Kreacher feature

27 05 2012

Another blog I visit (and maybe more out there) does “Sunday stills” posts. I thought of that when I looked back through my recent pix and saw this one of Kreacher, still and at rest briefly while hanging out with Aspen’s and Hollywood’s and Chrome’s bands and other bachelors.

I loved the early sunlight on his silver coat and shining through his tail against the still-shadowed background hills.

Then, a short time later, not so still:

Kicking at Duke who, wisely, was not within reach.

Happy Sunday. ๐Ÿ™‚





Fly-by

23 05 2012

Hanging out with a few bands and a couple other bachelors during a recent visit.

No time to change settings or zoom as Kreacher went zooming past, Hollywood hot on his heels!

Spring, to me, is a time for babies. In the course of making those babies for next year, a certain amount of “stallion action” happens.

Regular readers know I don’t post much in the way of typical “fighting stallions” shots. They are the shots that are ooh’d and ahh’d over. But. With all due respect, and *in my opinion,* they’re overdone. That type of behavior doesn’t happen often (relative to the year-round cycle ofย  wild horse living). There’s SO much more to their lives. They can end up hurt – like Bounce and Copper currently. That said, it does, in fact, happen, and it’s part of life in the horses’ wild. I see it. I photograph it. Rarely, I post images showing it – if it’s unique and shows also the stallions’ grace and beauty as well as their power and strength.

And I do love the expression of their power and grace, so I look for ways to share that.

What fascinates me more than image(s) of stallions pawing the air – or each other – or even the above (knowing the cause and effect), is knowing the streams of language flowing unabated between them all – between members of bands, between bands in general, between bands and bachelors, bachelors and bands.

Kreacher was back after being conspicuously absent the day after the count, and Bounce was still there, at a distance (still limping but much better than a week or so ago). Kreacher is torn between Aspen, protecting his band (Mona and Roja and Killian), and Duke, waiting for opportunity, and Bounce, biding his time and his injury. Mona was Kreacher’s not so long ago (before she had Shane), and Roja was Kreacher’s years ago (with her mother, Molly). If I remember it so starkly, how much more richly do they remember?

I see their language as a dance of flowing streams shimmering in the air, weaving back and forth all around them – oh, to be fluent! You can see the obvious in their reactions, of course, but so much more is missed by human eyes. It can’t be captured in words or in pictures. You can SEE it … but to UNDERSTAND it?!

F.A.S.C.I.N.A.T.I.O.N.





One light, one dark

20 04 2012

Kreacher and Duke were hanging out by the dugout when I drove by the other day. I’ve seen the boys almost every visit, but they’ve been far away, so I’ve been keeping tabs on them via binoculars. This day, they were fairly close, so I walked out to say hello.

Duke. It had gotten windy, and how handsome this wild boy looks with his long locks!

They’re very comfortable together (they’ve been together for a while now), and Duke is the leader.

Basin boys.

Aspen has been hanging out alone. These boys had been keeping a watch on him earlier. Maybe they’ll bring Aspen into the fold.





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.





Far and near

19 11 2011

Duke and Kreacher are still hanging out together. It’s a loose sort of alliance, but where you find one, you find the other not too far away.

Kreacher, highlighted against the eastern hills.

Love the warmth of the light on grey Kreach, the cool blue of the shadows on the hills.

Duke. Cropped to enhance the curve of his neck and glow of his eye in the early morning light.

Love the goldenย light that turns his bay coat copper andย that serves so beautifully to enhance the wisdom through the window to his soul.





Miscellaneous

30 09 2011

These are just pix that jumped out at me when I was going through images. The pix of Sundance and Apollo were cropped from their original horizontal images.

Sundance, looking all kinda handsome.

Mysterium using mama Kootenai’s tail as a fly whisk.

Apollo – wow, huh? Look out, mares!

Duke – look how shiny he is! And those dapples coming out! Interestingly, he and Kreacher were fairly close … (interesting because Duke picked up Raven a couple of years ago right after she had Corona … he kept them until that fall, when Kreacher stole them back, injuring Duke in the process … now they’re both single guys, and someone else – Sundance – has Raven and Kootenai and the foals).

