New girls | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Updates

13 09 2009

No on Jif, but I have an ETA: sometime while I’m on vacation till the end of the month. Har.

Also have ETW – estimated time of work – on the two ponds: Sept. 21. Rain is falling and/or threatening every day, but the basin is still very dry. The two re-filled ponds in the east are holding, but the small pond by the entrance has dried up again.

Le petite Jif is mongo enormous. If she wasn’t so little to start with, I’d be afraid of twins.

Jif and Traveler

This photo doesn’t even do justice to the enormity of her belly. She’s bagging up but neither tight nor even full yet.

Coming into the main part of the basin, the first horses I saw were Kreacher, Mona and Kootenai … and then a grey horse and a dun horse behind them – Grey/Traveler and Jif. Uh … whoa! White spot on the hillside … it’s a mountain goat … it’s Houdini!

Count the ponies

Test your skills; how many horses do you see? Every horse in Kreacher’s and Traveler’s bands is pictured, including bachelor Chrome … who may not be a bachelor anymore …

Mona, Kreacher, Kootenai

A boy and his girls.

Queen of the hill

Two Boots was the highest of the horses. I thought it was a little strange that Grey was at the base of the hill with Jif, while all the others – including Chrome – were up on the hill, but the ole man is, well, older. Maybe he he’s scared of heights (!?), maybe he just didn’t see the need to act like a mountain goat at that particular time, maybe he was perfectly content hanging out with his expectant-mama-mare. He’s a daddy many times over; he has to know (one wonders what he thinks about her being so late in the season). Chrome was closest to Two Boots and Cuatro, as seen in the pic, but Iya and Houdini and Terra were all up there as well – to the right and slightly below.

(Wannabe) king o' da hill

Chrome stayed fairly close – while Traveler was conveniently at the base of the hill – but he was very polite. Two Boots hardly spared him a glance, the vixen.

Napping

Meanwhile, Traveler and Jif were about as calm as could be. (Belly-osity!)

Iya rocks

She’s not much in the looks department, but she was a perfect little mountain goat.

Iya, Terra, Houdini

Mama and her girls (Iya is a yearling, Terra was born May 1).

Terra and Houdini

Rockin'

It was so weird to see them on the hill among all the rocks that I could hardly get enough of documenting it. They must have thought I was crazy (har har).

Diagonal

Top to bottom: Chrome, Cuatro, Two Boots, Terra, Houdini, Iya

It was pretty windy, and the horses were protected by the hill (that’s Filly Peak, by the way; did I already mention that?). Aspen was gone again, and I thought he might have hooked back up with Hook and Twister. I did find Hook and Twister, on my way out to the east-side loop road to view Steeldust’s and Hollywood’s bands on the east-west hill. Hook and little mister Twister were out on the flats northeast of the catchment. They must have seen me (Jeep) long before I saw them, of course. When I spotted them, they were standing well off the road, facing toward me, seemingly watching the shadows roll.

Hook and Twister

Duke and Raven and Corona have taken to the mountain-goat philosophy of late as well, and they were up toward Klondike Basin. I often wonder where those horses are getting their water, and especially seeing them so high lately, I wonder where they might have found a stash, or whether they’re really walking as far as where they are and where *I* know water to be.

Do you know the saying “better to stay and watch the wildlife you see than leave to look for wildlife you haven’t seen yet”? I decided to check SD’s and Holls’ bands closer rather than driving around looking for Bounce’s or Seven’s. Piedra and Sage were barely visible – tops of their backs – in a little draw on the hill east of Steeldust’s band, and Poco wasn’t visible at all. So I decided to hang out and watch and catch up on my notes until he made an appearance. Juuuust checking, don’tcha know.

Steeldust's and Hollywood's bands

At far right is Hollywood and Baylee. See how you can’t see their legs (!)? They’re on the edge of the little draw Piedra, Sage and Poco were in – out of sight. Left of them, you can see Roach, and “below” him, Comanche. The rest of Steeldust’s band is spread out to the left.

Poco finally did appear, but it took quite a while, and it made me aware of the difficulties other people face while viewing the horses. Hmm, maybe “difficulties” is the wrong word. But people have told me, “I saw x horses” in a particular band, which I know to have y horses. Distance, light, geography – all play a part in viewing, and the moral of the story is this: Just sit awhile and watch and enjoy and let the horses reveal themselves to you. You’ll probably see more than you bargained for. 🙂

By the time Poco made his nonchalant appearance and I turned around, the sky to the north was brewing with some dark, rain-swollen clouds. Not to worry, I had earlier (unblogged) confirmed that Liberty, daughter of Molly and Seven, is indeed still with the band. I had previously seen – and reported – all her band mates. She’s very dark now and very much a muley bay. Unlike Molly’s reddish-bay – about the same color Liberty was born – the filly is much darker now over most of her body, with her muzzle and elbow and flank areas lighter tan, just like, well, some mules I’ve seen. Dear old Molly is a bit thin but no thinner than previously. Roja is a tub like always. Ze is tall and full of spunk like his daddy, and I think he may be tending toward adult grey from his baby bay.

Driving back through the flats toward the catchment, I saw Hook and Twister again … and company. Aspen was galloping across a far ridge toward them. The last time I saw them, from Filly Peak with the mountain-goats-turned-horses, all three were running on or near the road toward Flat Top.

Run, boys, run

Kreacher was watching them; that’s why I turned around – to see what he was looking at. There’s some territory between me and them, and between them and Knife Edge in the background.

Traveler’s band had come down from the hillside and moved to the other side of their little “cove” about midway down/up Filly Peak along the road. His band was still close to the base of the hill, and Kreacher’s were still closer to the road. But there was a very interesting dynamic now very apparent: Chrome was standing between Traveler and Two Boots and Cuatro.

Chrome on guard

Grey/Traveler and Houdini, Iya, Terra and Jif were back to the left. Kreacher’s band was also to the left, closer to the road. I was shooting from the road outside the Jeep.

Passing

Kreacher and Mona followed Kootenai, out of frame to right. Also out of this frame is Terra. See the edge of the boulder up at the right edge of the frame, right of Traveler? She was by that boulder.

Kreacher

And Houdini and Traveler.

Houdini and Traveler

And Kreacher. 🙂 Fun little focus exercise.

Kreacher love Mona

Right after this, he nudged too hard, and she swished her tail and walked away from him. Love ain’t easy, pal.

When Kreacher followed his girls farther west, Chrome moved to stay between them and Two Boots and Cuatro. He then pushed them out from under the tree – a few steps closer to the band – and took the tree shade for himself (so much for Mr. Polite?).

Two Boots and Cuatro

Cuatro and Chrome

I didn’t know what to think at this point. Two Boots could have walked right back over to the band, but she didn’t. So has Chrome “claimed” her … or what? I couldn’t tell, and although I earlier urged spending time with the horses, this time, I decided to leave so I didn’t interfere. Not that I could change things to suit my human-centered manifest destiny, but I’d be very happy to see Two Boots with Chrome. Especially now, with Jif so close to foaling. If Chrome gets 2B, and is happy and content, he might be more likely to leave Traveler’s band alone, especially when Jif decides she’s ready to reveal her babe to the world, which would be easier on Traveler, trying to defend his family. Counting Twister, Traveler’s is the first band since the roundup to show some kind of normal family activity with the band stallion kicking out maturing young horses (even though neither is his offspring). I keep wondering when Steely Dan is going to give the boot, err, hoof, to Butch and Sundance.

Extended family

From a different angle, you can’t tell how close – or far away – they are from each other because of lens compression.

Grey and his girl

Right now, Terra is Traveler’s only confirmed offspring, and I love how they seem to be framed here … by family.

As noted earlier, I’m headed off on a two-week adventure at the end of the coming week. I will visit the ponies on my way out of Dodge but probably won’t post another report until I return – unless the little missus delivers her baby and I can’t wait to spread the news. Among other destinations, I plan visits to the McCullough Peaks and Pryor Mountain herds … one just through a roundup, the other to go through it soon.

