… cheeky monkey do!
Mysterium watched big brother Apollo walk through this little juniper to scratch an itchy belly. She must have decided that looked pretty clever, so she spent several minutes walking through and around it!
Monkey see …
3 04 2012Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Kootenai, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
U of Mizzou
30 03 2012Students rock!
Thank you a million times for coming to Southwest Colorado for your spring break and putting your muscles to work on behalf of our Spring Creek Basin mustangs!
This week, among other projects, students from the University of Missouri rebuilt a big section of fence on one of the basin’s boundaries where places were cut before last fall’s roundup. The students hiked in and out (a mile and a half or so one way) with fence materials and equipment to complete the project. No motorized help in McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area! And at the end of the day, they got to see some of the wild horses their work benefits!
Forget college spring break cliches. These motivated students raise money to travel here from Missouri and work hard while they’re here. In addition to Spring Creek Basin, they will work at Mud Springs at the base of Sleeping Ute Mountain and at Lowry Pueblo north of Cortez. They may go home with a tan (that may have started as a sunburn), but it’s not from lounging on the beach! Guaranteed, they’ll go home with memories of an experience they’ll be proud to share!
Alternative spring break here is a partnership between San Juan Mountains Association, BLM’s Tres Rios Field Office, the Forest Service (Dolores Public Lands Office), Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, the two local Back Country Horsemen groups (Mesa Verde and Four Corners), National Mustang Association/Colorado and other locals and local businesses to bring U of Mizzou students to the area for work projects on San Juan public lands. This was the 12th year of partnership!
Thank you to local volunteers Tif (MVBCH and NMA/CO), Joan (SJMA) and Bob (4CBCH), high school student volunteer Laura (who has been involved with this project for several years and will head to college later this year!), SJMA folks Kathe and MK, the Forest Service’s Tom and Ben – and pack horses Trapper and Zip! – and, never least, BLM’s Tom and Kiley!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the students. Your hard work is so much appreciated for the safety of our mustangs. Have fun with the rest of your visit, and come back soon! As Kathe said, there is a special place in heaven for all of you. 🙂
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Apollo, Kootenai, Mysterium, Raven, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Sundance, Work projects
Two mamas
17 02 2012Had to do a post of these two beautiful mamas. Raven is due in May; Kootenai in August.
Kootenai. Perfect color-wheel pull of emotions, eh? Her gorgeous apricot dun against the frozen blue hills in the background. Love. She was very sleepy in the lovely sunshine.
Beautiful glossy Raven. Looking at something beyond my ken. Maybe one of the numerous wheeling, rollicking, diving ravens that live and play over the basin.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Kootenai, Raven, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Little mys
16 01 2012
Light loves the baby.
Loves stepdaddy, too. 🙂
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Kootenai, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Sundance
Return
16 01 2012Dear readers,
I know I have been seriously lacking in the blog department for a couple of weeks now. But the ponies are fabulous. We even got some snow today – first in a month?! Very un-Colorado-, un-January-like. Mother Nature, we’ll forgive you – if you keep it coming. Wet, gooshy, slushy, sloogy snow – just what the dry, exposed soil and veggies (as in vegetation) need.
Only one minor change to report: Seven is currently with Duke and Kreacher. That, of course, could change at whim. He was still with Bounce and Tenaz … then Aspen brought his remaining girl (Mona, and her daughter, Shane) into sight – and sound – and that unleashed the most activity I’ve seen in awhile. And though Seven obviously didn’t regain Mona and Shane, he has two new compadres. No pix, though; I was showing friends … sans camera. Just enjoyment. 🙂
Randomness (from when I DID have the camera):
Seven, trotting over to (try to) greet his lost lady-love, Mona. I say, how gorgeous is he!
Meanwhile, Bounce thought he might take advantage of Sundance’s flirtation with Shane to pretend a little stand for Kootenai and Mysterium. Tenaz, at right, shadowed Bounce like his little brown, well, shadow.
Speaking of shadows (har) …
… there she is – Shadow – trotting off toward Mona while Aspen and Seven have a disagreement in the background. And what interest a mare when there’s boy-play to engage in? Storm breaks off from his pursuit of Shadow to harass Seven and Aspen.
Later:
I’m not sure where she wanted to go, but he didn’t want her going there.
Have you kept track of the bands? Aspen’s, Sundance’s, Bounce-Tenaz-and-Seven and Storm and Shadow.
Ah ha!
Sorry, girl. Can’t help you! Silly filly.
I will try to post lots of photos over the next couple of days to make up for the “dry season” – sorry! Hopefully we’ll get more snow, and our upcoming dry season won’t loom so terrifyingly dry. Did you note the appalling lack of snow in these photos??
