Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Chrome teaching his boys about the finer points of stud pile etiquette. Baby Boreas is his son; yearling Rio and almost-2-year-old Hayden are his stepsons.

Saw some great displays of stallion affection (and annoyance) this week, including the bachelor boys tiptoeing ever-s0-carefully around napping Varoujan and Kreacher needing all his patience to deal with cheeky son Apollo while he was trying to get sips from the trickle.

Just because, a cropped shot of the boys together:

Rio and Boreas have the same mama (Two Boots) – and an older brother, Cuatro – and Hayden and Rio may have the same daddy. Hayden’s sire is Grey/Traveler; Rio’s sire is Grey/Traveler or Twister. (And I know I’ve said this before, but the resemblance between Twister and Grey is astonishing. Twister is still with Hook’s band.) They look like they’re plotting something, don’t they? This was right before Chrome came down to the stud pile you see in the background (out, out darn pile!).

OK, here’s one of Boreas and his mama:

He’s already greying out over his hindquarters and back. Long-legged handsome little thing, isn’t he?

And it wouldn’t be complete without a pic of mama Jif … expecting …

Mama Two Boots grazed while Boreas napped and Rio guarded, and I watched and waited. When the little guy was tired, he laid down literally in the middle of the road – dirt softer than pricklies! Chrome and Jif and Hayden came down from their rock climbing to nap beneath a tree, and when Boreas got up, mama started grazing her way up the hill toward them.

Yearling Rio, baby brother Boreas and mama Two Boots, on the flanks of Filly Peak with nearly the whole of Spring Creek Basin stretching away before them to the dominating eastern ridges of the far boundary.

Chrome, Jif and Hayden under a tree right at the base of Filly Peak. Jif is showing obvious signs of her bundle-to-come. She (her belly, to clarify) looks bigger than Kootenai, but she’s also smaller and has had a foal (Hayden). My best guess for her is August-September. There was a question last year of who the sire of her foal was, but I would have known by the timing of the foal’s birth. Unfortunately, she’s one of the mares that lost her foal last year, and I’m not exactly sure when (I was also gone in late August for PZP training). Hayden will be 2 on Sept. 22.

Big baby boy Boreas and his sweet mama.

Hook’s band was just around the corner – also on the road – so I stopped and waited for them, too. They very graciously grazed off the road on the driver’s side of the Jeep, so I just aimed my camera right through the window. The best photos I got, though, were later that evening as I was leaving, with the sun rimming their handsome selves with layered hills and rocks in the background. To come. 🙂

Some pix of Chrome’s band from a week ago …

Chrome’s band was so calm when I originally parked and walked out to them that Rio laid down.

He looks like such a *pony* now with his still-fuzzy coat and thick mane and forelock …

Handsome Chrome surveying his domain while his family grazes and naps.

Pretty Two Boots and big-boy Boreas

Striking little mister, isn’t he?

Showing off his mustang walk …

Snack break …

Tending an itch …

Prince’s plume  and globe mallow are plentiful this year. The paintbrush isn’t quite as plentiful as years past.

Pretty in a desert …

Hayden and Rio, playing as brothers will. Rio is a yearling, and Hayden will be 2 in September. They may be half-brothers … or maybe not?!

And then things changed …

The horses started looking at something …

Something I didn’t see until a flash of white a long way away caught my eye – a truck.

And then they were running, and the truck wasn’t even close.

After I sadly watched them go, I had time to walk back to the Jeep and drive down the road a bit and walk down to the troughs at the water catchment before the truck crested the rise. The horses ran, the truck followed. It stopped a couple of times, but the horses kept running. Other visitors, coming in, saw only the horses running, the truck behind them, before the horses were gone, all hopes of their enjoyment of that band gone.

That kind of thing makes me sad and angry. Respectful visits not only benefit individuals at the time but all those who come later …