Bounce is looking fairly lean these days, roaming the sidelines of Seven’s and Aspen’s little bands and ducking Storm along the way, who also is on the outskirts, having lost Shadow back to David. The old boy has new scars, but he’s alert and handsome as ever.
Here, he’s trotting down a hill to follow after the other horses.
On this day, at least, Storm had the upper hand, err, hoof.
Lots of new scars on the boy.
Wild black stallion!
Always handsome.
In a word: Hand…….some!
They went behind a hill, and I went around, thinking they’d graze their way on down the other side, but they were RIGHT on the other side.
Handsome Seven, who looks so much like Grey/Traveler (I’m sure he’s his sire), is 12 this year. After a few months of bachelorhood, he has his mare Roja back, as well as their son Killian, who will be a yearling in May. Seven also is the sire of Ze, star of the last post, and Miss Liberty, adopted by artist Alice in Ridgway.
In memory of a beloved horse who has been gone nearly 20 years now, a photo of a mustang boy who shares his birthday and is named after him:
Ze, adopted by my beautiful friend Tif and doing so amazingly well.
Today is a day that always brings me a little sadness, for the loss of my horse … a lot of celebration, for the wonderful years and adventures we shared … and a lot of hope, that everyone can experience a horse like him during their lifetimes. It’s also a day when our fortunes shifted for the better, when we met someone who altered the course of our mustang management for the better.
Happy Friday, folks. 🙂
Juniper and Kestrel, standing just off the road.
Earlier, racing to catch up to Comanche, who was grazing on the other side of the road.
… for some non-horse critters.
People ask about what other kinds of wildlife we have in the basin. Deer, elk, pronghorn, coyotes, badgers (I saw one big as a small dog the other day!), rabbits (both Jack’s and Peter’s families call the basin home), chipmunks, ground squirrels, lizards, all kinds of birds! I don’t often get photos of them, but they’re great to see!
I always forget to include these guys in that list:
A horned toad! Isn’t s/he awesome? I “caught” him as I was walking back from checking on Tenaz.
The bellies on these girls are showing signs of growing life, too. They were just up the hill and across an arroyo from Grey/Traveler’s band. I don’t know much about pronghorn: They make a sort of twangy-banjo-like barking noise as an alarm (at least the bucks do?). They don’t jump fences, so if they can’t get through or under, they’re stymied. In Wyoming, they’re called “speed goats”! (Thanks, N, for that tidbit!)
I mentioned the phlox blooming – more and more coming on every time I’m out, it seems. And the Indian paintbrush is getting started, too. The grasses are greening up along with other things. It’s very dry, but there are signs of spring all over!
Hadn’t had a sighting of these horses in a couple of weeks. Thought they must be the first back to the east pocket – and there they were!
From left to right: Seven, Killian and Roja, Mona and Aspen, and Storm. Not seen up the hill to the right: Bounce and Tenaz.
Tenaz gave me a massive scare earlier this day; I found the horses – except him. I spent a fair bit of time with them while they grazed their way from an arroyo to some hills and over – not a sign of him to be seen. The photo in the previous post of Poco and Roach I got after walking out to see if he was with them and I had missed him when I saw them first – from a distance. (He wasn’t.) But when we came back around a few hours later, there he was, unscathed and perfectly fine. No idea where he was earlier.
Seven seems to have Roja and Killian back – which I thought was the case when I last saw them, from a distance. Seven actually chased Mona back to Aspen a couple of times. Bounce and Storm are fending each other off, and Tenaz seems to stick close to Bounce (which he has been doing for the last several months, and which is why it gave me such a scare to NOT see him).
I’ll have some more pix of these guys, but this one shows most of them together. Bounce is fairly lean and has quite a few new scars. Roja is just as pregnant as all get out. She’s not due till May, but until last year, she had been my first foaler (early April).
These signs of spring bring me joy: grass greening, robins, phlox blooming, water flowing, Poco and Roach sightings.
I’ve seen them previously, but this was my first photo opportunity with these boys this spring. Such handsome misters.
… cheeky monkey do!
Mysterium watched big brother Apollo walk through this little juniper to scratch an itchy belly. She must have decided that looked pretty clever, so she spent several minutes walking through and around it!
Crazy wind raised the dust and swirled it around our skies. Low visibility, but not as bad as I’ve seen it in the past. And it brought snow – moisture that we need badly (when don’t we?).
Hollywood in the wind. That’s Round Top (or, as my friend Sam calls it, Saucer (as in flying) Hill) in the dusty background. In the other direction, the La Sals were completely obscured.
Graceful, peaceful Piedra
Hollywood and Piedra and Shane
And a wave to family Jess and Sue, who stopped on their cross-country drive for a quick visit to Spring Creek Basin and the mustangs!
Comanche’s and Hollywood’s bands have been close since last year. They separate, come back together, separate … Since Hollywood acquired Shane, the bands haven’t been as close. Piedra is due to foal a couple of weeks before Kestrel, and I had wondered how that would affect the dynamic, especially knowing Comanche stole most of Hollywood’s band (except Piedra) last year briefly.
This was a day a few weeks ago when not only were Comanche’s and Hollywood’s bands close, they were close to Grey/Traveler’s band. That’s Kestrel, watching a pronghorn buck, with some of Grey’s band in the background.
Spring is springing. The phlox and little white daisies are up – the first to bloom in the basin. Wouldn’t you know – snow in the forecast tonight and tomorrow. Not supposed to be much accumulation (an inch?). I’m ready for spring, but we need the moisture. March is supposed to be our wettest month of the year; I recorded just five days in March that it snowed, and I bet the total was less than 6 inches in the basin. Most people have probably heard about the huge wildfire near Denver. It is very, very dry; it’s going to be a tough year, I think.