Angels, watch over the horses …

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Categories : Aspen, Baylee, Chrome, Cuatro, Grey, Hollywood, Hook, Houdini, Iya, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, New girls, Steeldust, Terra, Twister, Two Boots, Uncategorized

Super-quick trip

6 09 2009

With many apologies to Amanda and Billie and others who have large ranges and big herds, in about an hour and a half Friday after work, I saw all but five of my horses. 🙂 Not seen: David and Shadow and Duke’s band. No to Jif and no to the ponds. And now it’s (finally) raining. Will those couple of ponds ever get dug out to capture some of this rain?

Don’t have many pix again because it was a quick trip – chased out again by coming rain (which eventually dropped a curtain over not only Spring Creek Basin but the entire Disappointment Valley, as seen from the switchbacks on the highway above Slickrock). The most exciting thing was that I saw Seven’s band! Where else but the east pocket. I think that’s where he’s been “hiding” – easy to be invisible back there. They were back beyond the pond, so I didn’t even take any pix. I can’t confirm Liberty among them because of distance and heat waves and vegetation, but based on Molly’s body language and occasional looks to the ground beside her, I think the filly was there. Definitely saw Roja and Ze and Seven – and though they definitely saw me (Jeep), they were apparently far enough away for complete comfort so they didn’t budge at all.

I scanned the upper hills but never saw Duke’s … but guess who I did see, in almost the exact same place above the canyon as Grey/Traveler’s last weekend?! Steeldust with hangers-on. I actually saw Cinch and Bruiser first, lower. Traveler turned out to be – seen on my “where the heck is he” outward-bound drive – up in … the “northwest bowl.” Basically over the hill from the northwest dry pond. Still with Chrome. No foal. It was a pretty far distance from where I was glassing them, but I saw Jif walking around and no foal ever getting up with her. Did confirm all the other members of the band.

Kreacher’s, of course, were right by Filly Peak, and Hollywood’s and his men were right on the hill above that first curve from the boundary. Oh, and Bounce’s were back by the east pocket, too, hanging out under some trees in the sunshine ahead of the storm (which was coming up from the southeast). That little Whisper loves to stand under the trees. I’m not really sure where he learned it – duh – but most of the time I see them, they’re in the open … except him. If there’s a tree around, he’s almost always under it. 🙂

I headed home the highway way because the south end of Disappointment Valley and beyond was beyond purple with rain, but when I drove in that way, I saw the pintos – all the spots and all the solids – very near where they were last weekend.

It was a marvelous sight to look back and see all that lovely rain over the basin and the valley. But I suppose it will delay the digging out of the ponds even longer. Would have been nice to have gotten that done before the (late) monsoons.

Some pix:

Bounce's band

(Wow – I have apostrophes now.) Alegre, Bounce, Gaia and Whisper. They were just by the hill before the curve and the “triangle” to the east pocket, where Seven’s band was hanging out beyond the pond.

Nap time

Mona lying down for her nap; Kootenai standing. Kreacher was a short distance to the left.

Storm sky

That sky doesn’t look so threatening with two lovely ladies in the foreground.

Hollywood's band

On the hill above the first curve. Poco and Roach were below them closer to me. Sage is behind Piedra. By this time, as you can tell from Baylee’s sideways-blowing dreadlock and their tails, the wind was blowing pretty hard.

Into the wind

There’s young master Sage.

Windy

Must have taken it right outta their sails because they gave each other this look … then walked away.

And that was enough excitement for me. I almost made it out of the basin before the first drop fell …

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Categories : Alegre, Baylee, Bounce, Gaia, Hollywood, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, New girls, Piedra, Poco, Roach, Sage, Whisper

Taking a long view

6 09 2009

Last weekend, the weekend after Dan and Karen’s visit, I was still riding the high from my previous visit. The goals (yes, yes, never go with an agenda in mind) were to find Jif and to check the ponds for dig-out activity. No and no on both counts.

Taking to the heights was Grey/Traveler’s band – still with Chrome but not Aspen – way up … well … can you see where they were?

Mountain goats

Sorry for the long, far distance – can you pick ponies out? Can you tell where they are? That’s right up above Spring Creek canyon. The white dot is Grey/Traveler – see him? And far to the right is Chrome.

It took some long moments of watching, but I finally determined that Jif did not have a foal at her side.

Follow the leader

Kootenai and Mona following Kreacher. His legs aren’t really cut off, he’s just demonstrating the ability of this seemingly flat landscape to hide whole or partial ponies.

At the catchment trough

They followed the trail that comes up at left rear of this image and walked right on past the smaller of the two troughs. You can just, just barely see the top of it above Kootenai’s back.

Duke, Raven and Corona also were playing at being mountain goats, way up high above the “road” to Klondike Basin. I’m sure horses did once wander up there, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen horses that high – “above treeline” for what we have in the basin, so to speak.

Bounce’s band was in the east pocket toward the road from the pond. They were partially obscured by saltbush clumps, so I didn’t get any pix.

From the section of road between the dugout intersection and the boringly named second intersection, I stopped to watch Steeldust’s band, right on the west-side loop road! In addition to Aspen, Hook and Twister also were with the band. I guess Aspen got a little worn out trying to keep up with the old man …

Had four visitors in two vehicles (well, five in three, if you count me) last weekend. Non-hunters and extremely well-behaved. 🙂 I was able to talk with D&S for quite a while as we watched Steeldust’s band and bachelors in the distance.

Kreacher’s were up by Filly Peak on the way out, and Hollywood’s turned up close to the first curve from the entrance boundary (including, yes, still, Poco and Roach). Only far pix of them, and we were leaving because of the lightning strikes and lazy thunder rolls along the northeastern ridge, so it was darkling by then.

You get back from the edge this instant!

Is your stomach churning? I’m not afraid of heights, but I understand a parent’s fear seeing their child on the edge of a canyon (which I do all the time; sorry, Mom). Hmm. I guess you can’t tell from this pic or the previous one just how high they are, how long a sheer drop it is to the bottom of the canyon. That’s the canyon used by the contractors during the August 2007 roundup to collect the horses. It doesn’t look so bad in this picture because the foreground seems to run right up to the rim of rocks … but it doesn’t. Between the gentle-seeming foreground and those rocks is a steep-sided (especially on the far side, under those rimrocks), deep canyon. The horses aren’t in any danger of sliding off the edge … but good grief. You get back from that edge this instant! 🙂

Down the hill at a run

Hmm – maybe they DO listen to me! (Or not.) In the lead is Chrome, followed by Grey/Traveler, Jif (sans a foal-shadow), Houdini and Terra, Iya and Cuatro and Two Boots. Heading down to water in the Spring Creek arroyo is my guess. (Pic taken from the curve at the road to the old trap site.)

But that’s not all. On my way to the basin earlier, I had seen the backs of what I took to be Chipeta, Ty and Corazon from the Disappointment Road. So, chased out of the interior of the basin by threatening storm clouds, I went home the back way, too, hoping to see them again with a clearer view or hike in depending on the weather in that part of the herd area.

David and Shadow

Ponies heading to water.

Ponies in the sage

So to speak. I’ll wait while you count. Got ’em? Don’t miss little Milagro, nearly hidden by a saltbush or greasewood almost as big as he is. Starting at left: Kiowa and Spook, Chipeta, Copper, Milagro, Reya (Milagro is almost directly “above” Reya’s hip), Corazon and Ty. One missing … from the picture. Mesa was just to the right, out of this image.

It’s very strange doing posts so far behind. And then you, the reader, will see the most recent posts first … Almost like seeing the future of the recent past? Whew. Stand by for the next, which you already will have read by the time you get to this post.

It turned out that the only horses I didn’t see were Cinch and Bruiser and Seven’s band – and I can’t even spill the beans because you’ll already know I saw them after reading the next post, which you’ll read before this post unless you read this post in the time it takes me to write the next – first – post!

Confused? This is how the ponies seem to perpetually keep me. 🙂

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Categories : Chipeta, Copper, Corazon, David, Grey, Houdini, Iya, Jif, Kiowa, Kootenai, Kreacher, Milagro, Mona, New girls, pintos, Reya, Shadow, Spook, Steeldust, Terra, Two Boots, Ty

Visiting dignitaries

6 09 2009

That’s certainly what I consider them: Dan Elkins and Karen Herman, who visited Spring Creek Basin in mid-August to tour the herd area and meet some Wild Bunch members and our BLM herd area manager and answer questions we had about gathering horses via bait trapping and about PZP.

