Grand view

22 09 2023

Most lovely Winona. She was near a few other bands, including son Buckeye’s. One wonders what she thinks about being a grandma to such a beautiful grandfilly. 🙂





Could she be more lovely?

21 09 2023

A few days ago, a few bands were fairly close together right along one of the basin’s roads, which allowed many photo opportunities. Miss Temple is never one to squander a good photo op. 🙂

A storm was passing to the southeast, but all we got was great light (earlier) and a bit more wind.

(Answer: No. No, she could not possibly be any more lovely. Mud or no. :))





Too long unseen

20 09 2023

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Reya. She and her band favor the southern areas of Spring Creek Basin and aren’t often seen. That makes sightings all the more wonderful and appreciated. 🙂





Family matters

19 09 2023

A couple of days ago, with their attention fixed between a lone bachelor (there were three other bands to the left, behind them) and my two visitors, I finally got an all-together family portrait of Buckeye’s band. Bia’s attention, of course, was on the most important thing of all. 🙂





Always stop to smell …

18 09 2023

… in this case, the four o’clock. I’m not actually sure it has a definable scent, but it sure looked like Seneca was taking full advantage of the flowering plants along her grazing path. That’s a lesson to us all to slow down and notice – and appreciate – what’s around us, right in our path.





Land o’ plenty

17 09 2023

Have I mentioned the grass?? It really is tremendous right now, and we’ve gotten another couple of little grass-watering events (aka rain) to help keep it lush.

Tenaz and the members of his extended family (there are quite a few between two bands and a bachelor pair) are gobbling it up while the days are still warm and the night temps are dipping into the 50s. Ooooh, I just love fall. And I love seeing the ponies – plump and shiny – with plenty to eat and plenty to drink. 🙂





Chaperone

16 09 2023

Oh, so casual. 😉





Some boy time

15 09 2023

Odin (Hollywood x Shane) is a precocious little stallion-to-be! This is the second time I’ve seen his band and Buckeye’s band in proximity to each other and Odin visiting (but probably not at all only the second time it has happened). Mostly, he grazes with them. Occasionally he tries to engage sweetheart Bia.

The first time I saw them together was very brief, and I didn’t get any pix. Bia seemed to be ignoring him then. She mostly ignored him this time, though the babies did graze together a fair bit. Just like any boy, at first, he took his time working his way oh-so-casually over to where she grazed. If she gave him even an inkling of interest, he resorted to brute boy tactics – too rough! – and she quickly put space between them.

Here, Odin seems to be trying a different tactic: buddying up to the daddy of his young heart’s desire, Buckeye. 🙂 Good move, kid!

Pretty soon, mama Shane called her little boy for a snack, and he dutifully went on down the hill.

(Odin does also get along very well with the stallions (yes, there are kinda two) that stole his mama and other mares from Hollywood.)





Super chill

14 09 2023

Seneca wonders what her wandering bandmates are doing down the hill from where she stopped to nibble on a four-wing saltbush. Her cocked hind leg is partly because of the slope and partly because she’s just so relaxed. I took multiple frames to catch the background with her head up, and her hip is cocked in all of them. She’s definitely not one to put out more energy than at all necessary. Leave that to the youngsters, I’m sure she’s thinking.

We got another wonderful infusion of rain the day before yesterday. I’m loving these early-autumn (can I call them that? it’s starting to feel like fall) rains and cooler weather.





Among the blooms

13 09 2023

We don’t have lupine (my favorite wildflowers … among many favorites (!)) on our range, but we do have four o’clock, which are nearly (!) as wonderful. And as everywhere, it’s always a treat to catch a foal among the wildflowers. 🙂

Odin had been visiting his little “cousin,” Bia, and was grazing his way back to mama Shane when I caught him here between two blooming plants. See the grasses with the dark seed “lines” just ahead of him? That’s blue grama. Remember the name as I was taught by a BLM’er years ago: “gramma’s eyelashes.”