A place in the grass

29 09 2011

The light was just starting to turn into that golden shower of color. I had been sitting in the Jeep at the east end of Wildcat Valley for a bit, taking notes and watching horses, waiting for that light …

Then came the pintos, and everybody scattered.

Hollywood and Comanche and their bands came out beyond where I ended up sitting in the grass … stopped … looked back at some others … and off they went.

Handsome Hollywood

Lovely Piedra

This was when I knew for sure that Comanche still had Kestrel and Juniper, even though they were so close to Hollywood and Piedra. You can see Traveler’s band in the upper right corner.

Wowza – that Comanche has big strides!

Comanche’s daughter, Juniper, floating on light.

Juniper’s mama, Kestrel. Another beautiful girl.

Seven and Aspen were visible, too. Piedra and Kestrel are looking back at Traveler’s and/or Sundance’s, and Comanche is turning to look at Seven and Aspen (Hollywood was just to the left, and he was already looking at them).

Piedra, looking.

Seven later chased Aspen back across to where the other horses had come from. He spent a lot of time and traveled a pretty good distance to try to shake Aspen, but when he finally returned to his band (out of sight for most of the chase), Aspen followed right behind.

Seven’s band (Shane, Mona, Killian and Roja) shortly after they had come into view and he had gotten back to them (they’re looking at him).

So after waiting for that golden light with bands all around … the ponies were scattered like the wind and out of reach. 🙂 Wouldn’t ya know.





Killian and family

28 09 2011

Killian, son of Seven and Roja, baby brother of Ze, who was adopted locally to an incredible home.

I had one of the best visits ever with his band yesterday. That’s Shane’s hip at right – and they’re pretty much attached at the hip. Cutest thing ever to see Killian walk hesitantly up with Shane to introduce themselves to Juniper. Little guy using big “sister” to bolster his curiosity. Juni wasn’t quite ready to play, though she gave them both a sniff, and then Piedra urged them back to their own mamas.

Wait, did I just mention horses from three different bands? 🙂

Piedra and Hollywood are reunited, and Juni and mama and daddy, Kestrel and Comanche, are reunited, and the two bands are as close as they were pre-roundup. They were grazing in a little “meadow” very near where Seven’s were napping under some trees when I spotted them. Seven ran Aspen like a crazy horse the evening before, but Aspen was napping right with them.

Mona and Roja. Mona doesn’t look terribly close, does she?

All three bands, from left: Mona, Roja, Shane and Killian, Seven, Hollywood, Piedra (Comanche behind her), Juniper and Kestrel, and Aspen at far right.





Heaven in a meadow

4 08 2011

The northwest “meadow” is the new east pocket.

There’s grass. There’s water.

Horses are there.

Four beautiful bands … and Kreacher’s – and Duke – were just to my left.

Beautiful day. How could I have thought he wouldn’t still be there?





Return …

2 08 2011

I realize that by the time I publish this, I’ve already published my “education” post, that you’ll read it – if you wade through it at all – after you look through these. Nonetheless, I’m calling this post “return” because hopefully it marks a return to photos of the horses and place I’m so passionate about.

Without further ado … These are from the day of the tour.

Bounce’s band, early morning before anyone else arrived, just west of the east pocket.

The helicopter. I never even took pix Grey’s band, just hung out while they napped.

Later in the day, after the tour … before I knew about Twister:

Comanche’s band was very near Hollywood’s – still – and had done a bit of traveling during the day (though I can’t comment definitively on the particular cause). Earlier in the day, we could see them north of Spring Creek Canyon; here, they were just off the road above the dugout (east of their earlier location).

Hollywood’s band

Piedra and Briosa. Comanche’s were just up the hill to the right. This was taken from just off the road.

Briosa. Isn’t she a stout big girl?

Eliana, Spring Creek Canyon in the background.

Comanche

Winona

Eliana

I so enjoyed visiting with them, taking these pix of the horses against the Colorado sky with the favorable clouds we’ve seen so little of this year. I didn’t want to leave, though I was headed to check on Twister. I wasn’t aware yet of what I would find with him.

After I’d finally gotten in touch with BLM about Twister, I couldn’t stay in the basin (I didn’t leave the area so I could lead BLM to Twister in the morning). Almost didn’t even stop to greet David’s band when I found them, just inside the fence along the Disappointment Road.

Shadow and Coal

Yearling Wind wiggling between mama and baby brother. You can see the fence strands in the foreground – that’s how close they were.

Handsome baby Coal

Horrible day … and yet a good day, too. Seems to be a contradiction that settles over my entire mustang experience. Can’t explain it … and I guess, overall, I really wouldn’t change it. The “good” is really just that phenomenal.