In June, I wrote about Dan and Karen administering the first PZP doses to mares from the Carson National Forest: https://springcreekwild.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/pzp-partnership-in-the-carson-national-forest-nm/

Learn more about Karen’s Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary here: http://skymountainwild.org/

Direct link to a story about Dan and Karen using PZP (also linked from Karen’s Web site): http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/carson-national-forest-Forest-first-to-use-contraceptive-on-wil

We learned that Karen was able to get a grant to fund the PZP program for the Carson NF mares, and that set our wheels in motion. Now we have to write a proposal asking the BLM to allow us to pursue funding to implement a PZP program – which could start as soon as this coming spring! – and agree to have Dan and Karen come back to administer it. This is the good news I alluded to when I broke the bad news about Chipeta’s colt, Joven. Best of all, Dan and Karen get their PZP doses directly from ZooMontana in Billings, so we won’t have to worry about the PZP changing hands and freezing and thawing and re-freezing and re-thawing so many times during BLM transport.

Also, our herd population stands at 49 horses (BLM does not count foals till they’re a year old), we’re still well within our AML (35-65), and so we were told the next gather likely will not be until at least 2011. In the meantime, I hope our BLM is watching the goings-on at Pryor Mountain. One thing I’m happy about there is that bands are being kept together. Also, with Matt Dillon’s documentation of the horses and MOU between the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center and BLM that they provide herd information, I’m hoping we can duplicate that partnership when it comes time to round up and remove some of our horses. I’ll never be happy about that, but I also will never condone horses starving on an overgrazed range when it could be prevented. A PZP program here will hopefully slow the population growth of the herd, allowing more horses to stay wild longer. And knowing about Dan and his method, I hope we’ll never again hear helicopter blades churning over Spring Creek Basin.

Dan and Karen are awesome. Extremely knowledgeable and friendly – it was like meeting old friends from our first handshake. My hope is that someday every herd manager in the country will know Dan and Karen. I hope a contract between them and our BLM is in our immediate future, for the horses’ sake.

Here are some random pix from that day, taken in the morning before everyone arrived:

Hannah and Sable

Butch and Storm

Pinon

Mouse and Steeldust

Sage

Hollywood

Mona, Kootenai and Kreacher

Kootenai and Kreacher

Kootenai

Mona and Kreacher

As soon as I say this, they’ll leave, but if you’re in the area to visit Spring Creek Basin, I would be surprised if, out of all those 49-plus (with foals) horses, you did NOT see this little threesome. They have been hanging out in the area surrounding the water catchment for months now. The grazing is not the best, but the water is. The other bands seem to have been going for forage over quality of water, and the only other horses I’m pretty sure have used the catchment recently are Traveler’s band and the bachelors Cinch and Bruiser. Hollywood’s band has been in that general area the past two weekends; I have not seen them at the catchment. Most recently, I saw Hollywood trying to drink from the pond area off the road to the old trap site. I did not see any water from the road, and I did not go closer … Poco and Roach followed the band past the “pond” without even stopping to try to drink.

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Categories : Advocacy, Butch, Hannah, Hollywood, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, Mouse, New girls, Pinon, PZP, Sable, Sage, Steeldust, Storm, Wild horses in the news, Work projects

Family visit

20 08 2009

In this case, the family was mine – literally. My mom and dad’s 40th anniversary (!) was last weekend, so they decided to come to Colorado for their first summer visit ever. My uncle T and cousin K also came – for their first visit to Colorado ever! Naturally, a visit to my four-legged family was high on the list.

It would have been top of the list but for the rain the visitors pushed into Colorado ahead of their visits from points southeast and west. We waited a day to allow the basin to dry out, and except for the washes across the Disappointment Road as we drove there, all was otherwise dry …

But almost immediately we saw the most beloved horse – of this family, anyway! – in the basin: Grey/Traveler’s band, still shadowed by Chrome. They were very near the road to the old trap site, and Kreacher and the girls were also close by, closer to the shallow pond – the only pond that has water currently.

All at ease

The boy with his girls and one little boy. Yes, yes, you see only two little bodies; our dear Jif is taking her own sweet time.

Shadow-Chrome

There’s Chrome at right, looking pretty worn out. I guess his plan isn’t working against the old man of the basin. The horses were considerably calmer than the first time I saw Chrome with them. Ahh … the young men, always thinking their youth is more than a match for wisdom – usually wrongly.

Away, the girls

After we had watched the horses for a few minutes, Kootenai decided to leave, so she turned and led the horses toward the pond. They paused there but didn’t drink. They ended up at the catchment, followed by Traveler’s band.

Keepin-up Kreacher

This is one young man who knows who the boss is! He followed his girls, lickety split.

Traveler’s band looked quite calm, so we headed on to see who else we could see.

Steeldust’s band was up on the northeast hills – we could see them through the binoculars. All was looking good for us getting to where they were … until we came down the hill and around the curve and stopped dead at the wash of mud and boulders where the road had previously gone over the first Spring Creek crossing. Uh oh. To be sure, there were only four boulders, and none were very big – except the first one, closest to the Jeep side of the crossing – but the whole situation stopped us as if we’d been facing a raging river. There was a bit of water still flowing from previous rains, which is always good for the horses, so it was hard to be totally upset that I’ve been able to take everyone else out to the basin to see the horses, but then when my very own family comes, I get stymied at the first major arroyo! 🙂

I do have to mention the bet my uncle lost. He bet that the dry pond by Flat Top would have water in it from the recent rain. Unfortunately, I won.

But of course, all was not lost. Grey/Traveler and his band and Chrome and Kreacher and the girls were calmly grazing west of the catchment, so we got to see them again as we drove out. (Oh, and Cinch and Bruiser were up on the hill with Steeldust’s band.)

We headed down the Disappointment Road with the high hopes of seeing the pintos. Not too far into Dolores County, my dad sounded the horse alert: David and Shadow RIGHT inside the fence RIGHT off the road! So we had a nice little visit with them while they grazed and browsed on greasewood. Shadow barely looked up, and they eventually let us slide on by while they kept on doing what they were doing! Cool!

Unfazed Shadow and David

This was our view – David looking at us and Shadow … well, not.

Two faces

Ah, and there they are, both looking at us calmly. You can see the fencepost at right. We didn’t get out of the Jeep – just shot right out the windows.

Just a little farther down the road, we had the other great good fortune to spot the pintos back in the “valley” below their old favorite hill. Mesa was on the east side of the arroyo, and the rest of the band was on the west side. We couldn’t see everyone because of hills and trees, even when they crossed to the east side of the arroyo, so I wasn’t able to get a good look at the as-yet-unnamed colts, but it was good to be able to point out those ponies that are seldom within view.

Mom and Dad, T and K, thanks so much for “meeting in the middle” and allowing me to show off my “other” family. 🙂

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Categories : Chrome, Cuatro, David, Grey, Houdini, Iya, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, New girls, Shadow, Terra, Two Boots

Earlier

4 08 2009

So … I should have posted these pix before the ones of Seven’s band and Chipeta’s new colt, but I wasn’t going to post these until I could relate the story of the whole day … and it looks like it might be awhile before I can get to all the pix, so I hope you enjoy the teasers from last Friday until I can get to the rest. I have some really lovely images of stunning Corona and her mama, so I promise it will be worth the wait.

The water situation continues to depress me, especially after seeing all the nice ponds in Sand Wash Basin – with water, not just cracked, dry depressions in the ground where water should be. Grey/Traveler was being harassed, but the fact that it was by bachelor Chrome was just something I couldn’t do anything about. Kreacher picked up the chase at the end of the day, even leaving Mona and Kootenai far behind to keep up with Grey’s band and Chrome. Maybe they didn’t want any part of it, but they always followed. When Aspen was with his band Sunday, it was at a respectful distance, and the horses were relaxed and not moving too far.

But on to happiness. When I checked Wildcat Spring – yes, water – I spied Hollywood on a hill above me, just watching me. Ha. I haven’t spent much time exploring the hills in that area, so I walked on up. The ponies have a good network of trails up there. Poco and Roach are still with them; I did take pix but didn’t tweak any of them yet. It started sprinkling out of the clear blue sky – have you ever looked straight up and had rain falling into your eyeballs, looking silver against turquoise? There was a big cloud, but it wasn’t directly above me … and I learned something new a little later: It’s hard to plan for rain coming when you can’t see it coming. I found a seat under a juniper to hang out with the ponies for a bit.

