s group.

They were out northeast of the pond north of Flat Top, but when I drove up on the road that goes along the ridge to Flat Top, they were out of sight. As I was driving, though, Comanche popped up into view. I watched him through the binoculars, wondering if he was with Aspen’s group or with the band and thinking other horses might come into view. He was walking toward-ish Flat Top (not reaaalll close to the hill), so I figured at least the band was nearby. I parked at the intersection of the FT road and the “north-south” road and started loading my backpack with camera, Gatorade, etc. Guess who surprised me? Aspen, Piedra and Baylee, with Hollywood bringing up the rear, heading up the trail away (east) from the pond. You can’t see the pond from that intersection, even though it’s very close. So I thought, wow, maybe it has water after that last snowstorm. Got my gear together and headed out – the ponies were at the next ridge by then. I walked down to the pond to pick up the trail … pond still dry. It was still early, maybe 8:30 (OK, that’s early to me!), so I wondered if they were counting on water there. Piedra, for all her youth (3 or 4 – I hope 4 but maybe only 3), is lead mare now. Baylee’s still a baby at almost 2. Aspen is older, so he’ll know some of the grazing and water sources, but Piedra is relying on what she has learned in her short life to lead her band to water. Just something to think about. That pond is scheduled to be dug out later this year, but I’m not sure why it’s not holding water right now.

When I got to the next ridge, Aspen and Co. were farther along to the south, but bachelors Duke, Hook and Chrome were visible over the other side. I got to the ridge just in time to see all of them cross over and below another ridge … where I found the family.

Family

And that’s exactly what I thought when I found them – “family.” But look at their collective body language. That’s Steeldust at the rear, with his family bunched together in front of him. Look at his ears – he’s focused on the horses that just appeared from over the ridge: Aspen, Piedra, Baylee, Hollywood, Duke, Hook, Chrome, Comanche from nearby. Mouse isn’t in the picture, but as I’ve written previously, he has slid into Hollywood’s old lieutenant stallion position, and he sticks close to the band now – and Steeldust accepts him (maybe Mouse is hoping to be “rewarded” with Kestrel, like Hollywood got Piedra?!). After the horses “reunited,” they started to relax and spread out to graze.

An aside: Right before I went to the basin Friday night, I covered a high school basketball game. This is neither a compliment nor an insult, just an observation: Wild horses are a lot like teenagers. They tend to travel in groups, they have their own body language, and they know what’s being “communicated” even if no casual observer could ever understand what’s going on. The girls are watching the guys – and vice versa – even if they’re too cool to act like they are. Yeah? 🙂

Case in point

At right is baby girl Baylee. She’ll be 2 this spring. She didn’t get kicked out of her family band – I don’t think – she went of her own free will to hang out with Hollywood and Piedra. I THINK because Piedra is her big sister. Baylee is paying attention to me, but look at Piedra. She’s playing it cool with new stallion Aspen – and she’s about to be a new mama, after all. But check out her ears. She’s trying to act like she’s looking at me, but her attention is all on the boy behind her.

Ein, zwei, drei

Aspen between Baylee, top, and Piedra. The big band is just over that hill, as you can see by Steeldust’s heiny in the background. Piedra’s trying to nap, but her ears are active.

Lucky day?

Unfortunately not

Right now, Hollywood doesn’t seem to be pressing his luck. I kinda expect that to change as spring springs.

Beautiful girl

There should be a baby in that belly, and it should be Hollywood’s foal. He bred her (at least) last May 24, so we should be looking for a late April baby from Piedra.

Meanwhile, Duke, Chrome and Hook were just below the end of the ridge I was on … and not too worried.

Hey, you

This is one of my favorite photos of the day. I had been taking pictures of Aspen’s group, then realized Chrome and Hook were napping just below the ridge where I was sitting. I took some pix of their backsides – which showed Chrome with his eyes closed! – then I think he heard the shutter and looked back to see me looking at him! And that’s how I got this pic. Like a cool teenager, though, he went right back to ignoring me.

Duke

Another favorite pic. Duke was browsing even closer than the other boys, and every now and then he’d look up, then go back to grazing where I couldn’t see his face. Notice he has kind of a goofy twist to his muzzle; that’s because he kept chewing while he looked up at me. I love this grand boy dearly. I think he’s a few years older than the other bachelors, and he was one of the first to leave at the sight of a human a year ago, especially a vehicle. Now, he’s pretty calm.

Because I hadn’t seen Poco, Bones and Roach at all yet this year, I was feeling pulled to the east. The day was young and beautiful, and I have two legs. So one last view … and I headed east.

The mountain shot

What, you thought I’d leave without getting my ponies with the La Sals in the background? Hook, left, and Chrome, eyes closed.

I picked up the loop road – cattle on the east end of the east-west hill. I thought I saw Bounce, Alegre and Gaia slightly south and downhill of the cattle, but Kreacher and the mares were on the finger hills end of the hill, and I saw just Bounce later, so now I can’t remember whether I really did see all of them or not. It was just over the east side of the roller-coaster ridge road that the basin’s “guardian” drove by in a “mule” or a “gator” – one of those ATV-type buggies. He waved; I waved. I was trying to decide how far back in the back I was going to walk, and how disappointed I’d be if I walked all that way and didn’t find the boys and the girl, when he drove back. I thought he was out checking the cattle and had gotten to impassable mud (have I mentioned how incredibly dry the roads were again?) or just reached his turn-around point and was heading back toward the entrance. But he came back to ask if I wanted a ride! So I climbed aboard, he turned around, and off again we went. I told him who I was looking for by description, and he said he had seen them, but over by Flat Top, so I think he had seen Seven’s band – grey, bay and sorrel. Poco’s band: also grey, bay and sorrel but exact opposite genders!

Darned if we didn’t spot them, in the little “meadow” area right by the double ponds – and would you believe both those ponds have water?! He let me off so I could go take pix while he went on up the road to check for cattle.

Found

Ponies first. Poco in front, Bones at left and Roach at right. Poco was looking so handsome in the sunlight, with his thick winter coat looking very reddish. Look at HIS belly! They’re doing well.

Double pond No. 1

This is the pond closest to the road. You can see that it’s really shallow by the mud in the foreground. The “skim” you see on the water in the background is ice. The morning started out fairly cold – 18 degrees at 7:30 a.m. The “back” pond seemed to have more water (it went dry first last year), and it also had quite a bit more snow around the edges; it sits close to a bend in the arroyo (is that Spring Creek?) with a tall “cliff wall” behind it, but it was all in the sunshine when I was there mid-morning.

Bones with a belly

Does she just look really good … or could she be pregnant? I have to admit my first thought is to be a little scared. If she’s pregnant, will she be able to deliver the foal? Will it survive delivery … will she?? She seemed uncomfortable and kept shifting her weight.

Front view

The compression factor of a long lens can make even a stallion look “pregnant,” but at least she’s no longer “bones” thin!

