Hollywood | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

More baby

15 04 2011

Some more pix of Hollywood’s and Iya’s baby boy:

Such balance! Look at his heavenly zebra stripes and dark curled little ear tips. Just perfection! The sun had risen, and the light was marching steadily toward us, the roll of the Earth conquering the massive bulk of Knife Edge (to the right here).

Comanche, Kestrel and Winona were very nearby … I love this of Hollywood with two of his girls and one of his boys, wide expanse of sunlit basin behind them – dawn of another day. Comanche’s and Hollywood’s have often been near each other this year – since winter. ‘Nona and Tenaz like to play together … Piedra, Baylee and Kestrel all used to be with the same band (Baylee and Kestrel, at least, are likely half-sisters (daddy: Steeldust)) … what (else) draws them together?

Still keeping an eye on Comanche.

Hello, beautiful! Look what a treasure you have!

Going back into the “vault” …

Iya as a babe with mama Houdini! She was 2 days old in this photo (her exact birth date is known), about the age I think her baby is here – see how big she was? A bit longer-bodied, and her legs go on for miles.

How fun is that?! 🙂

Sticking out the tip of his little pink tongue.

I’m a sucker for family portraits.

We know what the mamas are thinking … what do the daddies think about these little creatures who suddenly appear with the family? They KNOW they’re to be protected … Are they proud? Do they know they had a part in the little’s existence? Anthropomorphic, sure, but I’d still love to know!

Essentials: baby and mama and daddy.

What a fantastic morning! I admit that when I first saw them and saw that light little “shadow” at Iya’s side, I yipped and yay’d with delight. Something about the miracle of birth … in such a place … wild circle of life. Death and birth – and, most important, life. They don’t need our help … and yet they do. Independent of man … and yet fenced into a dry land that bustles with often-overlooked treasures. So many liquid-clear bird songs that morning! Their absence (except for the ever-present ravens) is so noticeable, their songs when they return are, in fact, the heralds of new seasons. I looked all morning for those trilling, warbling birds and never saw them. Their songs changed location, but I couldn’t for the life of me catch sight of the birds themselves.

But this, first blooming about two weeks ago, is everywhere, carrying the oh-so-sweet fragrance of spring. Delicate/hardy phlox – tiny co-heralds of spring.

Comments : 9 Comments »

Categories : Hollywood, Iya

Baby!

14 04 2011

Look at this handsome little guy! Having not seen Shadow except for her back from a distance on the other side of a hill, as far as I know, this little mister is the first baby of the year in Spring Creek Basin. His color and markings tell you just who he belongs to … Do you know?

Soft claybank dun and big, b(o)ld face …

Daddy, of course, is Hollywood – and, as far as I know, this is the first dun he has sired! (Sage, almost 2, is grey, and Tenaz, almost a yearling, is bay.)

Who’s mama???

Iya – of course! Look at those matching faces! It’s like she’s been a mama forever. She grazes along, and he follows. She’s not as outwardly affectionate as some other new mamas (at least not with “company”). I think he’s not more than a coupla-few days old – still a little “bunched,” still a little over at the knees, ears still the tiniest bit curled at the tips. Iya herself was a big, big, baby for her mama, Houdini, but this little guy seems just right for a first baby. It seems nearly unbelievable that such a creature could grow and rest in that belly, eh? All folded up and snug. Another miracle into the world.

Now out in the world … and welcome to your Spring Creek Basin, little one!

Comments : 11 Comments »

Categories : Hollywood, Iya

Hollywood’s

27 03 2011

Monday, March 28, is the deadline to call the Dolores Public Lands Office at (970) 882-6800 *to request placement on the mailing list* to be sent the scoping letter for the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area roundup this fall. The scoping letter then should be coming out very soon. The scoping letter also will be online, and I’ll post that link when it’s ready. The deadline for comments will be in that letter.

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Hollywood’s band was *right* off the road when I was making my way out of the basin, all hope of sunset light disappearing behind clouds. He made quite a striking figure standing sentry with some low hills, still spotted with snow, behind him (beyond the basin).

Though the golden end-o-day light didn’t break through as I had hoped, there’s something really lovely and soft about the last diffused light we did get – especially on Holls’ gorgeous dun coat.

Hollywood

Hollywood’s girls – and one of his boys: Baylee (left) will be 4; Iya will be 3 in late April; Sage, his son, will be 2 in late April; and mama Piedra is likely at least 5 this year.