Hollywood and girls and boy

The theme of “do you think you could stand just so” kinda started with Piedra acting shy behind this little bush. This was taken from one of their trails on the side of a hill looking across a sharp drainage. The spring is basically downhill and to my left. Poco and Roach were in the trees not too far up their hill.

Photos of the babies with their mamas are lovely and aww-inspiring, but I love to see the daddies interacting with their offspring.

073109sageholls1

Sage walked over and stopped at a respectful distance. Piedra did comply with my photo direction here; she had just walked out of the frame to the left.

073109sageholls2

Then Sage made his approach. At first, Hollywood acted a little annoyed and flattened his ears.

073109sageholls3

Now look at his ears. He thinks there might be something interesting about the little mister.

073109sageholls4

Then Hollywood decided Sage was quite sturdy enough to use him as a rubbing post!

073109sageholls5

Sniffing him again. Check out the ears.

073109sageholls6

Synchronicity of tails.

Do you love those misters?? 🙂

Edge of the world

Piedra, Sage and Baylee. You can see part of the road in the distance and part of Filly Peak at far back right.

All together

Including Hollywood in the shot, and you can see more of Filly Peak in the background … which should maybe more appropriately be called Humpback Hill?

Hollywood and Baylee

This is looking almost west … like west-west-southwest-west … and the other end of Filly Peak.

Elder mister

He’s not very good at hide-n-seek. But he’s awfully cute. 🙂

It did rain then a bit later – heavier – but it was also still sort of sunny in most places. I could see the “haze” against the western hills outside the herd area that said rain, but it was weird. But the road was also starting to get gummy already by the time I got to the catchment! When I first got there, I saw Kreacher’s band and Cinch and Bruiser (as not-good as the water is, it’s better in the north than in the south, apparently), then Grey/Traveler’s out on the corral hill. Wouldn’t you know it, by the time I got to the flats below the catchment on my way out – in the rain – and did I mention the road was getting gummy and a hit to the brakes meant a bit of a slide in the wet before actual stoppage – they were right off the road? Confirmed that it was Chrome with them – and so Twister still away (and he’s with Hook, at least) – and no foal for le petite dun Jif. OK, OK, I’m leaving already. I went down the county road to see if I could catch enough of a glimpse of the pintos to see Chipeta and/or walk in to them – nada. A couple of hours later, it was sunny and warm and breezy enough, I decided to try the road into the basin again – no problem-o.

Horses and hills and sunshine and shadows

Left to right: Cuatro, Two Boots, Iya, Grey/Traveler, Jif. Houdini and Terra (still OK) were to the right. Chrome was to the left … and now for a wider view …

Love that after-rain light

I know the horses are small, the land large, but can you make out who’s there? I love the graphic quality of these photos, by the way. This is looking sort of east-east-northeast-east. I don’t think there’s ever an easy single direction anywhere out there! They’re up in the area by the catchment – I think I took this from some point alongside Filly Peak – but although I have confirmed Kreacher and the mares drinking from the catchment troughs, I haven’t yet seen Grey’s band drinking there (and to go slightly off-topic for a minute, I did see Cinch and Bruiser very close to the troughs Sunday). Chrome was (mostly) dogging them pretty hard – he’s the grey at far left in these seemingly quiet moments – so they kept moving and moving – they went down off the “edge” south of the catchment to the flats, then ended up moving toward Spring Creek – north-northeastish. And in the foreground? Left to right: Kootenai, Kreacher and Mona. Just “above” Kootenai are Terra and Jif, and then Houdini out to the right. Horses to the left of Jif same as in the picture above this one.

From here I also spotted Steeldust’s band up in the north hills above the northwest road. Those ponies think they’re mountain goats lately. Driving out to see them, I found Duke, Raven and Corona! Now that was a hoped-for treat, having just seen Raven’s former band stallion and Corona’s likely daddy in Sand Wash Basin!

I hate to leave ya’ll hanging, but as of now, I have just one tweaked photo. Time … it’s all a matter of time. A full-time job, a taking-its-sweet-time computer. I’ll put up more soon; I promise.

Duke

This might be one of my favorite pix of the boy. Isn’t he handsome? They were watching Steeldust’s band in the trees up on the hill, so I walked way out around them to get better light.

And it’s late again …

I must have been happy to see my ponies – I took lots and lots of photos – I was on my second memory card before I left. Always great to visit other horses, but it’s great to be home. 🙂

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Categories : Baylee, Chrome, Cuatro, Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Iya, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, New girls, Piedra, Sage, Terra, Two Boots

Some lovelies, some fun

3 07 2009

Agendas. Who needs ’em? Experience has taught me to chuck out any idea of an agenda when visiting the wild ones, and my latest visit was no exception. I had two goals: Find Jif (belly watch) and find the pintos (check the mares). Well, I found the pintos!

Lovelies

First pony sighting (I drove in the herd area first) was Duke, Raven and Corona up on a hill by the second intersection, but first close pony sighting was Kreacher and the girls, right by Filly Peak.

Dun and grey and blue

From the road, looking southeastish.

Earth and sky

Mona, Kootenai and Kreacher – always love to see them!

Spotted Steeldust’s band – with Aspen, Hook and Chrome – way up in the northwest valley by the road. Hollywood and his mob were on the flats north of the first Spring Creek crossing (dry as a bone). (Pond by the road to the old trap site still has a bit of water.) Duke and the girls a little higher on the hill beyond the second intersection.

Closing in on the Wildcat Spring area, I looked over to find Bounce and family near the road – coming from water there?

Alegre, Whisper and Gaia

Prepare yourselves for an overabundance of cute-Whisper images.

Daddy and his boy

Look how light his face is already becoming.

Little brother, big sister

The youngsters.

Now, prepare thee for chuckles!

Silly face

Whisper trying to get Gaia’s attention – caught in mid-bite.

Nya nya

Whisper shows what he thinks of the photographer. 🙂 What a personality this little mister has!

Shade tree

Daddy used this tree for shade and to get away from the gnats (beware: they’re back), and Whisper kept going back to see what Daddy found so interesting about it.

More lovelies

Only sweet bright-penny Gaia missing from this shot.

Sleepy

Cropped in – sorry Bounce.

How much cuteness can you stand? I finally left the ponies and continued on.

Seven and his family were very calm back beyond the east-pocket pond. Darkish clouds were rising to the west, so I didn’t stop to check the status of that pond; presume it still dry. No Grey, nowhere. Cinch and Bruiser (!) on the crest on the eastern end of the east-west hill. Kreacher and the gals had moved to the very slope at the middle of Filly Peak as I drove out. There were two “columns” of rain up in the Disappointment, but what really looked threatening was coming over the western hills. As it turned out, those columns – which looked so innocent and were not my main incentive to driving out of the basin – turned to full waves of rain all along the northwestern, northern, eastern and southeastern length of the basin!

Shut out on my goal of finding Grey/Traveler, I was hoping to see the pintos from the road to have a better shot at hiking in right to them as opposed to hiking in and wandering around trying to find them. I was thinking about last year, when I could almost always count on them being on or near their “favorite” hill, and how that hasn’t been the case this year … when I found them on the slope of their favorite hill! I saw the baby right away through the binoculars, so I parked at dysfunction junction and hit the dirt, rain jacket in my backpack (I remembered), just in case. I never needed it, but it did sprinkle on us while I was waiting for Mesa to pick his one spot clean and join the others. I never knew whether they saw me … have to think they did? Took some long shots and headed back to the Jeep – in full sunshine.

In line

Kiowa and the baby leading, Spook, then Chipeta (check out that belly), Copper and Corazon. Reya was right behind them, and Ty and Mesa brought up the rear.

Wide-angle zig zag

Same basic composition as in the previous post, but baby is so little, she kinda gets lost in this shot.

Happy Independence Day, everyone. Hope you all have a safe weekend!

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Categories : Alegre, Bounce, Chipeta, Corazon, Gaia, Kiowa, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, New girls, pintos, Spook, Ty, Whisper

Spring in the wind

11 04 2009

Tis the season of deja vu. Work obligations Saturday sent me to the basin Friday, and glad am I that I went, for what I found and for the fact that it snowed again most of the day today!