I headed back to the road, and a minute or two later, there was the guardian with the mule again. Hey, I could get used to such service! We had a really great conversation, and I rode with him back around the loop where he pointed out Bounce, on top of the east end of the east-west hill, seemingly alone. But based on his body language, I’m pretty sure Alegre and Gaia were just out of sight on the other side of the hill. We also passed Kreacher, Raven, Mona and Kootenai up on the finger hills end. Went up north and east around the loop, and we talked about the guys he had to pick up after at Wildcat Spring after they were out four-wheeling. See what I mean about being glad he’s out there? He drove me all the way back to my Jeep – thank you! (Did I mention how dry the road was …)

It was only around 1 p.m. by then, so I decided to drive to the base of Round Top so I could hike out to the saddle and have a look. Thought I might get lucky and see Seven’s or Cinch and Bruiser and/or David and Shadow … maybe even the pintos way off to the south. Driving over, I spotted a horse on the far end of the saddle between the Tops and thought it might have been Molly or Roja, so I took off hiking – and encountered the only real mud I had to deal with all day on the northwest side of Round Top – of course. I should say that even though there was more snow in the basin than two weeks ago, the ground was still mostly dry, and I couldn’t believe how dry the road was.

Peek-a-boo

When I came out to the trail that runs along that far ridge and eventually down to the pond (still dry), I spotted Seven and Molly down in a drainage on the southwest side (west-southwest) but didn’t see Roja. I took the trail south to where I could see down to the pond and farther down into the WSA but didn’t see any other horses. I also scanned up to the northwest – the hill that runs up behind the corral – but didn’t spot anybody up there, either. So I hiked down so I was a ridge over from Molly and Seven’s drainage. Molly was grazing just enough below the far ridge that I could see her back, but she didn’t look up. Seven was farther down the hill, behind some trees. So when I got to the top of my ridge, I finally spotted Roja, napping under a tree up the drainage like Molly likes to do, and I sat down to watch them. It was really nice by then, but a light breeze had picked up. The above pic is when Molly finally saw me. She went back to grazing but started moving down toward Seven – very calm for her.

Waiting

Here they both see me – still sitting on my ridge, wide out in the open. Seven’s looking back up the drainage for Roja.

They went down a little farther …

Chub

… and finally Roja burst up over the ridge and went flying down to join them. Roja is not subtle. 🙂

Seven and his girls

All calm on the western front, not far from where they started. I do expect Roja to foal this spring; Molly got the PZP so she should NOT foal.

Back around Round Top to the Jeep, where I promptly shed my clothes that had gotten too warm – and my boots, which had gotten muddy – and changed into jeans and my muddy (at least they were dry) hiking shoes. Ahh. By then, I was comfortable in just a long-sleeve T-shirt – gorgeous!! Although, to appease the weather gods … seriously unnatural for February! Please snow more!

When I got back up to the finger hills, a group of cattle were down by the creek, but I didn’t see Kreacher and the girls, who had earlier been very visible higher up. So I went across Spring Creek (dry crossing) and north at the intersection so I could look back down the arroyo “valley.” Sure enough, Kreacher and the girls were on the “flats” on the road side of the creek, close enough to the hill that I couldn’t see them from the road above. Because they were so close to the road, I decided to go back and see them. There are a bunch of “deadwood” pinon/juniper trunks down there along with debris from a flood at some point in the past. No growing trees – where did they come from? But they make good viewing benches. The cattle were more worried about me walking down the hills than the horses (sorry about that), and they all started to bunch up and move up the hill (but only 2-3 of the 21 actually walked on up to the very top of the hill); the girls weren’t concerned at all, and Kreacher barely gave me a glance (cool kid).

Hey howdy

Kootenai, left, Raven, Mona and Kreacher behind.

Special Ks

Kootenai and Kreacher with the cattle in the background on the finger hills. We were very close to the dugout intersection.

Sweet K

Kreacher and Mona were sticking close to each other, but they all seem very comfortable with each other.

Boy with girls

There’s the “tail” end of what I call Lizard Mesa in the background. It really doesn’t end there; it goes down to a ridge or saddle, then up to another hill, then down to another ridge/saddle and another hill before tapering off to that valley southwest of the northeastern part of the loop road.

I mentioned that Kreacher and Mona were staying close to each other while I watched them, and I wanted to mention a little more about the dynamics in this band. Raven is still protective of Mona and will pin her ears at Kootenai if she gets too close. BUT Kootenai can make Mona scramble away if Raven’s not close enough. So Raven outranks Kootenai, but Kootenai outranks Mona?

Que mona

Cute girl found this branch (one of the dead trunks lying around) irresistable to scratch an itch she may not have had until she passed it and found it at perfect cheek height (you can see her checking it out in the photo above this one).

Getting late in the day then. The ponies ambled upstream while I sat on my log and thought about my friends battling terrible cancer. When the horses had disappeared from sight, I followed one of their trails to the top of the hill and back to the road. On my way out, I spotted a mini van (??) turning around, possibly on the road to Flat Top. It’s dry out there, but a mini van? By the time I got through the “V” arroyo and up where I could see again, the van was heading out on the far side of the basin. It always makes me a little suspicious of what people are doing out there if they don’t stop to talk and share their experiences, so if you’re out there and you see my red Jeep, please talk to me! I’d love to hear you talk about the horses you saw!

Spotted Grey and his band – actually spotted his band first; took a little while to see him follow them out – farther down the valley below the catchment. I pulled over to watch … then wanting to see my boy got the best of me, and I hiked out. The gorgeous sunshine had disappeared into a haze of low clouds just between visiting with Kreacher and the girls and getting to the valley, and I could feel the temperature of the air cooling. But it was still in that beautiful space of perfection, so I took one last hike of the day to see my favorite boy.

Jif and Twister

Houdini, Iya and Two Boots were farther up (down?) the valley, but these two were lagging behind, and daddy Grey was there to supervise. I loved the soft light on their shoulders – the clouded sun was not even a hand’s width above the far ridge by this time – and loved their closeness. The hill in the near background is the hill above the corral. The dark (trees) hill in the far background with the snow is beyond the county road (and beyond the herd area).

Playing favorites

He’ll always be my favorite. I was interviewed last week by a beautiful little girl named Erin for a school project about mustangs. Her last question was if I had a favorite wild horse. Well, of course I do. 🙂 And this is why you see me call him Grey, even though his official name is Traveler (and I try to call him that, too). I’ve called him Grey since early on (2003?), and he is my beautiful silver boy.

All the horses belong to all of us, of course. And, I think, a little bit of us belongs to all of them. In that way, we’re surely surrounded by angels.

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Bones, Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Jif, Kreacher, Molly, New girls, Poco, Roach, Roja, Seven, Steeldust

Before the snow …

8 02 2009

The weather forecasters were raining (and snowing) on my parade since about Thursday, after we’d had decidedly atypical Colorado February weather the past couple of weeks. After being sick last weekend and deciding to wait till this weekend to visit Spring Creek Basin, come hell, high water or a Johnny-come-lately snowstorm, I was heading north to get some face time with the ponies!

You’ll forgive me, again, I hope, for saying – again – what a beautiful day was my most recent visit (Saturday). The weather was undeniably gorgeous (61 degrees?!), and I had the opportunity to sit with three bands while they napped and grazed. I didn’t sit with Kreacher and the girls, but they were so interested in the cattle and a Suburban they all but ignored me as I stood nearby in the early morning sunlight during our visit.

Roach and the gang remain elusive, but I haven’t gone searching for them in their back-of-beyond favored territory. Did see the pintos from afar, and Seven’s, also way off yonder, still between the Tops. Didn’t see David and Shadow, Bruiser and Cinch. Pix of everyone else are but a downward scroll away.