BFFs Baylee and Iya. Has anyone else seen the news that the Oxford English Dictionary added that “word” recently? Like, OMG, I LOL at the ridiculousness – IMHO, of course. 🙂 I (heart) Spring Creek Basin mustangs! I’d try to get *meep* in the discussion – you know, like the roadrunner “says” in the Wile E. Coyote cartoons? – but I just can’t come up with a basin meep. I’ve heard marmots meep but no mustang meeping. Heh. (Wait, is that a word?)

Tenaz seems to be floating above Spring Creek canyon, which is really quite a distance away. That tiny glow of pink in the sky is all the color we got at the close of another wonderful day.

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Baylee, Hollywood, Iya, Piedra, Sage, Tenaz

Merry bands of Hook and Hollywood

28 02 2011

Hook’s is an interesting tale (that I know) … young bachelor, bottom of the totem pole, following after his pals and Steeldust’s band. Last spring – early, probably at least this time of year – I started to notice Ember and Pinon together, at the edge of the band, Hook always nearby. And then they were together – separate from the band. Shortly, Hannah joined them … then Sable. Both fillies – both yearlings – left their family band before their mothers had even had that year’s foals (Mahogany lost hers; Luna’s Gideon is quite robust). Hook is an admirable band stallion, much more cautious of me now that he has a family to protect … except that all these youngsters have known me since the day they were born (Sable) or soon after, and the mother of two of them (Luna, dam of Ember and Hannah) is the most patient and tolerant mare in the basin, and in fact, was the first to use me to shed her pesky stallion. So Hook keeps a watchful eye, and the girls and Pinon treat my presence as acceptable.

Hollywood also has an interesting tale (OK, who doesn’t!). When I first started documenting the horses, the day Grey/Traveler was brought back to the basin after the roundup and his trip to Canon City and his three weeks in quarantine, Hollywood and Jif were the first other horses I found – close to Steeldust’s band, as they would be until Grey somehow managed to steal Jif right out from under the noses of Steeldust’s band and the closely-following Bachelor 7 the next April. Maybe Hollywood already had his eye on Piedra … in any case, rather than follow Jif (in Grey’s smaller band), he stayed with Steeldust’s bigger band (and still followed by the Bachelor 7 at that time) and wooed Piedra (yes, he really did), and eventually they broke off together into their own little band … followed shortly by Baylee, daughter of Mahogany (and Pinon’s elder sister). I have speculated that Piedra may be Baylee’s elder sister, and that’s why she followed … and that idea seemed strengthened by what happened with the siblings following into Hook’s band … but something has always nagged at me about Piedra’s more graceful appearance than Baylee or Pinon or Sable … and this year, particularly, I really start to doubt a blood-bond there. (Though they do share those ears!)

Ember had Fierro last July – already pregnant before she joined Hook’s band (likely sire, Mouse, though I can’t confirm). Shortly before Hannah left Steeldust’s band for Hook’s (sister Ember’s?), she managed to “stray” into Hollywood’s band. I was visiting Bounce’s (the calendar’s April photo was taken during that visit) and watched the chaos while they ignored it all (or seemed to). Hannah was frantic to get back to her mother’s family; Holls was just as adamant that she stay with him. As young as she was (yearling), I knew what that meant … I don’t know how she ended up with Holls, and I don’t know how long she was with him – running the whole time I watched at least – half an hour? An hour? – but she made it back to mama Luna. Very shortly after that, as I remember, she was with Hook and his little band. And now what do you see in the photo above? Like her sister Ember, she’ll be a mama at 2.

And Sable?

Switching back to Hollywood’s band, although coming-3-year-old Iya looks pregnant at a glance …

…

coming-4-year-old Baylee (elder sister of Pinon and Sable) seems still girlishly slim:

Bay-Baylee-girl

But Kestrel, who had Winona last year as a 3-year-old and elder sister of Ember and Hannah, kept her “condition” quiet until close before she foaled, so that’s just observation at this point.

Normal? Symptom of our small herd size – which is bigger now? Coming-4-year-old Reya’s condition is unknown. Her coming-3-year-old sister, Spook, lost her foal last year … Just something to make us go “hmm”?

Fierro and Ember, Pinon and Hook

Hannah

Baylee, Iya and Hollywood. I liked that I could see all their eyes. Bayles took another couple of steps that made an even better composition, but then she closed her eyes!

Iya and Holls

Pretty Piedra

Mama Piedra and her youngest, Tenaz

How toasty warm he must be in that fuzzy coat!

Tenaz and daddy Hollywood

This one is meant to show a comparison between Iya’s and Baylee’s bellies … Round Top at right, Brumley Point straight back – Tenaz at far right.