The horses had a few human visitors Friday, including some on horseback. Grey/Traveler was standing guard against a truck and trailer parked up on the road to Flat Top while his band grazed down in the valley below the water catchment. Kreacher and the girls were out on the northeast side of the finger hills watching riders who gave them wide berth. Bounce and his girls were out on the southeast end of the “east-west hill,” close to Knife Edge. One dark horse was back to the northwest, sort of north of Spring Creek at the trap site. Duke? That was all within my first 15 minutes in the basin.

Because of hills and distance, I couldn’t quite tell if the single dark horse I saw was Duke, so there was nothing else to do but take a walk. The wind was at about mid-throttle – very tolerable given the insanity of the past few weekends.

Very happy surprise to walk up over a modest saddle to find not only our bay boy Duke but Chrome and Hook back with him! And an unexpected visitor.

Prongs

It’s not uncommon to see pronghorn antelope in the basin, not even alone, but this guy figures into the tale, so I’ll include his portrait. He was lying down when I first saw him, on a hill above the horses, protected from the wind, but his back was to me. He got up, and I turned my attention back to the horses. When I looked back at him, he had laid back down as you see in the pic! I wondered if he was hurt, but he didn’t seem to be.

Hook and Duke

Chrome

Chrome kept looking over his shoulder like he expected another pronghorn to pop up and run by.

Pronghorn saunter

When the buck walked down off his hill, the boys watched him very carefully.

Spooky boys

And it gave them an excuse to gallop.

Watching

But then they circled back to just below the hill to watch the buck cross an arroyo and continue up a far hill and out of sight.

Hearts

Do you see the way their heads and bodies seem to form a heart?

Hmph

Duke was sound and seemed well, if a bit grouchy. I couldn’t find any outward sign of why he might have been missing last week. I was glad to find him, and glad to find him with his pals. Something interesting: They were quite a distance from the big band, something Aspen may want to consider …

When I got back to the Jeep, another truck and trailer was visible with visitors. I never did see the original three riders again. I stayed north at the dugout intersection, intending to look for Kreacher and the girls where I had seen them last, but from the road you can look down to the south and see the bottom land you can’t see from up on the west-side road. If I’ve cautioned against having an agenda in the basin once, I’ve done it a thousand times, eh? Guess who I spotted? So I turned around and took the fork to cross Spring Creek again, headed south. The first crossing is wet, but the second is completely dry.

Kreacher and the girls were looking toward the east-west hill (can I just say and call it done that the hill really runs sort of northwest-southeast, but it’s easier to type “east-west”?) but not really toward Bounce, Alegre and Gaia, who were up higher at the end of Knife Edge toward the crest where they could have dropped into the valley between that ridge and Lizard Mesa. I watched Alegre quite intently through the binoculars for several minutes because I couldn’t quite tell if she was sporting an extra set of legs – ha. Call me expectant. She wasn’t – sporting extra legs. She should be within two weeks, give or take.

I decided to continue driving because I hadn’t yet spotted Steeldust’s band, and I also wanted to look for Poco, Bones and Roach to check Bones’ progress.

Ah ha! Poco, Bones and Roach, way out on the southwestish side of the far end of the roller-coaster ridge (past where the road goes over to the east side). And then another nice surprise: the big band, napping right at the intersection to Round Top. I parked short of them and took a closer look through the binoculars.

I always make sure all the ponies are accounted for … and they were … but wait a minute …

Do you see what I see?

Steeldust at left, and Luna. You can’t see him very well, but Sundance is on the other side of them. Butch in the middle, Storm at right (such a handsome boy!), and Mahogany behind him. Also over there were Alpha, Pinon and Ember and Kestrel. Farther out was Mouse. To the left were Aspen and Co., but let me wait a minute before we get to them. What’s that at Luna’s feet?

Holy baby!!!!!!! I have to say, I didn’t quite expect to see a foal this weekend. Luna was first to foal last year, too, but Ember was born April 18 or 19 (I like to pin it to April 18). Friday was a full week earlier than that.

I started to walk out on the road, trying to decide if I could drop down off the ridge and skirt around them without worrying them. Then I heard the truck and trailer coming behind me. I decided the best course of action was to walk back, tell the people in the truck there was a brand new baby with the band and ask if they would wait until the horses finished their nap and moved away from the road.

As it turned out, the man driving the truck was born in Telluride and knew the country quite well. We had a great conversation – though it was sometimes hard to hear him over the wind. He lives in California now and has worked on Thoroughbred racehorse farms most of his adult life (he’s now “nearly 70”). He brought his cousin and two horses, which they rode later. It was pretty cool to hear him talk about some of the history of the land and the horses and roundups past, horses he has ridden and rodeos at which he has competed. I hope I get this right: He won the calf roping at the Norwood rodeo seven times! They ended up turning around there and drove back toward the dugout, then parked along the road to unload their horses and enjoy a ride in the basin.

While we were talking, the horses woke up, and the stallions started messing around. It seems like Butch and Sundance are finally starting to feel their oats – are they 3 this year? Four? Three and 4? The “pink” boys are silly boys. They started moving, and I’m still somewhat surprised to report that after I visited them, and after I visited Poco and Co., and after I drove away … at least an hour and a half after I first saw them? … they were still moving, heading to Round Top from Flat Top! Those rowdy boys.

But let’s back up. You’ve been waiting, and … but of course I have baby pix! 🙂

Oh, wait; first, the promised pic of Hollywood, guarding “his” band, which just so happens to contain the stallion that stole “his” mares.

The breakaways

Hollywood at left; Aspen with Baylee, barely visible behind him, and Piedra.

Welcome to your family

Little Hannah girl. Such a little thing and now famous! Mama Luna at left, and big sister Kestrel, now 2, at right. I’ve been wondering for a while whether the pink boys are descended from Luna. They did stay rather close … or was it my imagination?

Snuggly

Luna-dear is an old hand at mothering. If she’s 10 – I suspect she’s close, one way or ‘tother – this is possibly her eighth foal! She did not seem at all concerned with me, focusing instead on eating everything palatable within reach.

Baby, meet baby

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. Storm is no longer the baby of the family! I love his expression; I can’t imagine what he’s thinking.

Keeping up

Luna didn’t exactly ignore her baby, but she didn’t coddle her, either. This might be a good place to say I think Hannah is at least a couple of days old (I put her birthday at Wednesday, April 8). She doesn’t have that newborn look anymore, and she wasn’t so new that Luna was constantly checking and nuzzling her. She expected baby to follow, and baby did!

Hannah

Isn’t she a doll?!

Peace

Welcome to your world, sweet baby girl!

All calm

Meanwhile, Aspen and Co. were following the band at a respectful distance.

Beeline

Piedra started walking toward me, and Baylee was not quite sure that was the wisest move.

Making a run for it

Apparently, Baylee dawdled too long because Comanche came calling. The butt straight out is Mouse’s, and he’s directing Steeldust’s horses away from the fray.

Get lost, buddy

Then Aspen, who had been trying to protect Piedra from Hollywood, came running back to the rescue. The grey in the background at right is Steeldust.

Eye of the storm

Piedra tried to ignore the chaos swirling around her (but note the ear). Baylee is just happy to be back at her side. Aspen – you can see his head just over Piedra’s hindquarters – cut Comanche off … but Hollywood was about to make his move.

Around and around

Now see what I meant earlier when I said Aspen would do well to put some distance between himself and the band (again)? Personally (and not-so secretly), I’d love to see Holls get the mares back, but if Aspen stays in the vicinity of the big band, I’d wager that the dynamics of this little band are going to change, or Aspen is going to be run ragged – or both.

Comanche

This guy is pretty burly. It’s only a matter of time before he starts to collect a harem, I think, though there are only so many to go around.

Pinon and Ember

Pinon is a month from his first birthday; Ember is just a week away!

Keeping the girls in line

Steeldust had his hooves full trying to keep his ladies together, but Mouse seems to be pulling his weight.

Still a baby

Don’t grow up too fast, little man. Pinon with Mouse.

The ponies moseyed on, and I sat awhile longer, marveling at the horses and all the behaviors and interactions I’m privileged to witness. Really amazing. They crossed the arroyo I was sitting at the edge of, and I waited until they had dropped out of sight over the next little ridge, then went on back to the intersection.