Three girls and a boy

The cattle – a lot of them/most of them? – are up in the area near the entrance and west of the catchment. They have less than a month remaining of their time in the herd area, so I wonder if the ranchers have moved them closer in preparation for moving them out to the private property outside the herd area. When I drove in – the road was remarkably dry, by the way – I saw lots and lots of cattle … and one little grey non-cow-looking object: Kreacher, up on a little ridge, watching the cows go by. I parked by the water catchment to hike out to them, but from the road before I parked, I saw Grey (Traveler) and his band almost tucked away behind a little hill across the “valley” south of the catchment. It’s always a great day when I see my boy! The above pic of the girls and Kreacher was taken from a little ridgetop trail that basically goes from the water troughs at the catchment toward the pond just off the road to the trap site.

Look at the weird cows!

From left, Mona, Raven, Kootenai and Kreacher. Mona and Kreacher were shy this day, but none of them were so interested in me as they were in those cattle!

Sunshine nap

The girls must think it’s quite normal to have weirdo the two-legged (that would be me) around at random intervals. They don’t seem to be bothered by me in the least. Here’s Raven, getting some of her 40 winks. Hope that’s just belly fat?! She’s healthy, anyway!

Fuzzy horse

I love how fuzzy and furry she is! All the horses were fuzzy as can be, so I’m sure they know in their wild bones that winter is not quite over, despite the warm temperatures we’ve enjoyed lately.

Next stop: Traveler’s band. But when I walked down to where they had been, they weren’t there! I spotted them up on the ridge, probably on or close to the doubletrack that goes to Flat Top and the pond. I’m not sure if they had water on their minds, but when I reached the ridge top, they were walking a diagonal back slightly toward me. I thought they might be going toward the Spring Creek arroyo, so I went back to the Jeep and braved the V arroyo (did I mention how dry the road was?), then turned on the “north-south” doubletrack. By the time I got that far, they had crossed that road and had slowed down to graze. When it looked like they weren’t going to make a beeline to water, I parked and walked out toward them.

Blue ridges

Conventional photography wisdom says “shoot with the light at your back.” This isn’t directly shot into the light – but close. We had some high, thin clouds during the day – mostly sunny, but sometimes a heavy enough cloud would cross the path of the sun and turn the sky cloudy. Whatever combination of light was going on here, I happen to like how the photo turned out of dun Jif and dark grey Two Boots! That’s Knife Edge in the distance.

Houdini

She’s still not too sure about me. Lucky for me, she tolerates her stallion’s tolerance for this two-legged!

Grazing

When it became clear they were going to settle down to the business of eating, I angled around the other side of them – and got a white sky for my troubles. Ha.

Little boy, big girl

Twister (back) will be a 2-year-old this year (along with Two Boots), but this orphan is still a little guy. Iya (front) will be a yearling the end of April.

The boys

Twister and Traveler don’t seem to mind being the only boys in the family.

Le petite Jif

Is there a baby in that belly?! She didn’t have a foal last year (and wasn’t gathered), so as far as I know, this will be her first baby.

From my visit with Kreacher and the girls, I spotted horse-ant dots against the very same hill where I found Steeldust’s band a few weeks ago, and if you can believe it, I drove out to the loop road, parked a little northwestish of the old enclosure and hiked out to them. The road, if I haven’t been clear, was unbelievably dry. I thanked my lucky stars, but that’s just not right in February! (The stars held off, for whatever reason, and it’s snowing here now – Sunday.)

But when I got close enough to see their hill, all I saw were Bounce and Gaia, close together, and Alegre a short distance away. That baby girl loves her daddy (not really her sire)! But by the time I started hiking, there wasn’t a horse to be seen – except, in the other direction, Seven and Molly up against Round Top. Off I went.

All the trails I’ve learned in the basin are the result of walking out to the horses – whether directly from the Jeep or on a long walkabout loop. What I always find interesting is finding a trail for the first time, then having it become familiar because the horses are suddenly hanging out somewhere. It was like deja vu walking back out to that hill, even though I couldn’t actually see any horses at that point. This was also the point a few weeks ago when I found out Aspen had stolen Piedra and Baylee from Hollywood. I walked up the ridge where Duke had walked to join Chrome and Hook that day, then followed the little diagonal trail to the top of another ridge, which I had gone up on last time to look over the other side …

The first ponies I saw were Duke, Chrome and Hook. Then Bounce, Alegre and Gaia between the boys and Steeldust’s band. Then, running toward Steeldust’s band from the left – Hollywood and Comanche, hot on the heels of Aspen, Piedra and Baylee! Weird timing, but I don’t think they had seen me because I hadn’t seen any horses and approached from the wide open. They must have been just around the end of that hill/ridge I was on.

Bachelors

Alegre, Gaia and Bounce – top – ran for the opening between the bachelors and the big band, then the bachelors – Duke, Chrome and Hook – went toward the band.

So close

Then Bounce’s band sort of stopped to watch Hollywood challenge Aspen to get “his” mares back. They were totally oblivious to Bounce and his mare and foal. Piedra galloped toward the band with Baylee right with her. At one point, Hollywood actually got between the mares and Aspen, but re-claiming his mares was not to be, and they remain Aspen’s mares!

Sorting it out

At left, you can see grey Piedra and Baylee (big star, strip and snip) with Aspen (star) behind them. Hollywood is in the middle, torn between them and Comanche and Mouse – you can see their matching grey-brown butts behind Steeldust toward the right; Mouse is the right of those butts, trying to cut Comanche (the left butt) away from the band.

Eventually, they all ran out into the open, away from Knife Edge. I waited on my ridge until they got everybody separated and ran out of steam, then went down toward the end of Knife Edge. I had seen Bounce and family earlier this year but from a great distance – no pix – so they were my goal. Except that when I got down to where I could see the horses out in the open starting to settle down and graze, Bounce was nowhere to be seen. Alegre seems to favor that little “valley” between Knife Edge and Lizard Mesa as a sort of escape route (from either direction), so I figured they’d go that way. Sure enough, from one of the trails that goes up over that “flank” of Knife Edge, I could see Bounce, Alegre and Gaia, also seemingly settled down and grazing.

Bounce is pretty tolerant of me, so I walked slowly up and over until he saw me, then stopped so he could recognize me. What a boy. He’s one of my favorites because he’s so smart and laid back. He’s been around the block, you might say, and he doesn’t waste energy where it’s not needed, and thankfully, he apparently doesn’t see me as something to waste energy over! Alegre and Gaia were walking slowly eastish, grazing as they went. I came down the hill so Bounce could see me through the trees and waited. He looked toward Alegre and the baby a few times, but he just cocked a hip and otherwise stood looking at me. Hmm. That shady side of Knife Edge was still soupy from melting snow (the most snow I’d seen still in the basin), so I didn’t really want to walk through the mud when it had been such easy – dry – walking, and I didn’t want to go after Alegre and Gaia and thus get between them and Bounce. If I had done that, I figured Bounce would go running toward them, and they’d all take off. So I found a nice little boulder on Bounce’s sunny side and sat down to see what happened.

At some point, Alegre must have realized Bounce wasn’t following her, so she came back to him. Did Bounce know she would come back?! Or did he just figure he and I were fine alone, together? Oh, I try not to anthropomorphize … but it’s hard NOT to wonder what they’re thinking!