Kreacher wasn’t looking too worse for wear, though he does have quite a few new scars on his left side, from his cheek to his barrel. So he didn’t go lightly into his bachelorhood. He’s on a hill across a drainage from the hill I’m on, Duke behind me. I couldn’t see Duke anymore from where I stood here, but Kreach could see him (because we could see Kreach from where Duke was).

I think I’ve updated on all the new bands/bachelors – maybe more pix of Seven’s band. No pic of Corazon; he was way in, and I didn’t hike out to him. And like I said, I haven’t yet found three horses: David, Poco and Roach. I’m working on updating the “Find a wild horse” page; need to update the photos as well.

Good reports on all the adopted horses I’ve heard about. And really good news about adoptions/sales from Canon City. Of the four from the adoption (Pinon, Baylee, Iya and Liberty), I think all are or will be adopted but Pinon, and he’s not forgotten. I think things are being finalized for all the others that originally went.





Kreacher feature

12 08 2011

Taking a much-needed break. I’ll post some short snippets as I have time.

I found this one from July of Kreacher when he, Raven and Kootenai were trying to drink from the trickle (before we got the much-needed rains). This was also the day I watched Apollo having fun with his “old man” by playing nip-it every time Kreacher’s ears came within reach (every time he lowered his head for a drink!).





A daddy and his boy

16 07 2011

I tried to get a bunch of images posted before I went to the basin last week … Didn’t get through all of them, but I wanted to get this one out there, of Kreacher and his son, Apollo (Raven is his mama). They were trying to drink at the trickle, and Apollo thought it was great fun to go for daddy’s ears while his head was down. Kreacher, in turn, would pick his head up and mouth Apollo’s neck, dribbling water through his little mane. I could see how annoyed he was – and how thirsty – but he never lost his patience. He actually walked away at one point … followed by both Apollo and Raven … then went back. Mini-me stuck right to him. ๐Ÿ™‚

He was awesome with Corona. He’s fantastic with Apollo. I can’t wait to see him with Kootenai’s – coming.

And with the rain last week, nobody at or near the trickle. I hope that lasts for a while.





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! ๐Ÿ˜‰ ). 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.





Stallion action

21 06 2011

My friend Karen Keene Day came out to visit the horses with me last week, her first trip back to the basin since she and her husband are back in Colorado for the summer. We got to witness some changing of the guard between former dominant band stallion Steeldust and bachelor Mouse.

Steeldust was formerly in charge of the biggest band in the basin – the biggest after the roundup, with only Alpha having been rounded up (and released). (As an aside, for people who are worried about the effects of PZP and PZP-22 on mares, Alpha has been with the same band since her release, bred by just two stallions – Steeldust and Butch – and oddly enough, not only did PZP-22 apparently work really well on Alpha, she still has not foaled. (It didn’t work on the other three mares, ranging from no effect at all to a delay in foaling of two months.) The point is, she has been coming into heat since she last foaled in July 2008, and not only has she not been “raped,” the bachelors once with the band have all dispersed but one and found their own families, and the band has naturally broken up as youngsters grew up and dispersed. And, as it happens, she’s in fantastic condition – and so is her almost-3-year-old son, Storm, who has had his own band since this spring (as a 2.5-year-old).)

Mouse, the bachelor still with the band, managed to get between Steeldust and the band a few weeks ago, but Steeldust quickly re-established his dominance over Mouse, if not son Butch. Last week, Mouse had managed to turn the tables again.

Mouse, right, chases Steeldust. This photo is quite a bit cropped; the band is almost directly behind me.

Circle of life … It was hard to see Steeldust, still in his prime, so frantic to get back to “his” band, even knowing it’s nature’s way. Imagine all the stories those scars tell. When we left, though, the stallions were grazing calmly together, with Alpha and Luna and Gideon and Varoujan nearby.

The future … Varoujan

And a guy in his own prime – Kreacher

Life goes on …