Our home range

17 10 2021

If you’re local – or even if you’re not local but will be in the area – please join us from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23, at Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum, a couple of miles outside Dolores, Colorado, for an event to celebrate the yearlong exhibit of Colorado’s mustangs and the 50th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. (Click on that “flyer-final” link above to see the PDF of the announcement.)

If you go: Tres Rios Field Office Manager Connie Clementson will give an introductory presentation and be there to answer questions. You’ll get to meet adopted Spring Creek Basin mustangs Whisper and Skipper (also featured in the exhibit on the panel of adopters and in the short film) with their humans, Tif Rodriguez and Keith Bean. In addition to providing the opportunity to meet these stellar ambassadors of Spring Creek Basin, Tif and Keith will talk about their adoption experiences and give tips about how to adopt a mustang. Kathryn Wilder will read excerpts from her book “Desert Chrome: Water, a Woman, and Wild Horses in the West.” Books won’t be available for sale at the event, but her tantalizing readings will leave you wanting information on how to purchase “Desert Chrome,” which she will happily provide. Visitors also can sign up to go through the exhibit in the museum with me and learn more about Colorado’s wild horses.

Hope to see a lot of mustang folks there!





Grey rock gone red

16 10 2021

Seneca walks past a sunset-lit background rarely seen from this angle in the far southeastern region of Spring Creek Basin. The usual grey of the Mancos shale was lit up by intense low light, making it glow red. A brilliant background for a brilliant girl (even if she does seem to be showing her grumpy face!).





Wind through his mane

15 10 2021

How the little guy with the big heart makes our hearts go pitter-pat … ! 🙂





Season’s first snowfall

14 10 2021

The snow that didn’t stick in Spring Creek Basin or lower Disappointment Valley DID linger on the higher ridges, including Temple Butte and McKenna Peak (not pictured in this image).

All moisture is good moisture, and we were plenty happy to get rain down-valley.

And remember the views of the Glade, where the trees were golden?

It has gotten a little snowy and grey up there now. 🙂





Spirit the protector

13 10 2021

Before the humans knew about the existence of another little band nearby, Spirit was prompt in her investigation of the intruders. Hollywood, laidback guy that he is, wandered after her, but it was very anticlimactic, and he just quietly ushered her back to the rest of his band. All’s well that ends well!





Gold

12 10 2021

Only a rainbow with Temple as its treasure could complete the “gold” I see when I look at this pic. 🙂





Lingering light

11 10 2021

Tenaz watches another band across another drainage while Temple grazes in the background. In the FAR background, the Glade glows with late-evening, under-the-clouds, golden-aspen-glowing light.





Pretty grey lady

10 10 2021

Many of the ponies were sporting mud last night, after the rain the night before. 🙂





Hanger outers

9 10 2021

Shane, Maia and Alegre half-napping, half watching a visitor. 🙂





Ordered disorder

7 10 2021

Dundee, Aiyanna and Rowan are still getting used to their new home territory … and their new personal photographer. 🙂 As much as I would like them to all gather prettily in the frame, facing forward with ears alert and a stunning background in the, you know, background, they insist that they are wild girls, and it’s much too much to ask for posing postures!

Ah, OK. Much, MUCH more than I want to see any of that posing, I love to see them doing what they’re doing – eating, drinking, moseying, learning the lay of their new wild land. 🙂