
Sundance glows in afternoon light while waiting for his band to follow him to water.
Even in the most mundane moments, he’s just handsome!

Sundance glows in afternoon light while waiting for his band to follow him to water.
Even in the most mundane moments, he’s just handsome!

You might think this is a semi-ho-hum pic of Seneca, but the moon was rising gloriously bright and nearly full to the right (east), and a storm was brewing, and it was nearly dark. So nearly-dark that I almost didn’t scoop my camera out of its pack. But the nearly-dark glowy-light (hard to explain but definitely a *thing*) was so cool that I did.
Seneca was NOT impressed with the technological difficulties of the moment, however, and her ears were at half-mast until she decided that it wasn’t worth giving me the benefit of her attention at all.
The clouds and Mother Nature DID, in fact, brew up some moisture, and between Friday night/early Saturday morning and throughout the day Saturday and overnight to Sunday morning, we got about a quarter of an inch of rain. Dearly needed. And to think, it all started with some nearly-dark, almost-full-moon-rising glowy-light on lovely Seneca and her family on a rise near the road in western Spring Creek Basin! (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!)
Happy Halloween!

Shortly after sunset, the western sky lit up reflecting the below-horizon sun. Fortunately, Mariah and her band appeared to make the most of the magic. I didn’t do a great job with my exposure or shutter speed, but with great clouds come great sunsets. Part of magic is imagination!
From Spring Creek Basin’s “north hills,” the views are tremendous:


Do you see the mustangs? Admittedly, they’re a long way away. 🙂 (Look between the tallest fingers of the dead tree in the foreground.)

I. LOVE. THAT. VIEW!
And in the right light, it’s more painting than reality … except that the very best thing is that it IS reality! I realize that the above three pix are very similar; I couldn’t decide among them to pick just one. 🙂
From nearly the same vantage point, looking in the other direction, off the top:

Wild country. Available to the mustangs, but I’ve never seen any down/back there … of course, it would be a lucky combination to be in the right place at the right time (both/all of us!).

Happy birthday to my wonderful, horse-loving mom, Nancy! 🙂
From Kestrel and me and all the wild lovelies in Spring Creek Basin!

Baby Odin leads the way (following a pair that hangs out with his band) to water at Spring Creek, just about in the middle of Spring Creek Basin, with that fabulous, fantastic, recognizable-anywhere backdrop of eastern boundary behind them.
We haven’t had a spit of rain since the very first couple of days of the month, so it’s pretty dusty out there. Fortunately, most of the ponds still have water, the catchments are good water sources, and there are seeps in the arroyos that still have water. We’ve had another absolutely gorgeous autumn, and now the temps are about to start dropping, with our first really cold nights/mornings coming very soon.
Whooooooeeeee!

So-pretty Maia, lit on one side by the setting sun and framed on the other side by the glowing cascade of tail-hair of a bandmate. … A simple moment in time. Gorgeous.

From her vantage point on a slight rise, Reya was in the perfect post from which to observe the comings and goings (OK, mostly also nappings) of her fellow ponies (another band and a lone, wandering bachelor).
I’m loving her mud coat and her fairy-knotted braids.


None of the horses have cooperated in posing nicely by this lone cottonwood in Spring Creek Basin, but it was too pretty to ignore and not share!

And just like that, on a glorious fall evening, in Spring Creek Basin, a couple of gettin’-fuzzy wild ponies stole the show, minutes before the sun faded to shade, and I hit the shutter on possibly one of my favorite pix ever.
Juniper and Storm. Sweetest of wild hearts.