Brumley Point. To get your bearings, McKenna Peak and the unnamed promontory are to the left. The far background rimrock hills are outside the herd area.

We’ve talked about how wonderful it is to enjoy horses in their quiet moments. I am incredibly fortunate to spend such time with these horses that I can witness those moments. But they’re wild and ever watchful. Spooks do happen. 🙂

Hollywood initiated a “charge” of maybe 30-50 yards? From in front of me to up the hill a little to my right, into the light …

So unfortunately out of focus …

They didn’t go far …

Calm again. Holls and Bayles … love that light illuminating his eye! Another of my favorite images of the day.

They are wild … sensitive to movement and sounds – and that darn mud made it hard to move in steady motion.

Moments after:

Piedra

Piedra and Sage

Hollywood and Sage … I just liked their shapes in the sunlight.

And bidding farewell when everything was back to calm. Love the little hitch to his nostril.

Of the pix of Holls and his band running – like or dislike? Why? Does it matter that you know “the rest of the story”? It happens … with or without my presence … It’s part of the story thread of the basin …

I still had a decent trek to the Jeep, in the mud … I didn’t know at this point what was waiting for me at the bend … But I knew I was deliriously happy, right then, right in those splendid moments in the wild American outback. Give and take. Still and in motion. Light and shadow. Questions and wonder and mystery. How much will we know? How much do we want – need – to know?

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Baylee, Ember, Fierro, Hannah, Hollywood, Hook, Iya, Piedra, Pinon, Sable, Sage, Tenaz

Some boys

19 02 2011

Tenaz and his daddy, Hollywood

Comanche

Fierro

Hook (it was very windy!)

Pinon

Pinon, Fierro and Hook

Sage in a rare moment of looking at me long enough to set, focus and fire my camera!

Tenaz (check out the mud splattered on his face – such a little boy!) – I see you, peek-a-boo boy!

Hollywood – I love that light illuminating his eye.

Kreacher. I loved that light enveloping the horses. He’s right at the edge of the road … Raven, Corona and Kootenai are to the left. They’ve found a bit of snow, and they’re getting their fill like kids at the neighborhood ice cream truck. Kreach stood here so quietly … he never moved a step from when I first saw him from the Jeep. Talk about a passive leader (I think I mentioned him in an earlier post where I was referring to Beautiful Mustang’s recent posts) … so calm. So confident. So young (still relatively dark).

Just as the sun slipped over the edge of the world, the girls were finishing their snow and making their way toward him. That was his cue – was he just waiting for them that whole time? – and he started off up the road. Stopped once to leave a pile, which the girls investigated thoroughly (?), then on up the road and finally up the hill at the next bend. They grazed not far off the road when I slipped past them … the basin covered in shadow – light just on the upper ridges of the eastern boundary, McKenna’s point, the promontory’s rocky face. Kreacher does lead … and his girls do follow him.

All these boys … so amazing.

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Comanche, Fierro, Hollywood, Hook, Kreacher, Pinon, Sage, Tenaz

Maybe …

8 01 2011

… I should do it like this …

Winona and Tenaz

… get pix up to share …

Kestrel pawing through snow

… because they’re the ones that have caught my eye …

Tenaz and daddy Hollywood

… on my first trip through the images.

To me, they speak volumes … but I started wondering, what do they mean to you?

And that led to remembering something I think one of you touched on in a recent question … that led me to wonder, just what DO you all wonder about?

What questions do you have about the horses, their home, their relationships, their history, the future I (at least) hope for them … what else?

Winona and Kestrel

What can I tell you, share with you, increase your understanding of?

Sharing winter grazing

For example, Winona and Kestrel are finding something yummy here under the snow that occupied them for a few minutes … Baby learning from mama; mama ever-so-patiently sharing whatever she had found …

… until Hollywood’s band, down the hill, caught ‘Nona’s attention, leaving mama Kestrel to finish the morsel.

Some of the horses pawed – almost all of Hollywood’s band members – but some seemed to just snuffle along with their muzzles in the snow and barely pawed at all – those in Steeldust’s band. Why?

Disclaimer: I still have as many questions as I may have answers! 🙂

But I’d like to know your thoughts and questions and topics you’d like to see addressed here. This is going to be a big year of education for us, and what better place to start than the blog? I do plan to talk more about fertility control, but feel free to ask anything.

Comments : 25 Comments »

Categories : Hollywood, Kestrel, Tenaz, Winona