Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

All the horses have been a little narrow-eyed lately with the bright sunlight on the pristine snow. Even humans keep the shades on during these bright winter days!

In the great white winter expanse, these two girls are beautiful girls. 🙂

Mariah has quite a view from the north hills of Spring Creek Basin.

Piedra and Kestrel relax in sunshine and snow on a cold day in Spring Creek Basin. The light reflecting off the snow made it very comfortable for a snooze, despite the air temperature.

NOT comfortable was hearing the baying of hounds to the north. Around here, hunters find the tracks of mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes in the snow, then send dogs after them. I don’t believe the dogs were in the basin, but the baying sent at least one band trotting away, and at the same time, a group of at least 50 elk went streaming south out of the trees on the north hills, running from human-induced pressure during a season when they should be conserving energy, not wasting it. … Imagine the animals that cannot escape that pressure.

The region got some more snow. Not as much as pictured above, with Puzzle, from a few weeks ago, but it’s always nice to get moisture. 🙂

Handsome little Maiku is on a mission … known only to him. The band he’s with was to the left, and he went trotting away from them. Ah, the mysteries of mustangs.

Today’s inspiration comes from an email from a local environmental group that is as profound to that audience, dedicated to protecting high-elevation Colorado, as it is to us, protecting Colorado’s high-desert mustangs:

We’ve gone back to grey and drizzly. We have less snow and more mud. The more (moisture), the better. 🙂

The morning started sunny – which is less normal this month than almost ever in Colorado – then turned cloudy. We have some moisture in the forecast, so cloudy is good, and if clouds bring ANY kind of moisture while we continue on in the D4 (worst) drought category, clouds are good.

You can see by the grassy patches under Spirit’s and Puzzle’s hooves that our snow is melting, so more clouds and more moisture would be welcome. Though I’m sure the ponies enjoy easy access to even the slight offering of last year’s marginal growth. 🙂

A side note: Check out Spirit’s little under-eyeliner of brown. What a sense of fashion and makeup that little girl has!