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Aspen, Bounce, Kootenai, Mysterium, Seven, Shadow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Storm, Tenaz
Play time
28 12 2011Apollo and Mysterium are half-siblings, sired by Kreacher.
Apollo is 7 months old now.
Mysterium is 4 months old.
Little feisty wily girl has figured out that she can play with big brother … and that mama is nearby if he gets too rough!
It starts with a bit of nibbling on the shoulder …
About halfway through the game, he decided he could rear up, too.
She did a lot of this …
… and a little of this, but she never actually kicked out at him.
A little more teasing …
… some more near-synchronized rearing …
… and the warning from mama Kootenai (you can just see her pinned ears) …
that led to this:
!!
But it was all good in the end …
And they lived happily ever after. 🙂
Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Apollo, Kootenai, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Sundance
Some near, some far
26 12 2011
A long view of Sundance’s band (“near”) and Kreacher and Duke. Apollo and Raven are the two dark horses at near left, then Sundance, Kootenai and Mysterium at right. Straight back “above” Sundance is Duke, and just down the slope – left – from Duke is Kreacher; he’s hard to see, grey against snow. The Spring Creek arroyo is between them.
Much nearer – Juniper. Fuzzy, furry, wooly little bear cub! How cute is she?!
Mama Kestrel … and not too far away, snow spilling over the eastern ridges – unnamed promontory and McKenna Peak.
Last view of the day, looking in the opposite direction from above – west – snow falling in clouds beyond Spring Creek Canyon.
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Categories : Apollo, Duke, Juniper, Kestrel, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mysterium, Raven, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Sundance
40th anniversary
15 12 2011In honor of a woman, Velma Johnston – aka Wild Horse Annie – and the wild horses and burros she ought to protect …
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 is an Act of Congress (Pub.L. 92-195) signed into law President Richard M. Nixon on Dec. 15, 1971. The Act made it a crime for anyone to harass or kill feral horses or feral burros on federal land, required the departments of the Interior and Agriculture to protect the animals, required studies of the animals’ habits and habitats, and permitted public land to be set aside for their use. In addition, the act required that mustangs be protected as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West,” and that management plans must “maintain a thriving natural ecological balance among wild horse populations, wildlife, livestock, and vegetation and to protect the range from the deterioration associated with overpopulation.” Although feral horse ranges were principally for the protection of the horses, the land was required to be maintained for multiple use. The BLM was also permitted to close public land to livestock grazing to protect feral horse and burro habitat. – Wikipedia
Although in many places – and for Spring Creek Basin until the last year – it seems like not a lot has changed, I am thankful that we have good people in the Tres Rios Field Office who recognize the horses as important to the ecological fabric of the land and are willing to make them the priority on that range. NMA/CO and Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners are working through partnership and education to accomplish our goals for this herd.
To the outside world, it may seem like not much has changed here, with the helicopter-driven roundup this year. But an annual fertility control program has been implemented, and we’re on track to move to bait trapping. Our goal – and that of our BLM partners – is sustainable management with as little disruption to the wild horses of Spring Creek Basin as possible.
Everything we do is built on everything that came before – nationally and specifically. Their light is shining.
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Kootenai, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Sundance, Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act
Daughter like mama
8 12 2011
Kootenai and Mysterium – looking at Storm and Shadow.
Lots of snow. Lots of sunshine. Lots of things to love.
Comments : 7 Comments »
Categories : Kootenai, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Fun with ponies
5 12 2011Last week, I took a friend from Switzerland out to see the horses – her first visit back in almost a year. The weather cooperated with us and didn’t blow snow until we were on our way home. The grey day even broke once for some awesome light! And the horses – of course – were fabulous; we saw all but the pintos and Poco and Roach!
Update: Storm (who got Shadow back) has shaken David, who was with Duke and Kreacher! Not too far from Seven, Bounce and Tenaz.
All well on the western front. (And it has been snowing off and on since then, so we also have moisture!)
Sundance’s band – bright and beautiful and colorful and curious!
Kootenai, Mysterium and Sundance
Apollo and Raven
Mysterium and Apollo! (They are half-siblings – daddy is Kreacher.)
Big country (though not all the background is theirs to roam).
Aren’t they handsome?
Mamas everywhere will love this – love their closed eyes. Sigh. 🙂
Zoomed out to show stepdaddy Sundance and more basin background.
This cracks me up (check out Mysterium)!
Mama Kootenai and baby Mysterium
Stepdaddy Sundance and baby Mysterium
Handsome dappled boy – that’s Round Top in the background.
Sunshine! (And yes, that’s the snow coming in the background.)
Sundance and Mysterium and Brumley Point in the background. Do you see Seven? And Bounce to his left?
Stout baby goodness!
Such a handsome boy!
And what a stunner is Sundance?!
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Apollo, Kootenai, Mysterium, Raven, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Sundance
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 