When Seneca paused in her grazing to look across a little arroyo at another band that was grazing the other side, I was ready on the shutter button. On the north-facing sides of the meandering little drainage, patches of wet, wet snow were still to be found. The horses were making use of the lingering snow – as kids welcome the neighborhood ice cream truck – though they did later wander up and over to the local watering hole (known as a pond in our neighborhood ;)).
‘Tis the season! No, not mud season (well, OK, it kinda is that, too … if we had enough snow to make (more) mud), ELK season!
More elk are visible because they’re moving around as the high country opens again (another reference to our lack of snow, if you can stand it). Soon, this dry low country will be too low and too dry, and these lovelies will melt away again into the shadows of the forested country. Hopefully it will retain some moisture longer than our desert country.
It IS nice to see those La Sals with fresh(er) snow. They were starting to look a little ragged.
These were two different groups of mostly elk cows and calves (last year’s) with a few scraggly youngster bulls still following their mamas and aunties.
The lovely Terra enhances her world.
You can hike with them. You can mosey while they graze along. You can nap while they nap.
They – wild horses – are always as they are. No artifice, no guile, no pretense.
Your – my – presence is just something that ebbs and flows throughout their daily lives … most of which involves not a single human being at all.
But without my – your? our? – presence, scenes like that above, which happen most days, would go … what? Unnoticed? Unwitnessed? Unappreciated? By humans, surely.
We have so much to learn from them – from wild horses … from wild … everything.
Everybody needs a shoulder to lean on. 🙂
The tawny color of the landscape is getting increasingly bleak, but although Kestrel’s tawny coat is similar, it’s … well, better. 🙂
Sundance and one of his new mares drink at a pond with the day’s last light glowing on them. Look closely, and you can see his mane draped over her neck as she’s drinking from the same hole in the ice at the edge of the pond. 🙂
Grey, grey and brown. Fortunately, the greys help take our minds off the browns!
Pretty days now, though, are gonna make for some hard days to come this summer. …
It’s always good to see a bright splash of color in our brown land. 🙂
A new app recently downloaded to my phone tells me that I hiked 5.5 miles to find Chipeta and her band on this particular evening in the wild “backyard” of Spring Creek Basin.
Every step was worth it. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 