Poco, Bones and Roach had gone out of sight from that side of the roller-coaster ridge, so I drove on that way to see if they’d gone to the other side. Sure enough, they were down by the squishy arroyo on the east side of the ridge. I watched them from the Jeep for a while, then turned around and headed back. Bones looks like she could foal at any time … Fingers crossed she safely delivers a healthy foal.

Mountain majesty

Looking northwest, look who I spotted right on the west-side road! I stopped to scan for Bounce and the girls toward Knife Edge or down toward the arroyo below the road, but I didn’t see them. By the time I got moving again, Kreacher and the girls had dropped out of sight – again.

I decided to go down and see if any water had collected in the pond by Flat Top. Hook was a short distance west of the road, acting as lookout. I caught a glimpse of Duke but didn’t see all three of them until later, on my way out. And I got another surprise because Kreacher and the girls had gone slightly southwest and up toward that north-south road that goes between the Flat Top pond and the main road. After them disappearing and re-appearing all day, I finally had the chance to see them from a closer vantage, which gave me the chance to check on Raven.

Three girls

Kootenai, left, Raven and Mona right on the north-south road.

Kreacher

I think the ponies aren’t so used to a lot of visitors like they had Friday, so they seemed a little more nervous than usual.

Kootenai

Mona

Raven

Compare the bellies

I’m just sayin’ … Maybe she’s just an easy keeper …

They went on up the road, so I decided to turn around rather than follow them and have them feel pushed. Once back out on the main road, guess who else I found? Only my very favorite boy!

Lowlanders

Between them, Grey/Traveler and Houdini-mare are wise, wise ponies. They were down in this shallow arroyo, at least semi-protected from the wind. It did turn out to be another very windy day, but the moisture we’ve gotten recently (snow last Saturday) seems to have glued some of the dirt to the ground, so we didn’t have the major dust storms we’ve had lately.

All at attention

Well, except Mr. Twister, snoozing in the protection of the ladies. You can’t see their whole bodies here, but look how big Iya’s face (center, bald face/big blaze) is compared with older sister Two Boots’, next to Twister, behind Jif. Maybe it’s the marking, and maybe it’s that Iya has a big Roman nose and Two Boots is quite a bit more refined, but Iya is one big girl (and her first birthday is coming up in about two weeks!).

Is it summer yet?

I noticed that some of the horses didn’t seem quite as fuzzy as they had even last weekend, but check it out: Jif is shedding!

Testing her limits

Where have you seen this before? Cheeky Jif tries to outrun her stallion …

Ducklings

… while the youngsters crowded around mama Houdini, who went the opposite direction. I thought that was funny. 🙂

Pied piper

Traveler, of course, brought his wayward young mare back to the fold, but how she ended up at the head of the line, only she knows. She has just a little belly, but Houdini is bulging at the seams.

And there you have it. Duke and his pals were all visible in the “flats” east of the catchment. I think I didn’t stop smiling all the way home. 🙂 A beautiful new baby, a missing boy found, a day in the wild. Could it have been a better day? I can’t quite see how.

One down, eight to go? We shall see!

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Alpha, Grey, Hannah, Hollywood, Houdini, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Luna, Mahogany, Mona, New girls, Pinon, Raven, Steeldust, Storm

Dust bowl basin

25 03 2009

“If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes and it will change.”

I’ve heard that phrase spoken by locals in different states, and it’s true in all of them. Weather is especially changeable at the cusp of seasons, and as Friday was the first day of this year’s spring, was it any wonder that although March purred into beginning as a pussycat, by the second day after the beginning of a new season, the winds were roaring like a lion?

Sunday started with blue skies and fluffy white clouds and a wind howling like a … what howls with more power than a banshee? I’d never felt it so terrible. The wind was rude and pushy – literally. I do believe it carried and deposited half of Arizona into (at least) Southwest Colorado. By mid-afternoon, there was about 300 pounds of dirt per square air inch. One of the freakiest things I’ve ever seen.

Within minutes of driving into the basin, I spied Kreacher and his multi-color girls in their current favorite haunt along Spring Creek north of the first crossing. Compared with the wind, I was a creature not worthy of much attention.

Into the wind

Raven, Mona and Kreacher at ease. Is that a belly I spy …?

Napsters

Kootenai snuck up behind Raven, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Outward bound

Not even when Kootenai drove Mona away did Raven get involved.

Wind in her hair

The epitome of innocence (not).

Do you notice the abundance of sunshine? The blue sky?

I headed out toward Round Top, having seen many of the northern horses in that area in recent visits. Bounce and his lovely girls were at the east end of the (south)east-(north)west hill, open to the punishment of the wind. No one else was exposed to the fury. I kept driving.

By the time I got to the double ponds, I hadn’t see another horse. The wind was howling. It was – obviously – dry. The road was amazingly dry.

I thought I might find horses back in the east pocket. Nope. I did check the pond there. Water? Check. I thought I might find horses around every bend. Nope. The road was never bad enough to turn back. Dry. So dry. Where on Earth were the horses??

Finally, almost to the cutoff road to Horse Park, I spied Steeldust and his band and hangers-on below the long east-west hill, maybe somewhat protected from the worst of the wind. I turned around and headed back to a place closer to hike out.

The wind was enough to actually push me backward when I stopped to look around when I topped a hill farther south than where I had thought the horses would be. I thought I caught a glimpse of them around the bend, below the hill, but I decided to cross the little valley and see if Bounce, Alegre and Gaia were still in the same place I had previously seen them. When I topped the next hill, I found Bounce facing into the wind, watching … Steeldust’s band heading down the hill toward the far road.

Bounce at attention

I sat down in the wind (the better to be steady in the gale) to watch Steeldust’s horses through the binocs, and when I looked back at Bounce’s band, he was bouncing up to me, trying to figure out where the heck I had appeared from.

Alegre and Gaia

Let me tell you, shooting with the barrel of my lens straight into the jaws of the howling beast was, uh, not impossible but difficult as hell. Pretty, pretty girls.

I didn’t stay with them long. It’s hard to even describe the power of that wind, so I’ll let the next couple of pictures illustrate it.

Dust bowl

Do you recognize Filly Peak? Do you even see the outline of Filly Peak? I promise, it’s out there like a whale beached in the fog of the sea.

Brumley in the dust

The wind was out of the south, so (I guess) that’s why there was still some visibility to that direction. Meanwhile, it was all settling in the north of the bowl, err, basin.

Exit plan

You might be able to barely pick out the road down to the trap site in the upper middle part of this photo. Straight out is the first hill you drive in past the cattle guard and interpretive sign.

The road to oblivion

Filly Peak again, a little later but a little more visible – at that moment in time.

Renegades

The (at least) two cows and calves still in the basin. Their time was up the end of February. At least two other trucks were in the basin Sunday, but I don’t know whether they were related to the bovines.

Not in Oz anymore

This photo of Mona, Raven, Kootenai and Kreacher was taken about four-ish hours after the blue-sky pictures of Mona, Raven, Kootenai and Kreacher. Don’t adjust your monitors. These pictures were sharpened only – no other tweaking for contrast or color (I usually only boost contrast and sharpen anyway). That’s what it looked like. Spooky as all get out. This is from the road in the “flats” just below the water catchment looking north.

My Grey/Traveler boy and his family were down in the valley south of the catchment where it opens to the valley that runs southeast between what I called “bachelor ridge” last year and the hill above (east of) the hill above the corral off the county road. Did you get all that? They were hunkered down finding their own protection from the wind.

It was still daylight – sort of, in an eerie, horror-film kind of strange Hollywood-film way – so I headed out of the herd area and south on the county road with the idea that I’d park and hike back into the basin to look for the pintos and/or David and Shadow and/or Cinch and Bruiser – whichever came first and/or at all! This brings up another question for photographers: What white balance setting do you use when it’s not cloudy or shady or sunlit? Or otherwise? When it’s like looking through dusted rose-colored glasses – except the only reason you’re still wearing your shades is because your eyeball sockets are now the repositories of about 13,000 pounds of grit – each. I set white balance to auto. I never set white balance to auto.

Guess who I found right beside the road??