Baby loves mama!

One of my favorite mares … one of my favorite babies (though I can’t really say I have a least-favorite baby!?). And another little belly. Gaia was born around April 22, so around that time is when I expect Alegre’s next baby. Hey, if the politicos and football talkers can speculate, so can I!

Faces

Three of my favorites. 🙂

One more

Can’t have too many pix of this beautiful little family.

Wild black stallion

Lizard Mesa and the east pocket in the background.

Alegre finally got tired of ignoring me, so she sauntered off back up the valley (you can just barely see her and Gaia above “Spring” and the “C” in Creek). I took a few more looks back at the boy as I left, then he stretched and moseyed on after them! No energy wasted in the observation of this human!

Disappearing ponies seemed to be a theme of the day because when I went back over the flank of Knife Edge to see Steeldust’s band and head back to the Jeep, they were all gone! But it was about midday, time for a drink. Mouthfuls of snow weren’t readily available like they had been until recently. I figured if I waited long enough, I’d see them pop up out of Spring Creek. When I waited long enough to amend that thought to “… if they haven’t already popped up and gone up the hill and over the road and out of sight,” they appeared. Stinkers. I’m not privy to their timetable, of course.

Midday nap

By the time I crossed “the big open” and picked up a trail to the arroyo and up the hill and made it up to them, it was time for their midday nap (not to be confused with the equally important mid-morning nap). From right to left, Butch, Storm, Alegre, Kestrel, Pinon, Mahogany (and Sundance’s back), Steeldust, Luna and napping Ember at the very left edge of the picture. Filly Peak in the distance. They were just a hop, skip and a jump from the loop road here. I sat with the ponies for quite a while and enjoyed every peaceful minute.

Outcast

Aspen sandwiched between Baylee, left, and Piedra. Hollywood at right.

Windblown

The wind picked up at some point mid- to late morning and started blowing with a vengeance. Even so, it was never cold. I love how the wind is blowing tendrils of Chrome’s tail. That’s Hook at left. Duke was a short distance farther to the left. I noticed when I first saw this pic that Hook’s snip-hook seems to have faded right away as he gets a little more grey. Chrome’s face looks really white from a distance, but here you can still see the outline of his blaze.

Convenient chin rest

There’s good baby Storm (almost 6 months old!) letting “uncle” Butch rest on his back.

Show me the love

I wish I knew the exact relationship of these look-alikes. Brothers? Surely. Twins? Who knows?? Butch, right, tries to give Sundance a little nuzzle, but SunnyD is suspicious of his motives …

Gotcha!

… For good reason!

Lover boy

Steeldust was looking for a little romance, but Luna shot him down.

New season

If you had a belly like that, you probably wouldn’t be up for much romancin’, either! Ember was the first foal last year, likely born April 18 or April 19. Pinon, in the background, was born around May 13, right before last year’s count by the Four Corners Back Country Horsemen. The count is May 16 this year. All the babies seem to be weaned (except Storm). I saw Luna, Mahogany and Alegre raise a hind leg, pin ears, nip or just walk away when the babies even thought about sneaking a slurp (I didn’t see Iya even try).

Luna and Ember

Being weaned doesn’t mean the “old” babies don’t still get comfort from mamas, though.

Pinon and his mama

Can’t help but look ahead a year or so when it will be time for Steeldust to kick last year’s babies out of his band to start their lives with new families – a new stallion or a group of bachelor buddies.

Wild world

I’m a sucker for taking pix of the ponies with the La Sal Mountains in the background, in case no one has noticed. Big girl Kestrel will be 2 this year – same age as Baylee, who already has left the band.

That old wind was fierce, and I had had such a great day (saw Seven again, and Roja) that I decided to head home, glad the snow held off for one more day. It was pretty nice to be able to drive in as far as I did, which enabled me to do a few short hikes as opposed to one great big one, but I’ll be the first to make a wish for more snow. The pond by Flat Top, which dried up early last year, like the one south of Round Top, is still dry so far – like the RT pond. We need more moisture for the coming dry months.

Thanks, ponies, for our time in the sun!

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Alegre, Alpha, Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Jif, Kreacher, Luna, Mahogany, New girls, Pinon, Steeldust, Storm

Mountain magic

22 01 2009

Go never to the wild with an agenda … If you’re silly enough to go with an agenda, be prepared to abandon it immediately.

That is a lesson I learned early on, and it continues to hold true. As late as driving along the herd area on the county road Sunday morning, I had one mission but no agenda. I had an idea where I wanted to park and hike in – not my favorite hike-in spot – but that idea was quickly abandoned when I happened to spot a white spot among white snow spots: the pintos. Hit reverse, back to my spot, through the fence and onward.

When you’re given horses, never ignore the gift.

Sharing snow

The pinto girls and boy and their solid pals were below the bench that runs around the west side of their hill, grazing lazily in the sunshine. In this photo, Kiowa and Copper shared a patch of snow. Check out Copper’s expression.

Chipeta and admirers

Front to back: Corazon, Chipeta and Ty. I don’t quite understand the dynamics of this non-traditional family, but it makes for fun watching. Copper definitely seems to be back in charge, but he tends to leave Chipeta to her own devices. She’s a bit of a coquette, I think. If they get too close, she pins her ears warns them away. It’s a little dance they do.

Mesa and the girls

We scared up some deer, and the horses walked on up to the top of the hill. Chipeta caught up to Kiowa, and Mesa paused to check me out before moseying out to lead the line.

I headed toward Round Top with the particularly vague idea of hiking to the summit to survey the area. At 10 a.m., the ground was still frozen. By at least 10:45 a.m., the thaw was well under way. Good thing I didn’t really want to march up the Top because I spotted horses out on the hill where the pinto band was last weekend.

Four horses total. Two together, Bruiser a little farther away and … David? By himself? Uh oh. The two horses together were Cinch and Shadow. Luckily, they waited until I hiked out to them to start the fireworks. (David saw me, but the others didn’t until after the show.)

I said no!

Cinch got frisky, but yearling (actually, she’ll be 2 this spring) Shadow wasn’t willing to accept him, so she ran from him, occasionally firing a half-hearted kick at his chest.

Go away!

Right after this, they suddenly stopped and started grazing (as best they could through the snow). David was right above them, watching them and me, and I thought Shadow might walk right up to him. But she didn’t. He finally turned around and went back down his side of the hill. Finally Bruiser noticed me, then Cinch, then Shadow. THEN she walked up the hill to David, and normalcy was restored.

Some magic

They trotted down the hill toward an arroyo, then up the other side toward Round Top.

Another sort of chase

David finally had enough of Cinch being close to his girl and lunged at him. This was across the arroyo. They all trotted away together.

I continued on up toward Round Top, hiking past the pond on the way. Dry. Not even any snow in the bed of the pond. There’s a trail that goes up to the ridge on the southwest side of the saddle between the two Tops, which I’m starting to call the saddle trail. From there, I spotted, way off yonder in the amazingly far distance, what looked like Grey/Traveler’s band. I could pick out a grey – him or Houdini – and what looked like Twister.

Sleepy Seven

Look who I found napping in the sunshine closest to Round Top. He was sort of uncharacteristically calm; I couldn’t believe he watched me while lying down. At first, I saw just him and Roja – grazing nearby – and was really looking around for old-girl Molly.