Boys

18 07 2011

Some pix of Comanche and Hollywood from the other night. Their bands were close to each other in this beautiful little meadow at the top of the basin, on the northwest side. All was calm until curious Georgie – I mean, Winona – grazed her way close enough to Holls to not be able to contain that curiosity any longer! Comanche then strutted down to put an end to THAT nonsense. Ha! Later, Duke came whinnying out of the trees across the valley to the north, and that got the boys’ attention, too. Comanche did go racing off to greet him, but I had crossed an arroyo to seek shade and was blocked by trees. I wish this “boys” post included pix of him, but I pulled a dumb newbie mistake and didn’t have an empty memory card in my pocket like usual – and I had no idea I’d taken so many pix – until right after Eliana left the pond. I just sat and watched while the horses grazed into the overtaking shadows, but when I walked back to the Jeep past Duke, it was just to greet him and admire his sleek and shiny bayness – not to take any pix.

He had a little fit of pique when Juniper got “too close” to his own girls, and this is him encouraging her to return “home.”

Comanche with a most-recognizable backdrop – McKenna Peak and the unnamed promontory.

Watching Duke, but he didn’t leave his mares … which is interesting because I watched specifically to see if he would. But maybe he’s learning, and it seemed to me that he quite remembered Comanche stealing almost all his family earlier this year (not long after Cougar was born). He has lost Piedra at least twice before because of his penchant for running off to spar, leaving her unprotected.

So handsome. So wild. So awesome.

Holls

I love his walk!

Hollywood and his little girls – Briosa (back) is his daughter, and Eliana is Sundance’s daughter … but her mother is possibly Briosa’s mother’s mother, which makes Eliana Briosa’s aunt! And Mahogany – Eliana’s mama – Bri’s grandma!

Comanche with Kestrel and baby Juniper. Love that background!





Some to love

27 06 2011

It occurred to me that I wouldn’t get any of these posted if I tried to do them in some kind of order – the always way of it these days – so here are some pix of some horses … Beautiful, all.

Houdini and Deniz.

I’ve been expecting the usual migration westward as the forage and water grows scarce back in the east. One of the two ponds back there is holding pretty steady, though, so several bands are (still) taking advantage of it. Grey/Traveler’s band, however, had made the trip, and I found them at afternoon water in the Wildcat Spring area. There’s enough water there this year – interestingly – that there are some stagnant pockets of it along the wash. I heard the girls (Terra, Gemma and Corona) playing in one such puddle, though I couldn’t get a clear look at them because of the obscuring greasewood on the banks. Mama and baby and Grey were above the arroyo. Deniz is going grey fast, like sister Gemma. She’s a big tall girl, eh?

Baby girls Briosa, left, and Eliana, with Bri’s mama Piedra in the background. Eli’s mama Mahogany was grazing down to the right (a pic is with the “Oppose sterilization” post of a few days ago). I wanted my wide-angle lens for, well, not the first time, I guess, to try to capture some of the beautiful background of the basin “behind” the fillies as they napped.

There’s some of it behind Hollywood, who was, I think, watching Aspen and Sundance, close-ish again. In the near background is part of the north side of the east-west hill, and in the far-ish background (not all the way back) is part of what I call Lizard Mesa.

Eli gives Bri a little post-nap nuzzle. They’re now at the age to be interested in each other. Bri, not quite a month older than Eli, is considerably bigger and stouter.

Sunny little Eliana is just a beautiful little princess of a filly.

Piedra was closest, and after she got up, Bri walked right over for a snack. Eli lingered, though, taking her sweet time walking down the slope, stopping, looking at mama, at stepdaddy (Sundance is Eliana’s sire), at me, back at Bri … before finally going on down for her own lunch. Bri’s a stout little girl, eh? Takes after daddy.

Speaking of daddies, here’s Varoujan with his daddy – Butch.

And with mama.

Kreacher’s band weren’t too far, and I waited for them, too, to mosey their way up to, across and off the road (it was like rush hour out there! 😉 ). This was a horizontally shot image I took through the passenger-side window and cropped into a vertical. I also took the image a post or so back of Apollo looking through his legs horizontally and cropped it vertically. I crop almost all my photos – some more than others.

Heading out of the basin for the evening: Hook’s band. I couldn’t decide between this one and …

… this one. Ponies gilded with light, those hills in the back! The near-ish hills are part of Spring Creek Basin, our northwest hills; the far-ish hills to the sky are outside the basin but still part of Disappointment Valley, basically, the far northeastern edge (the basin is tucked a little lower into the valley’s east-northeastern side). From left: black Sable and grey Twister, hanging with the band; almost yearling Fierro looking toward the camera and dark bay Pinon behind him; grey Ember, bay Hannah and Hook. Ember is due close to any time now.





Little red misses

27 05 2011

I’m liking this change:

Briosa

Eliana

What do they have in common?

! 🙂

What else might they have in common?

Mahogany might be Piedra’s mother, which might make Eliana Piedra’s sister … Briosa’s aunt.