Painted ponies

And Copper, who suffers from being boringly solid (but shhh, don’t tell him!). Bonus points: Can you pick out the other boy in this image? Right to left: Spook, Reya, Kiowa and … Corazon … BETWEEN Copper and the girls?! As far as I know, Copper-nicus is still king among the spots, but he wasn’t at all worried about Corazon there. In fact, while I was watching them, it occured to me that no one passing by on the road who stopped to watch would know that this modern, dysfunctional family contains four boys, two mature ladies and two young ladies, let alone who was who or which or what. It works for them, eh?

Mesa

Auto white balance in a rose-dust world. Weeeeeird.

Girl between boys

Stallion Corazon, left, Chipeta-girl and stallion Ty.

Flirty girl

Chipeta chooses Ty.

Rejected girl

What is he, nuts?!

Copper and Kiowa

Easy-going.

Kiowa and Spook

The trouble with weaning your babies is that you then have to compete with them for every blade of chow on the ground.

I’d like to interrupt the progression of photos for just one minute and say that this was my best visit ever – bar none – with the pinto band (and their boys). For whatever reason, alpha-Kiowa-girl was cool as steel in the face of that blustering howler, and so was everyone else. Crazy wind isn’t usually the kind of weather where you expect your horse to be calm as a cucumber – am I right? Thank you, painted ponies!

Sissies

As in “sisters.” As in ain’t scairt of a huffy little wind that hides the sky and tangles the hair. Reya, big girl of almost 2, nuzzles baby sister Spook, who has a first of May birthday coming up.

Lookin-good girl

I wanted to include this pic of Kiowa because she’s looking good with baby weaned and winter (almost) over. She has some fat over her ribs, which were visible just a few weeks ago when last I saw her.

So it took a little longer than 10 minutes for the weather to change from blue to rose, but by the time Monday morning rolled around, it would change again – to white. 🙂 Stay tuned.

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Alegre, Bounce, Corazon, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mesa, Mona, New girls, pintos, Raven, Ty

Celebration

15 03 2009

Until I got to this point, I thought I had a lot to say about my most recent visit with the horses. Now, again, I’m speechless. The last time I was in the basin with them, I felt like I had walked into a painting, a place with the most lovely light and subjects so heavenly I could only weep with joy. The weather last weekend wasn’t so great, and I was still riding the high of the gift that was the previous weekend, so Saturday was my first visit in two weeks – it felt like forever.

Last weekend, I saw all the horses; this weekend, only the northern horses with the exception of Bounce and his girls. But – again – it was one sublime experience. It was sunny; it was cloudy. It was warm; there was a nip to the air. It was calm; it was breezy. The horses were as relaxed as I’ve ever seen them, I was the only two-legged for miles, and it was a day beyond treasure. Yes, again. I’m doing my best to spread the karma.

Piedra, Baylee and Aspen

These ponies were the first I saw, in the flats by Spring Creek where Kreacher had his girls the last time I saw them.

Hollywood

Yep, he’s still with ’em.

Bored Baylee

Leggy girl got bored watching me with the others, so she started grazing.

Come on over

I guess Hollywood thought he was being ignored, so he trotted over.

Come closer

Which, of course, made Aspen get a little closer to the girls.

Hanging out

One little happy (kinda) family.

Horses and clouds

And there they stayed while I walked back to the Jeep.

At that point, the only other four-leggeds I had seen were two cows – black and black baldy – both with tiny calves – in the valley below the water catchment, so I hooked down across Spring Creek again and up onto the road headed toward Round Top. Beyond eyesight, I caught sight of Mona, Kootenai and Kreacher way out on top of the east end of the east-west hill. Raven was out of sight. Also from the road, I spotted Grey and Houdini and Jif and the kids out toward Flat Top … and farther out between Round Top and Flat Top, Seven and his girls. I parked at Round Top and hit the trail. I decided to go find the threesome first because they were farthest away. By the time I got to the far trail, they had dropped down to the valley below the saddle.

Seven

Seven, if he was aged correctly by the contractors at the roundup, is coming on 9 this year. The wind was brisk by this time, so I dropped off the saddle on the calm side of a ridge and hunkered down where I could see the boy around the corner. I had seen the girls from the top, so I figured he’d go toward them and I could inch out to the end of the ridge and sit there and watch them. But no, he decides to walk in the opposite direction, which put him right down the hill from me – and me in plain sight. I sat there long enough in an uncomfortable position on the side of the ridge that my right leg and foot went to sleep. Ugh. Can you feel the pins and needles? It finally did wake up as I shifted weight as slowly as I could so I wouldn’t startle him. Finally he walked back toward the mares, and I could wake up my leg and move down to where I could see them all. He went behind some trees, so I went down the hill and over another, lower ridge, where I got in position among the roots of a gnarled old pinon (or juniper; I didn’t actually pay attention to which), which gave me a nice little frame to shoot through, though I was still pretty much in plain sight.

Roja, Molly and Seven

I kept thinking they’d hear my shutter click, at least, but the wind must have blown the sound away.

Seven going on 9

(Any Star Trek fans?) I think I know why Seven didn’t see me – he grazes with his eyes closed.

Molly and Roja

You can see old Molly is a bit on the thin side (she should NOT have a foal this year), and you can see just as well that pert Roja is as chubby as a fall apple (should be a baby in there).

I watched them for a bit then quietly got up and walked back up the nearest ridge to the saddle. Seven saw me and watched me walk away, but if the mares saw me, they never even looked up. Great visit with these wary ponies.

I picked up the trail to the yucky water hole to pick up the trail to the other water hole which leads on out around Flat Top. Got a yucky surprise.

Yucky from a distance

It’s almost dry! Just two weeks ago there was more water. It’s never been a big puddle, but now it’s almost just mud.

Yucky close up

There is water to the top of that awful pipe, which is jagged all around its top edge. There’s more water at the next puddle, but there’s also another pipe – under the surface of the water and also jagged. All you horse folks out there are cringing just like I was. I can’t believe a horse hasn’t stepped on or in that pipe yet and sliced his or her pastern open (good karma! good karma! good karma!). At the rate things are drying up out there … well, please help me pray for rain – or more snow. March is typically our wettest month, but it’s been dry and windy so far. No pix of the other water hole because I had put my camera back in my backpack.

When I got down (up? north) to Grey/Traveler and his band, only Jif was above the arroyo, and she was headed into it. If she saw me coming, she didn’t acknowledge me. So I waited until they came up to graze, then went down to investigate what they’re drinking. I didn’t take pix, but it will look like the picture where Bones was drinking later in the program – from muddy hoof prints. Dry, peeps; it’s damn dry out there.

Are you ever so happy, so in love, the emotion spills out of you in waves of tears? Guys, you can stop reading; I know this is the equivalent of a chick flick. Girls, am I right?

Rose-colored hills, silver stallion

Is he not gorgeous? He amazes me.

The light was crazy. Clouds were low on the southern and southwestern horizon when I got there in the morning, but during the day, they covered the sky, they parted, they played tag with the ridges and hillsides, they turned Spring Creek Basin into a painter’s canvas, and the horses moved through that light like angels. I swear to you, it was unbelievable.

Grey and rose

He came to stand at the edge of the arroyo while I stood in the bottom. He cocked a hip and listened to me ask for just a little more wild horse medicine for my friends (one of whom came through surgery last week with flying colors and a great prognosis). He stood in the wind and made my heart sing.

Grey and youngsters

The babies tried not to act very curious – Twister at left, Two Boots at right.

Twister and Traveler

A little land, a lotta sky.

Comfort

Twister, right, adores Two Boots and doesn’t mind telling her so.

Two Boots

Houdini’s daughter Two Boots will be 2 around April 21. She was born black.

Greasewood buffet

Twigs, that’s all that is. How do they get nutrition from twigs? Iya and Jif snack on twigs and look great.

Iya

Big baby girl will be 1 on April 27! She still has a glint of red in the right light, but from a distance, she looks black.

Shades of grey

Houdini and Grey/Traveler

Expectant mothers

First (that I know of) for Jif, many-th for wise girl Houdini.

Sunlight and shadow

See what I mean about that light? This is looking to the north, maybe slightly northwestish.

Youngsters

Iya, Two Boots and Twister follow the adults to the arroyo, which they crossed.

Pyramid

On the other side. I like their arrangement, even though not a one of them is paying attention to me anymore.

It was a good walk back to the Jeep from where they were, and I had spied glowing Alpha up by the roller-coaster ridge, so I walked on toward them. They were out in the open when I got to them, grazing and moseying toward-ish Round Top, with the boys bringing up the rear.