Sleepy Molly

When I finally saw her, I realized that while focusing on Seven and Roja, I had walked right by Molly, who was napping under a tree, one of her habits. She looked at me for a minute, then seemed to realize that I was closer to her family than she was and trotted on back to them. Seven got to his feet and stretched, then started nickering to Molly, but it was a little odd – more like a colt nickering to his mother than a stallion nickering to his mare. I know that sounds weird, and it was.

Roja and Molly

These girls are close. I think Molly could be Roja’s dam.

Seven and his girls

Once they reunited, they didn’t go far, but I headed back up to the trail. I was glad to see these ponies.

After I saw Seven and the girls, I was pretty sure the far horses were, indeed, Traveler’s band, but they were way up to the northwest, and my Jeep was way back to the southwest. Because of the snow and mud and what promised to be a long walk not only to where the band was but then back to the Jeep, I decided to walk back to the Jeep, then drive up to the corral and hike from there.

Under the mountains

The horses ended up being even farther along the hill above the corral than I thought. That’s Filly Peak sloping up to the right. Two Boots looking at me, Twister behind her, Houdini grazing, and Iya in front of her.

Houdini

Mama Houdini. Random thought from the day: She should be about three months from foaling.

Traveler

Handsome boy.

Horses, mountains

See the fence in the background? Behind the horses. That’s the boundary fence that eventually runs down to the county road. I’ve never been that close to that fence.

Bliss

The promised image of Traveler enjoying a bite of snow. He really seemed to enjoy it!

Backside of Filly Peak

Twister, Traveler and Jif with the southwest side of Filly Peak in the background.

Jif

Jif should have Traveler’s foal this spring, too.

Family

A final look of the day at the ponies.

I took my time walking back across the hill and down to the Jeep, savoring the day and letting my tiredness catch up to me. The weather was particularly gorgeous; for January, it was nothing less than amazing. My mission of the day, by the way, was to find Grey. Fabulous day.

We’re supposed to get some snow in the next few days, so I won’t be making a trip to the basin this weekend. But I will be taking a trip to the Browning Ranch in Farmington, N.M., which acts as a holding facility for wild horses rounded up and removed from (at least) the Carson National Forest. Claude Steelman, photographer and author of the excellent book Colorado’s Wild Horses, adopted a yearling colt from the Carson and took him home last Thanksgiving. I’m going to meet up with Claude there and see what’s what.

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Bruiser, Cinch, Corazon, David, Grey, Houdini, Jif, Mesa, Molly, pintos, Seven, Ty

Bachelor no more

13 12 2008

What that really means is the new girls have found a beau! David Glynn, who was out both Saturday and Sunday last weekend, emailed this week to say he saw the girls Sunday with “companions.” Wow! They got pushed down out of the hills by the cattle, and that’s how they came to mingle. I could tell you the name of this less famous “Bachelor” (he’ll never make it on the more famous show), but I’m going to mimic my own suspense and keep you waiting (or you could cheat and scroll all the way to the bottom).

A big snow storm (it’s supposed to last until about Thursday) is headed our way, but I wanted to get out to the ponies one last time before I head south for the winter holidays. Two weeks ago when I went out, the road was muddy enough that I parked at the corrals and hiked in – but while the ground was “soft,” it wasn’t really muddy. This time, the road was perfectly dry to drive in on, but the rest of the ground was slick, slippery, gooey … absolute mud. And snow was still in patches all over the place. The wild thing was that if you looked south, the landscape looked all white and wintry, but if you looked north, it looked the same golden brown as usual – the pattern of snowmelt.

Steeldust and his band were out southeast of the pond close to the entrance, so I parked just down the road to the old trap site and hiked out. I realized pretty soon that the quality of the basin road would deteriorate between the high ground just in from the entrance and the shady side of Filly Peak, so I decided to leave the Jeep and do another walkabout. Naturally, the bachelor-formerly-known-as … ha, thought you had me, eh? Anyway, the boy had the girls waaaaay out on the northeastish side of Round Top, and I had to wait that long to see them, so you’ll just have to wait.

In the meantime, I had a really great visit with the babies (particularly) in Steeldust’s band. Remember on my walkabout two weeks ago, muddy Ember was chasing everybody around? Turnabout’s only fair in play, and this time, it was Storm who was little Mr. Ornery.

Storm, Kestrel, Ember and Sundance

One of the funniest things about this picture is the fact that Kestrel and Sundance barely moved from these positions the whole time I was there, despite all the young energy swirling around them.

So worried

Ember was so concerned about me walking toward them that she actually laid down a few seconds after I took the the first pic.

World view

A wider view to show the background … Note the stealthy approach of a wee baby brother …

Play with me, please?

Zoomed back in – do you see that Storm has a leg over Ember’s neck?

Mmmm, ears taste good!

By this time, Ember may have been regretting her assault on Storm a couple of weeks ago … He chewed and chewed and chewed – her ears (both), her forelock, her face, her neck …

Enough!

Until she couldn’t stand it anymore! So much for taking a nap.

Hiding

But of course Storm wasn’t out of potential playmates. Just to the right, Luna was napping on her feet while Steeldust grazed (Mouse was even farther right) and Pinon tried to go unnoticed.

Wanna play?

Not having much luck with big sis, Storm tried his luck with big brother Pinon.

Tastes like colt

Notice Sundance there on the right.

Who, us?

Notice now that Pinon managed to get away from Storm and hid behind bigger brother Sundance, who became a protector without moving a step.

Leave me alone

But moments later, Storm was at him again.

Protect me!

Mama, Storm won’t leave me alone!

Intermission

Might as well take advantage.

Me, too

So Storm decided it was a good time to find HIS mama. But about a second after I took this shot, Butch walked up and parked himself right in front of them. Then Pinon became fair game again …

Sisters

Sweet girls, but notice the drama in the background.

Ember and Luna

Have I mentioned that the babies still all seem to be nursing?

Aww

Little sisters ARE good for something … like when you have an itchy face.

Mouse

Mouse seems to have given up on Piedra and slid into Hollywood’s position as Steeldust’s lieutenant. He has stayed with the band even while the other bachelors have split up recently. (And now you know it’s not Mouse who has the girls!)

Snow queen

Lovely Alpha is the color of snow.

Steeldusts band

Only Alpha and Mouse are missing from this “family portrait” of Steeldust’s band. (The wordpress program doesn’t like apostrophes in photo captions.)

Baby faces

Another zoomed in view of the youngsters – you can just see Pinon’s ears in the background.

Three of the bachelors were close, so I went to see them, thinking that Hollywood and his girls and the missing bachelors and possibly the new girls were just out of sight over the hill.

Still bachelors

Duke, Hook (back) and Chrome maintain their bachelor status. Points to you if you know the remaining three bachelors!

But Hollywood and the others weren’t over the hill or beyond the next ridge. In fact, from the top of a hill above Spring Creek, I could see a lot of country but no other horses. Because I had seen a lot of horses recently in the Flat Top-Round Top area, I decided to walk on out there to see what I could see.

I hit the road just before the first Spring Creek crossing and walked it all the way to the base of Round Top. It was really muddy, snowy, slightly less muddy and snowier in spots, and I think my trusty hiking shoes are toast (Santa, are you reading?).

