
Because … who can get *too much* Flash!? 🙂

Flash pauses on high ground while his mares continue on to water at a pond back in late December.
There were a few spots of snow on the ground, still, then. We have a bit of snow in our forecast for tomorrow morning. Clouds were low most of yesterday (a lot like those pictured), and mountains already were getting some to maybe a decent snowfall. Cross your fingers; Flash and his mares and the rest of the herd need some winter moisture!

Young Master Odin could do a lot worse than to have wise, protective Kestrel as one of his “aunties.” The fact that he has at least four wise, protective aunties is a good thing to teach this young future stallion the ways of the wild world.
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Dictionary.com defines “resplendent” thus:
Yep. I think that defines our mestenos. 🙂

Tenaz was napping on semi-alert about halfway between his band and the following band, and I took full advantage of the handsome background beyond his handsome self. 🙂

Pretty Rowan watches the pronghorns the other day. Interested; not bothered or worried.
Love her winter dapples. 🙂

Mariah, again. Napping, again.
She does pick the most beautiful nap spots, eh?
We need a bit of winter white to match her fuzzy coat, or we’re going to be looking that brown when we don’t want to be looking that brown – and way too hot to boot – later in the year. We don’t have any moisture in the forecast … hopefully that will change sooner than later!
(That white on the shady side of McKenna Peak IS residual snow, not melting on the north-facing, shady side of the peak. But we still need a lot more, covering a lot more ground.)

I was just thinking the other day that sweet Madison hadn’t featured on a blog post recently, which is really a travesty because she’s soooo pretty. And here she is!
The horses were mostly on or along one of the roads in the basin, so I dropped below the road to get McKenna Peak and Temple Butte looming large in the background.
They were semi-browsing, semi-napping and not in any hurry to get anywhere in particular. Kinda summed up the first day of the year perfectly. 🙂
(Remember what I said about not enough days? Not enough hours, too/either, and too many other things to do that don’t involve computers and the insides of walls. Apologies for the delay to the day – and the year (if only, eh?)!)

How about some inter-species getting-alongness to kick off the first day of the new year?
Dundee and the band were making their way westward along the base of a little hill/ridge when they encountered the pronghorns. The pronghorns (one of them, at least) gave a couple of little “barks” at one point (their warning sound), and I think that was because at least one of them finally realized there was something “not like the others” wandering along in the horses’ wake.
The main road into the basin is just down to the right, and the pronghorns eventually crossed it and continued to watch the horses, who stopped to graze where the ground leveled out a bit above the road.
It is anthropomorphic in the extreme to say that pronghorns LIKE to race and be raced (it’s that speed thing). … But if you’ve ever driven in pronghorn country, you know what I’m sayin’. And so, when they realized (!) that the horses had no intention whatever of racing anywhere, the pronghorns eventually moseyed (as much as pronghorns can be said to mosey) on to the high ground to the north, toward Spring Creek canyon, and out of sight.
No fuss, no muss, no warfare.
I won’t say there was a lot of conversation, either (aside from the brief warning – “hey, there’s a two-legged!”), but I’m sure no offense was either given or taken. Let’s all be so kind this year.
Happy, happy. 🙂
And a couple of bonus shots, for having to wait so long for today’s post:
From last night, driving through Norwood, Colorado:

Pretty spectacular for a little town! (But also, there was a lot of kabooming, which can’t have been peaceful for the four-leggeds.)
And this morning, first sunrise of 2025:

Pretty in pink. Alas, we have zero moisture in the immediate forecast.

The last couple of years, I’ve done a sort of synopsis of the year, mustang-style, on the last day of the year.
I don’t know what happened to the days this year, but clearly, there weren’t enough. 🙂
Yes, yes, I know there are the same number of days every year, but let’s say this: They got away from me this year. I do hope to have a review of “12 for 2024” … but it won’t be today … and it might be farther into January 2025 than maybe I’d like.
Meanwhile, let’s just mosey on out of 2024, up and over a ridge on our way to a pond full of water, shall we? And here’s hoping for plenty of water in 2025 (though we’re going to need a whole lotta snow in the next couple of months)!
Happy New Year’s Eve, my lovely readers! I hope you’ve enjoyed this year full of mustangs, and I hope you’ll stick around for more of the same in the coming year. 🙂

Terra catching just a bit of some of the last light of the day from atop the Spring Creek arroyo in the eastern part of Spring Creek Basin.