Not-yet-amber waves

10 11 2013

Gaia and grass (galleta?)

Gaia and galleta. Reaping the rewards of September rains.

What weird weather we had this year: Drought and the threat of hay shortages because of drought, then rain and floods and the destruction of the hay that was grown.

In Spring Creek  Basin, our mustangs took it all in stride and feasted on the plentiful grasses and waded in knee and hock deep to drink from full ponds. For a beautiful stretch of time, it truly was mustang paradise. Now those grasses ARE amber. The horses are thick-coated and round-bellied. And in the beautiful golden days before winter, they graze like kings in the desert.

Galleta grass in Spring Creek Basin.





Hollywood moon

9 11 2013

101713hollywoodmoon

Hollywood at moonrise last month. Two consecutive evenings in the basin with the mustangs were amazingly beautiful, made magical with the nearly full moon rising over the far ridges.





Hey-Duke

6 11 2013

Hayden and Duke

Young Hayden with elder Duke. From a recent visit … just me, the horses and about a million hunters.





Through others’ eyes

3 11 2013

Friends Pam and Tom and their dogs visited Spring Creek Basin the end of August, and we had a lovely visit with the mustangs. Rain threat cut our day a little short, but as green as it was, none of us could complain! Chrome’s band and others (to be the subject of a future blog post by Pam) gave us simply beautiful visits!

After the drought the first part of the year, I still can’t believe how the rain we finally got made the grasses explode with growth. The horses are reaping the rewards. See if you don’t agree that they look particularly magnificent!

Read the first part of Pam’s account on her blog, nickolesphotography.wordpress.com.

Mark her blog as one to visit often if you haven’t already; she features great photos of gorgeous mustangs from a variety of herds, including those in Colorado!





Happy Halloween!

31 10 2013

Ty

Spooktacular greetings from our herd to yours!





Hiatus

5 08 2013

Thank you all for your support of our Spring Creek Basin mustangs!

I am in need of a bit of a break from blogging. Not long, I hope.





Boy talk

3 08 2013

Hollywood and Bounce

Hollywood and Bounce have a friendly chat near sunset.





Mona, que Mona

2 08 2013

Mona got her name courtesy of one of our NMA/CO board members, artist Karen Keene Day. When the mares first came from Sand Wash Basin, Karen recalled how I kept talking about “how cute” the red dun mare was.

How cute = que Mona. I liked to call her “MonaKMona.”

Mona

This was taken about a month ago.

Mona and Comanche

This was taken just last week.

Mona watching Kestrel's band.

Be at peace, que Mona, not just cute – beautiful.

********************

Thank you, all, for your words and kindness. No matter how intellectually you tell yourself it’s nature, and it happens, still it hurts our hearts when we know and love them as much as we do.





RIP Mona and foal

1 08 2013

Sunset the night Mona died.

With a heavy heart, I let ya’ll know that Mona died after complications from foaling. Her foal is presumed dead.

God certainly welcomed them to heaven in spectacular fashion.

My heartfelt appreciation goes to Logan Briscoe, BLM law-enforcement officer, and Mike Jensen, former herd manager, for coming first, and continued thanks and whole-hearted appreciation to Logan and to Connie Clementson, Tres Rios Field Office manager, for coming back. Connie responded ASAP when called first thing in the morning to provide relief to an injured mustang so that she wouldn’t suffer needlessly.





More green

31 07 2013

Seven's band - Puzzle, Shadow and Tesora

Seven’s band enjoys good summer grass in Spring Creek Basin. Spring Creek canyon is in the background.

The grass and hills are green, and the ponds have water – all but one of the ponds not dug out.