I finally spotted a group of five horses between the road and Flat Top, but I thought I was looking for a group of nine horses, and Grey/Traveler and his band were in that area last week, and though the horses were darkish, I thought that could have been because of the weak light, mud and/or a horse out of sight below a ridge. I thought it would be too easy to find Hollywood – and the new mares – that quickly. So of course it was Hollywood, Piedra and Baylee … and two bachelors. Guess who?

They were far enough off the road, and I was far enough from a good view of the area around Round Top, and the mud was such a deterrent, that I decided not to go down and take pictures of them. Onward.

Bounce and Gaia came into view next – they were near the roller-coaster ridge pond. Dark Alegre was close by. For the same reasons as above – and one other – I decided not to go down to them, either.

That “other” reason is that I had spotted – through the binocs – the dun girls up in the trees on the east side of Round Top! Just call me a horse-findin’ fool.

By this point, I knew who had the girls because of the bachelor missing from Hollywood’s group (and you all peeked, I know you did!), but oddly enough, I never actually saw him until I got almost to them.

Pretty girls

These girls are smart. They already know me, so they weren’t worried at all when I came into view from the trail around the north side of Round Top. That makes me feel really good!

Fuzzy!

The apricot dun mare – look at her gorgeous winter coat! It was so still when I arrived in the basin that morning that I noticed it as soon as I stepped out of the Jeep. It’s always so windy out there, when it’s NOT, it’s a noticeable absence. You can HEAR the silence. But at almost 1:30 on the nose, the wind suddenly picked up out of the south-southwest. It was just above freezing when I arrived, and the Jeep showed 42 degrees when I got back, but I was plenty warm while walking. I spent enough time being still with the mares and their boy that I started to get cold, and I was envious of their thick coats!

Lovelies

Are you dying to know?! I know you all cheated and scrolled down, but drum roll, please ….

Who, me?

Kreach-a-licious!

Knock me over with a feather. Kreacher was low man on the Bachelor 7 totem pole, but he’s the only one I know of that actually had a band previously (Molly and Roja, with Seven now), so maybe that helped him. He is not what I call an outstanding stallion, and his personality is so laid back as to be prone on the ground, but I have become fond of him this past year. He did NOT act like a stallion when I showed up, but I’m unsure whether to attribute that to him knowing me and being comfortable with me, too, or being timid. The mares still interacted with each other (black mare still kind of poopy toward the apricot dun but not quite as much as before), but although they didn’t seem to mind Kreacher’s presence, they pretty much ignored him. (I’m sure they got a lot of the “get to know you” out of their systems in the past week together.) Another un-stallion-like behavior of his is that he stayed behind them almost the whole time; he never came up front to “protect” them. Again, because he knows me or something else? The only time he was closest to me was after they had passed me on their way up to the “saddle” and I crossed behind them back toward the trail and he just happened to be in back, and thus, closest.

Peace and hope to you and yours

I wish all of you a very merry Christmas and all the best in the coming year. I hope it’s as full of joy and wild beauty for you as the past year has been for me.

Grey/Traveler and his band showed up on the northwest side of Flat Top as I made my way back to the Jeep. Steeldust and his band and hangers-on had moved to the other side of Spring Creek, so I was glad I had my earlier visit with them. It was a very long walkabout (about 5.5 hours) and well worth every minute!

Amazing

The day was solidly cloudy … until the very last moments of sunset. As I was driving up the curvy-curvy road out of the Dolores River canyon, the above view stopped me in my tracks – literally. If you’ve been on that road, you know the view begs for a pullout (or five), but there aren’t really many good places to stop and get off the road. So don’t tell the authorities, but I pretty much just stopped in my lane and pointed the camera out the window.

Basin glow

Besides the (fading) glow, do you recognize what makes this view so significant? That’s the home of my ponies out there underneath that glowing sky. At the almost-very-far-right is that prominent, unnamed peak you can see from almost anywhere in the basin. Pretty beautiful, eh?

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Alpha, Bachelor 7, Grey, Hollywood, Kreacher, Luna, Mahogany, New girls, Pinon, Steeldust, Storm

The cattle are in

8 12 2008

Holiday teaser

Who wouldn’t think “Christmas card” when they saw this scene? Bones, Poco and Roach.

If we don’t get snow to stick on the ground before I need to get my Christmas greetings in the mail, you’ll see something similar to the above photo as my Christmas wish to all of you before the holidays! (Of course, as I type this post, it’s snowing like crazy – and it’s sticking.)

The biggest change to the basin this weekend is that our bovine winter visitors are back in town (so to speak). The cows are in from Dec. 1 until the end of February.

Moo

This photo was taken near the first crossing of Spring Creek and is looking to the north-northwest. I saw other groups up in the north hills (where I did NOT see the new mares this past weekend), and there was a group east of the finger hills.

Several groups were in the area of Flat Top and Round Top again. Bounce and his lovely ladies were on the north side of the roller-coaster ridge. Grey/Traveler and his band were between the loop road and Flat Top. Seven and his girls were up at the base of Flat Top. Hollywood and his girls and a few of the bachelors were closer to Round Top, but I couldn’t see any of the main family band. I saw for sure later that they had separated – Steeldust and his band were up at the yucky puddle between the Tops, but I didn’t see them the first time I saw the other horses. Through the binocs, I thought I saw Shadow or David between the Tops … but I can’t confirm. Saw a lone dark horse to the east past Round Top that I finally identified as Poco, but Bones and Roach didn’t come into view until I hiked out to them. I lost a green Camelbak bottle last winter while I was hiking out there in the snow (remember when Seven had Houdini, Two Boots and Twister?), and the threesome was in that general area where I thought I lost it, so I decided to hike out to see them. (I never need much of an excuse to go visit those ponies!)

Have you ever wondered if Bones could lie down – even roll – with her healed, fractured pelvis? I have, and I was wondering that again just recently. Would you believe she cooperated and showed me she absolutely can?

Rolling Bones

Too bad I couldn’t divine the future from the way the “Bones” settled … 🙂 One reason I like Bones so much is her pluck. She looked so skinny last year, I named her thinking she wouldn’t make it through the winter. Not only did she survive, she has flourished!

The eagle and the raven

I call the ravens Heckle and Jekyll indiscriminately. They heckle me; I try to get them to help me find horses. None of us is very cooperative (!). While I was photographing P, B & R, a golden eagle soared low down an arroyo close by, then rose into the air in ever-ascending spirals. I guess I feel better that I’m not the only subject of Heckle’s heckling. There was one raven at first, then two. They were pretty far above me, and this photo is significantly cropped, but can you see how the eagle is looking at the raven? When you’re a human object of Heckle’s affection, there’s not much you can do. When you’re an eagle, you just fly away. By the time s/he flew away, four or five other ravens had joined the “game.”

What a view

The horses aren’t always in position for me to get shots of them with the mountains in the background, but most of them were cooperating Saturday for me to get a bunch of different potential Christmas card scenes. That’s Comanche, who was turning to lead Hollywood and his girls down the trail. It was at this point that I realized Steeldust’s band really wasn’t in the immediate neighborhood.

Walking the line

Comanche leads Aspen, Baylee, Piedra and Hollywood down a trail to an arroyo. When they got to the arroyo, they dropped out of sight for a little while … I’m not sure if they got water there? You can see in this photo how much Piedra resembles Comanche in color.