Mahogany and Eliana

Piedra and Briosa. The funniest thing about this photo is the backstory. Briosa had been nursing and must have slurped a bit too hard because mama delivered a swift reprimand in the form of a snap to her little heiney – which provoked a little kicking fit from both of them! “Don’t bite the udder that feeds you”?! Learned early! 🙂

Hollywood was working to keep his girls close … because Aspen showed up on a hill a short distance away.

To recap, Sundance had Mahogany for a bit more than a year, then two weeks ago, he finally lost Mahogany and Eliana to Aspen the day after I first met Eli. Sometime in the last two weeks, Hollywood managed to steal them from Aspen. To go a little farther back, the winter before this last, Hook briefly stole Piedra and Sage from Hollywood. He had them a shorter than the winter before, when Aspen stole them!

Shall we go even further back in time?

Mahogany and Piedra were originally part of Steeldust’s band. When I first started documenting the horses, Hollywood had Jif … and then they started hanging out with Steeldust’s … that was in the days when the Bachelor 7 were running around with them, too. Then Grey/Traveler stole Jif to add to Houdini and Two Boots and Twister, and Holls turned his attention to lovely Piedra. Bri is their third baby!

Bri is a month old, and Eli is about 2 weeks old – enough age difference that Bri is more independent than her aunt Eli (!), who still sticks pretty close to mama.

So here’s a question: Who is alpha? Piedra, who has been with Hollywood for a few years now, or Mahogany, who is older – and possibly Piedra’s dam – but newly come to the family?

Oh, the wild ways of the wild ones!

Can you stand the cuteness?

How amazing it will be to watch these red babies grow together!

Little beauties. How amazing they are! And together!? Look out! 🙂





Contact

24 05 2011

A couple of “miscellaneous” and several from an evening.

Piedra and Briosa looking south … I think that vibrant green cottonwood makes the whole scene. 🙂

Ties of family are strong, blood or no. Liberty and her mother, Molly, spent time with Bounce’s band shortly before Molly died in the fall of 2009. Afterward, Liberty went back to the band … then ended up with Cinch in the fall of 2010. Gaia ended up with them over the winter (January 2011?). Gaia is 3 (Alegre’s daughter, Bounce’s stepdaughter), Liberty is 2 (Seven x Molly). It’s not a huge surprise these girls ended up back together. 🙂

Sundance and Hollywood in sync.

I ended up right on the road in a great position to watch some awesome dynamics playing out. From a distance, I had seen Sundance (recently separated from Mahogany, Eliana and Aspen) with Sage and Ze, two young (2 years old) bachelors. Hollywood’s were close – as were Hook’s band.

Hook

Hollywood

Double trouble on the bubble – Sage and Ze wisely kept their distance, but all the boys – and girls – were well aware of them.

Sisters Hannah (bay) and Ember

Part of the magnificent background of Spring Creek Basin – Knife Edge, McKenna Peak and the unnamed promontory …

Hook’s band – Brumley Point in the background …

Fierro, Hannah and Sable. Hollywood actually stole Hannah briefly when she was a yearling (by briefly, I mean around an hour or so). That was shortly before she followed sister Ember and half-brother Pinon to Hook’s band … followed shortly thereafter by Sable.

Hollywood about to greet Pinon …

Hollywood left Piedra and Briosa for quite a long while during this melee … He later chased Sundance far to the east, and Hook’s and Sage and Ze eventually followed, and Holls eventually went back to his girls.

What a day!





Briosa and family

11 05 2011

Had *wonderful* visits with Hollywood, Piedra and baby Bri last week. Am delayed getting out to the basin by much-needed rain and snow (!) – moisture – so I was able to get to some more pix today that might have been pushed off even further!

Here are some pix from the first visit:

She’s a bit of an independent girl.

Daddy Hollywood

She made a few overtures to daddy …

He wasn’t overtly interested in her, but he just seemed to “quiet” … I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve seen it in all the stallions when the babies are near. Careful. Gentle.

Family 🙂

Many with mama Piedra, of course …

Little darling girl!





Hollywood’s

18 04 2011

Some of Hollywood’s other family members …

The sun had lit the west, but we were still in shade when Hollywood and his firstborn, Sage, appeared in relief on a ridge against the sky. Between seeing them and training my lens on them, Sage’s expression drooped, and in the next half-second, off he went. They do appear very different, don’t they?

Curious George of colts …

… and George II – brother Tenaz, too! This little guy more closely resembles their daddy.

Watching Comanche’s crew … Tenaz and Hollywood were just to the left … baby and mama Iya at right.

It’s no wonder he was (at least) once mistaken from a distance for a sorrel – how red he glows in the early light!

Mama Piedra stood thus entranced for quite a long while (notice her shedding along her topline), and I couldn’t quite figure out what she was so intent about …

… until I looked up the hill and saw this little – still her youngest – moseying about, sun behind him from mama’s view. What was she thinking? What was he? … I could be completely wrong, but he demonstrates this lagging behavior every time ‘Nona is in the vicinity … 🙂