Duke and Chrome were standing together again, and Hook was a short distance ahead of them, toward the band. These boys are the remnants of the Bachelor 7. Kreacher won the new girls; Aspen hung out with Hollywood until he stole those girls; Mouse slid into Hollywood’s old lieutenant spot reporting to Steeldust; Comanche, who was with Aspen until Aspen won the girls, is sort of Mouse’s sergeant now. So Duke, Chrome and Hook stick together loosely, wandering after the big band. And they’re all still hanging out down there in the roller-coaster ridge area, probably because there’s still water in that pond. It’s shrinking like the wicked witch, but it’s the best source of water out there now – still.

Boys

Duke, left, Chrome and Hook when Hook got nervous and ran back to Duke and Chrome.

Play time

When I was walking toward them, before I had the camera out, I saw Chrome and Hook mix it up. A few minutes after Hook rejoined the boys, he and Duke had a little talk. Who’s the common denominator there? Although in this case, at least, Duke was the instigator.

Back to normal

Knife Edge getting the sunshine as I left the boys to go see the family.

Hook

Almost forgot this one of Hook. He really did have a little hook at the end of his snip once, I promise. Still has a hint of his rosy shade.

Mahogany

Looking for a mid-May baby from this gal.

Pinon

Tall, dark and cute as a bug! He’ll be 1 around May 13.

Pinon and Daddy

Steeldust was pretty content … but just wait.

Belly-rific!

Luna-girl was first to foal last year.

Ember

Old-soul girl will be 1 around April 18.

Luna and her babies

Kestrel, right, will be 2 this spring.

Storm snack

Do you see the crazy-light beauty I was blessed with?!

Storm and Alpha

Our little Storm-chaser is closing in on his 8-month birthday. Big boy.

Hey, look over there

This was immediately after Steeldust had a little chat with Comanche – a little reminder, really. Steely Dan is looking back at the bachelor boys; Comanche may be looking at deer (I saw them later).

Taking action

Comanche may have missed the message, though, because right after that, Steeldust took off after him. The butt just at the edge of the frame is Mouse’s.

Frustration

Then Steeldust left Mouse in charge of putting the point on the argument; Comanche at right.

Back again

And Steeldust moved the band back in the direction from which they had just come. (Again, that light!)

Now a little visual story:

Just walking along

Kestrel and Sundance. All looks well so far, but note the ear.

Perturbed

Now she’s feeling crowded – you know how boys can be – so Kestrel pins her ears and shakes her head at Sundance (who might, maybe be her brother).

Intervention

And that’s when mama Luna steps in.

Punishment

Swift and sure are mama’s teeth! I don’t know if you can see it in this small pic, but she actually has a hunk of hide in her teeth! I don’t know if Luna had a goal in mind, if she went for Sundance because daughter got out of the way, but it sure put an end to that mischief!

At some point while I was with the band, I had spotted Poco farther eastish, so when the band swapped directions, I went on out to say hi to P, B & R – couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Copper in a cloud of dust

Roach apparently thought I was one of the bachelors when I first approached because he came trotting out to greet me (they were some distance away but visible). I wish this photo even began to do justice to the scene, but Roach was just glowing like he was in a spotlight from the heavens. Once he realized it was me, though, he turned around and walked back to his pals.

Guardian

See them all? Bones through Roach’s legs; Poco at right.

Bones went down to get a drink, and Poco turned to watch after her.

What do you see?

Lemme tell you what I see. She’s so relaxed she’s not even looking at me while she drinks down in an arroyo (where I’m standing is low, but in front of her is a big “wall”). I see muddy water filling sandy hoof prints (this is what it looked like where Grey and family were drinking). I see a big belly … And you can see how her right hip bone sticks up.

Show is over

Just for laughs. 🙂

See ya

Soft light on the big red boy.

And that was the end of that visit. I didn’t know if Poco and Roach had been down to drink yet at that point (I didn’t think so), so I left ’em to it and headed back toward the Jeep. At this point, I was on the northeastern side of Round Top, kinda near where that weird guzzler is, if you know where that is.

When I got back up on the flattish area where the band was (flat as in no arroyos for at least 100 feet), I spotted a group of muley does and last year’s fawns moving north in front of me. They were totally backlit by the sun, and I must not have been visible to them because they had their heads down and I was “behind” a high spot in the ground. I didn’t think I’d be able to get anywhere close to them to take pix before they took off, so I kept walking. But they didn’t see me, so when I got to a shallow arroyo, I hopped the line and moved north to come out a little ahead of them.

I see you

The big girl on the left may have been an alpha doe – if deer have such rankings. She froze like a statue and didn’t take her eyes off me – and what beautiful eyes she has! She stood like that so long – and I stood like I stood so long – that most of the others got bored and went back to browsing. Finally I stepped out from behind the camera (on my monopod), and they decided that was enough of that. Looks like they wintered as well as the horses.

It took me about four hours to visit those four bands (counting the bachelors with Steeldust’s band). Had a snack when I got back to the Jeep and just rested a bit to marvel. The temperature may have inched into the lower 50s. I saw 60 once on the Jeep’s display, but I don’t believe it for a second. Cool enough for a sweatshirt; warm enough to work up an arroyo-inspired sweat. You really just have to take time to sit back and take it all in while you’re out there. It’s not all picture taking and getting from point horses to point other horses.

I spend a lot of time thinking in practical terms – how old the foals are, when which mare might foal, how dry it is, how much we need more precip – but I also spend quite a bit of time wondering how to balance all I GET from the horses with how to give back. Is it even possible? What do they want from me? What can I give them that even comes close to comparing with all they give me? So I share with them, and I share them with you, and if you take a moment in your day to thnk of them and bless their wild hearts, maybe that’s a little bit close to enough. Maybe. 🙂

Looking for Bounce and his lovely ladies, I drove the roller-coaster ridge road to where it drops off the east side, then turned around and headed back without seeing them. Driving back toward the dugout, I looked for ’em; never saw ’em. They might have been feeling crowded and gone to the east side of Knife Edge. I also looked for Kreacher and the girls as I drove along the east-west hill (I suppose it’s probably more a northwest-southeast hill), but I didn’t see them, so I had started to think they had dropped down into that little valley between Knife Edge and Lizard Mesa (I think Bounce may have been down in the eastern end of that valley, but who knows).

Bada-bing. Up ahead, split on either side of the road: Mona and Kreacher on the west side, Raven and Kootenai on the east side. Black and apricot joined dun and grey, and I found them taking in the view …

Ever so soft

The sun was heading toward the far horizon by this time, below a cloud bank. I’ve been there when the sun heads to California behind the clouds the whole way, and I’ve been there when it drops out of the clouds and floods the basin in gold so pure you wish you could bank it. Guess what happened? Just a little longer … The above pic is looking southwestish from right off the road close to the dugout intersection.

Against the fingers

Just a tiny bit east (of what I call the finger hills), really. They had decided they wanted to re-cross the road (don’t ask why the horses cross the road).

Kreacher

Mr. Big, looking all kind of handsome.

And then …

Light and light and light and grey

That light … Kreacher-feature never looked so fine!

Apricot and turquoise

Spin me a story about complementary colors, and I’ll tell you the perfect complement to a blue-bird sky is a horse wild as the wind.

And just when you want more, I have to disappoint you. Sure, I took more photos, when I remembered to hit the shutter for enjoying all that amazing light on the horses, but the horses were (are) very uncooperative, showing me mostly butts as they wandered off over the hill to graze and nap. Kreacher actually walked away out of sight! Meanwhile, the girls let ‘im go; Kootenai nibbled, and Raven and Mona stopped to enjoy the sunshine with cocked hips and closed eyes. Imagine it. … Believe me, no picture could be better than what you can imagine.

OK, one more. Just before I dropped down the last hill on the road to cross Spring Creek, guess who surprised me? I took this from near the dugout, I think, to get the background:

End of the day, laddies and lasses

Can’t end on a much better note than that, eh? 🙂

Wild horse magic! Pass it on!

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Categories : Alpha, Bones, Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Luna, Mahogany, Molly, Mona, New girls, Pinon, Poco, Raven, Roach, Roja, Seven, Steeldust, Storm

Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

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