Grey boys

Chrome, Kreacher and Hook (and Duke) were about a minute behind Hollywood’s group on the same trail. If you’re wondering about bachelor Mouse, who has been after Piedra most of the year, he was the only bachelor still with the family band. That’s Knife Edge in the background.

El Duque

Big bay boy Duke stopped to say hi as his boys followed after Hollywood and Co. He has come a long way. He used to be pretty intolerant of people (me); now he almost seems to like me and will stop for prolonged (moments) visits.

Shades of grey

Grey/Traveler and his band were across an arroyo that emptied into the arroyo the boys (and Baylee and Piedra) went into – and I could see them ahead of us – so I trailed along with the ponies, down close to the arroyo, until I got to the silver boy and his family (remember when HE was one of the bachelors?).

Lunch

Big, growing girls need plenty of chow! I keep thinking about telling the tour folks back in October that I hadn’t seen any of last year’s foals still nursing last fall. I’ve still seen several of the babies nursing this fall … and not just youngest baby Storm. I like the picture above particularly because it also shows Two Boots, Houdini’s yearling filly.

Another spectacular view

And you know I’m not just talking about the landscape scenery!

Bosom buddies

Twister is another horse with a good dose of pluck. He was an orphan in the care of two stallions (Corazon and Cinch) when I first saw him last fall. Then he found mama Houdini and Two Boots and joined the family. That’s back when Seven was the head of the family. I wish he could stay young forever so he’d always have the comfort of his adopted family, but in another year or two, Grey will likely kick him out on his own. Maybe Two Boots will go with him. They’re pretty good pals.

Watching over baby

Jif and Iya. Most of the band napped while I sat on the ground; Houdini grazed most of the time, but then she came back and stood a little in front of Iya, just to the right out of the picture.

Mama

A different angle. Wise old girl Houdini has had her share of babies. Twister, in the background with Two Boots, is just one of her brood.

Itchy

I like how the plane of his face matches the line of Iya’s neck and body.

I had been keeping an eye on Seven, Molly and Roja up at the base of Flat Top while I hung out with Grey/Traveler, and that’s when I had seen Steeldust and his band up at the puddle. Eventually, they moved down, past Seven’s, toward Traveler’s and toward the bachelor boys and Hollywood’s. I walked up toward them on another trail and got into position so I could photograph them against the mountains, but they were on a mission to reunite with their boys, I guess, and they never stopped walking, grazing as they went. Consequently, I didn’t get many pix with their heads up!

Muddy boy Butch

Still muddy! Ooey gooey!

Sundance, clean

Sunny-boy was as muddy as Butch last weekend. He must have had a few good rolls since then.

Muddy Mouse

Mouse was the only bachelor still with the band. It looks like he waded into the water hole – look how deep it must be! He has mud all the way up to his belly, but it doesn’t look like he rolled in it. The “puddle” is pretty small. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned its dimensions, but I’d say it’s about 3 to 4 feet in diameter – tiny!

Pretty buckskin girls

Remember how muddy Kestrel was last weekend? She cleans up nice, eh?

Alpha and Storm

Lovelies.

Guardian

Kinda wild that I didn’t see Seven for almost two months, and now I’ve seen them the past three weekends – and all in the same area! And yes, I had been looking there all that time and never saw them. I do like seeing them.

Top of the hill

Seven and Roja on a short ridge at the base of Flat Top. Roja is ornery! When Steeldust’s horses came past them on the old road, I could see Roja trot out to meet them – kind of like a stallion will do. Seven stayed back on a little rise, and Steeldust’s horses seemed to be on a mission like I mentioned above, so they just ignored her; they never stopped moving until they got just a little past me and within view of the bachelors and Hollywood. Roja is a tough girl and fun to watch!

End of day

Here they’re on the shady eastern side of Flat Top, late afternoon. This pic doesn’t translate very well on the Web, but in the full version, I like the almost painterly quality of the light. Old Molly got the PZP last August before she was released, so she shouldn’t have a foal next year (her 2008 filly died sometime in August). She and Roja were with Kreacher last fall when I first saw them (remember that?); neither Roja nor Kreacher were gathered, and Roja didn’t have a foal. I expect Roja to have her first baby in the spring, and because Seven stole her and Molly from Kreacher in early March, I’m sure Seven’s the daddy.

After my visit with these guys, I headed back to the Jeep and on out to beat the dark home (not successful). I looked but didn’t see Bounce, Alegre and Gaia on my way out, and I scanned the north hills the whole time I was out for the new girls, but I never spotted them. I don’t know if they know about cows, but I wonder if the “tourists” will encourage them to come down from their hilly stronghold and meet some new friends.

What a gorgeous day! Chilly but gorgeous sunshine and great weather for hiking around and visiting with the ponies. The days are short, and I keep thinking about the past year, all that I’ve learned and experienced. I certainly don’t lack for peace, hope and joy this holiday season! It’s supposed to snow again next weekend, but I’m going to try to get out there because I’m taking a two-week holiday to visit my folks and home ponies, which will mean at least a three-week hiatus from the basin. That’s the most time (by far) I’ve spent away from the horses since February, but given the potential weather in December in Colorado, it’s probably the best time to plan to be away.

I’m tossing around the idea of asking you, blog readers, for suggestions to name the new girls. What do you think? Can’t keep calling them “the new girls” forever, and I want people to really know these horses as OURS. So if you have suggestions, leave a comment, and be sure to specify a name or names for each particular mare: the dun, the black pinto or the apricot dun.

Thanks for coming along on this journey of discovery and joy. As much as I’ve enjoyed sharing part of the horses’ lives, I’ve enjoyed sharing what I’ve learned with you. It’s not over by any means!

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Alpha, Bachelor 7, Bones, Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Jif, Kreacher, Luna, Poco, Roach, Roja, Seven, Steeldust, Storm

Giving thanks

28 11 2008

Another beautiful morning

As I write this post, it really is still Thanksgiving, even though I know the blog will say otherwise. Not that I can’t give thanks for the horses, and my time with them, any day of the year, but I just wanted to make that point. All these photos are from last Sunday. As you’ll see, it was a gorgeous day. Also as I write this post, it’s snowing. The basin is getting rain or snow or some combination. The horses are likely wet, but hopefully they’re as ready for this next season as they look. They – we – really need the moisture.

In the photo above, that’s Hollywood and Baylee near the road and the water catchment. Steeldust’s family and all the bachelors but Chrome, Kreacher and Hook also were there.

Big band

The horses were all very relaxed and calm Sunday morning about an hour after sunrise.

Steeldust, Alpha and Storm

I included this photo as the start of a little visual journey. Soon after I took this photo, Storm laid down for a nap.

Sleepy boys

There’s Pinon standing over Storm, with Sundance snoozing behind them.

Daddy on guard

Slightly different angle. That’s Ember behind Steeldust.

So that’s nice, you’re thinking, but this isn’t much of a story. Maybe not, but all stories need a beginning. See, I took these photos from just down from the fenced-in water catchment. The light wasn’t the best from this angle, but it was the best angle to catch little Storm-chaser at his nap (and who can resist?). My back was to the northeast, where that hill drops off to the big “flat” below.

