Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Spoiler alert: He’s OK. Beat up, but OK.

I’ve kept some news from Spring Creek Basin under wraps for the last month or so, meanwhile wondering how was I ever going to break the news, should it be negative (again, it’s not the worst). Usually, I don’t necessarily mention the deaths of our mustangs, preferring to let them go in peace … and as you know or should know from Ranger’s disappearance, I don’t really have the words to express my grief very well anyway. Also, because of their wild nature, it sometimes takes a while to determine whether a particular horse is MIA or KIA.

Again, Hollywood is OK – beat up, but OK.

Hollywood lost Houdini to a young stallion more than a month ago, and I’ve been keeping tabs on them. She’s fine and seems peaceful in her new situation. Hollywood was then rebuffing attention from another young stallion. At his age, I was hoping he might let (another) one of the mares go and continue on with the majority of his band. … But it wasn’t to be. A couple of weeks later, I lost track of Hollywood himself, and a young band stallion showed up with Alegre, Maia, Shane and baby Odin (and he still has them, and they’re all fine). At that point, only Spirit was missing. … I finally found her with a young stallion, but within the last week, he showed up – minus Spirit – back with his young bachelor pals.

I thought maybe Spirit had found and reunited with Houdini … but no, she’s with yet another young bachelor stallion, who had been on his own recently. She seems much happier with him than with the other youngster (go figure).

But I still hadn’t seen Hollywood.

Finally, a few days ago, in a setting that seemed somewhat miraculous (maybe because I was starting to lose hope of ever seeing him again), I watched Hollywood graze his way slowly across an edge of a “meadow” area. I was hugely relieved … but upon closer inspection, he’s obviously recovering from what must have been the fight of his life. In the pic above, he looks thin. What it doesn’t show (and I’m not going to show) is that he has a strip of hide hanging from one side of his hindquarters (the gash does seem to be healing, but it’s also still draining) … and his right eye, one of his pair of most-gorgeous eyes, is pretty well shut, and by his behavior, I think he has no sight in that eye.

The hopeful news is that he’s in an area of good grazing and one of two ponds in the basin that still has water. I’m hoping he continues to heal and put on some weight throughout the summer.

Because Hollywood is so known and so loved by so many, I thought it best to give this account of his status, even if it’s (likely) the end of his era as a band stallion. When I first started documenting the herd in 2007 and met him, he had a mare, likely his first mare. I named him Hollywood because he had that air of a star about him, in the very best ways.

He may be small, but he’s also mighty, and his mares adored him. That was always obvious.

Juniper appears to wonder where Mysterium gets her energy to forge ahead on a sunny, windy day in the east pocket of Spring Creek Basin. Sometimes, I know just how she feels.

Storm’s band has a knack for staying out of sight in the back-of-beyond backcountry of Spring Creek Basin. Then, just as I’m really putting out the effort to find them – not just “casually” looking for them – they appear, in the best-most-beautiful place.

Because of course they do. 🙂

Despite our recent unsettled weather, rain remains elusive (nearly as much as Storm’s band).

(Storm himself isn’t actually in the above pic, but don’t worry, he’ll make an appearance here soon.)