So I’m taking pix from a crouched position, and the horses are calm, and Storm is looking at me but not bothered enough to disturb his semi-nap. But then all of a sudden, all the horses looked up at me. What did I do? I hadn’t moved?

Hoofbeats. Behind me. Trotting.

Boo!

I look back, and there’s Grey/Traveler trotting after Jif, who is trotting up over the edge of the hill and right past me! He’s trotting in this photo – can you see his eye looking at me? I think he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him!

Traveler and Jif

He finally got her to stop there, where they’re looking at Steeldust’s band (who were all possibly just as surprised as the rest of us), who were looking back at them. I figured the rest of the band was coming up the trail, but they never showed up.

Sassy Jif

Moments later … “I’m going, already.”

Not too worried

He followed after her, pretty calm, as you can see here, but this is where the story (visually) got good.

The chase is on

Jif was being sassy and lolly-gagging along, so Grey/Traveler decided to push a little harder.

Cant catch me

Now he’s starting to get a little mad.

Keep moving

I really thought the band was just out of sight below the edge of the hill.

Over the edge

They dropped over the edge, and I walked over slowly, expecting to see the other horses.

All calm on the eastern front

But they weren’t. I walked back to the Jeep and drove on down the hill and across the “flat,” where this photo was taken from the Jeep. Left to right: Jif, Houdini, Iya and Twister (Iya is just barely visible), and Two Boots. Grey/Traveler is just out of the picture at right. They were way away! (Relatively.) Why did Jif go running off like that? She’s kind of independent, but does she do that often? Another hmm. The end.

Not really, of course. I had spotted the new girls up on a hill around from the dry-pond trail, so that’s where I headed next.

Da girls

They were out enjoying the sunshine, as calm and relaxed as Steeldust’s and Grey’s bands (minus the Jif incident).

Pretty little girl

Isn’t she cute?

Black mare

Don’t let this angle fool you; she’s really a girl with (small) spots.

Cute n curious

I walked across the hill below them to get them in better light, then sat down to hang out with them for a little while and see what they’d do. This little girl just walked on over, the better to see me. Black mare and apricot mare stayed back. Feeding their pal to the lion? Just waiting to see what the lion would do? Some friends, eh? Ha.

Let me just check out this saltbush ...

I love her curiosity. When she realized I a) wasn’t a lion and b) wasn’t going to eat her, she just went to grazing. She did that for several minutes then walked back to her pals to give them the scoop.

OK?

OK.

Showing her spots

Watchful girl.

Little apricot

Calm enough to graze. I like it when that happens.

It was a really nice, quiet visit with these girls. I’m really quite fond of them!

I never expected to see Seven and his mares again Sunday, but I decided to go have a look anyway, just in case. Would you believe they were in the same exact place – a little closer to Flat Top – as where I found them Saturday? It’s where I last saw them in early October … and I’ve looked there every time I’ve been out there since – and never seen them until this weekend!

Seven

Handsome boy.

Molly and Roja

I didn’t stay with them long, and I didn’t take many photos. They were fine with me standing at a distance. I checked off the ridge but didn’t see any other horses.

Breakaway boys

Almost forgot this pic of the three boys who wandered away from the big band: Chrome at left, Hook and Kreacher. This was taken from the road, almost to the base of Round Top, looking eastish. Kind of a cool backdrop, eh?

I looked for Steeldust’s band on my way back out but wasn’t seeing them. From the north, I had seen them walking along the ridge toward the pond near the entrance, so I thought I might see them in that area. Sometimes, they’re where you’re least expecting them.

Steely Dan and fam

They were against the hill right inside the main entrance. They barely looked up from their grazing …

Aspen

Except this guy. He was looking so handsome in the sunlight, I couldn’t resist taking his picture.

Ember and Luna

And this little girl. I keep thinking of all this year’s yearlings, how they looked last year when they were the age of this year’s babies. They grow so quickly. Ah … I’m so sentimental.

But wait! The story’s not yet over. Guess who I saw right from the county road on my way home?

Painted ponies

I took pictures of them right from the fenceline off the road. Here, from front to back: Kiowa, Chipeta, Corazon, Reya and Spook.

Ty was back with the band. I guess he found family life more appealing than life as a single guy.

Muddy Mesa

Big muddy boy. Copper was the farthest from the band and never came very close. The king is (driven away); long live the king? Corazon was right with the band … which isn’t unusual EXCEPT that Copper was so far away. So is Corazon the new head of family?

And that’s the Sunday story. Heartfelt thanks to my ponies, as always.

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Corazon, Grey, Hollywood, Jif, Mesa, Molly, New girls, Pinon, pintos, Roja, Seven, Steeldust, Storm, Ty

Without words

20 11 2008

Center of the world

Sunday was … the last day, the end of the weekend, gorgeous … busy with visitors … the end of the fourth/last hunting season. Did I mention gorgeous? The kind of day when it never enters your mind to be anywhere else or with anyone else.

I had a couple of hours of early morning again Sunday before Debbie and Kathleen arrived in the basin, and Steeldust’s and Traveler’s bands were still close by and accommodating. There is such a feeling of peace and all-is-right-with-the-world under all that rich light.

Traveler and Jif

Silver-beautiful boy and his girl Jif.

Iya and Houdini

Although Houdini does still let Iya nurse, it seems like she’s starting to wean her away, just by walking off when Iya indicates interest.

Soft

Do you love his expression here?!

Youngsters

Do good things come in threes? Three good babies. Beautiful early light. Wild youngsters so relaxed.

Baylee and Hollywood

Piedra was there, too, a few moments earlier, then she wandered off to graze.

Home with a view

Relaxed Steeldust, hangin’ with the (extended) fam. If you’re having a big crew to the table this Thanksgiving, think of him, leading his big crew to grazing every day of the year. Don’t stress. Enjoy the sunshine. Take a nap. Appreciate your family.

Shortly after this, Debbie and Kathleen arrived, and we returned to find the horses in the same areas. We spent more time with them, Debbie had her wonderful conversation with Grey/Traveler, and we bid them farewell to head north.

Top of the world

Twister, Iya and Houdini walking along the edge of the “ridge” that drops off southeast of Filly Peak beyond the road where it curves to take visitors past the catchment.

The ladies’ time in the basin Sunday was limited because of their distance from home. We spotted the new mares up off the north road, so we headed up to visit them.

Apricot dun

We took our time walking out to them, even though they were just a short distance from the road and had seen the Jeep rolling toward them. They were on a little grassy bench above the road. (And I did see the black mare nibble at a greasewood bush. I think they’re just not sharing all their secrets at once.)

One way

There’s the black mare between the two duns, warning the apricot dun away.

Then the other way

They didn’t go far.

Once more

When I was in third grade, I followed my best friend, Linda, everywhere. Looking back, I’m pretty sure it was annoying.

Go, duns, go!

You might be able to just see the black mare’s nose behind the tree branches at right behind these girls. Seconds after this, the only thing you could see of them was their heels in the air!

What more can you ask from life? So … a few words, but my goal was to show off the expressiveness of the horses, whether napping or playing. Happy? I really think they are.

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Jif, New girls, Steeldust

Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Celebration

Following the magic

A living prayer

Guardian angels

Before the snow …

Mountain magic

Bachelor no more

The cattle are in

Giving thanks

Without words

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