Chipeta had finally deigned to look up from her grazing to pose with Utah’s La Sal Mountains in the background … but the shadow cast by the setting sun from her hip was right on her face at about eye level. I was hoping she’d lift her head just a fraction of a bitty bit, so I could at least see her eyes … when she turned her whole head to look at a band mate behind her.
Ahhhhh. Beautiful. Click. 🙂
Is it just me, or is Storm just glorious, even covered in old mud, hanging out, napping, watching his mares graze?
Yeah. I think not, too. 😉
Beauty, even in the shadows.
A telephoto lens compresses landscapes; these landforms aren’t nearly as close in reality as they appear to be in the above photo. … But it sure is dramatic, adding to a beautiful view of a little band in the late evening sunlight.
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If you’re local, please join me and Kathryn Wilder, author of “Desert Chrome: Water, a Woman, and Wild Horses in the West,” at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4, at Cortez Public Library. Kat will read from “Desert Chrome,” and we’ll talk about the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin and our partnership with our Tres Rios BLM folks.
Maiku was doing a little visiting the other day. Just checking out a couple of neighboring bands. He and two bachelors had a friendly chat, and then they all went back to the business of grazing – and drinking. In the background are the rimrocks above Spring Creek canyon, and Spring Creek was running that day after a rain.
We all love it when water is so convenient!
Right place, right time to catch this young prince crowned by a faint rainbow after rain that fell only in the eastern/southeastern part of Spring Creek Basin.
Handsome Flash.
Connie Clementson, manager of Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores, is retiring after 37 years of public-lands service. For the last 11 years, she has been the head of BLM public lands in Southwest Colorado. We first met her at the 2011 Spring Creek Basin roundup when she was still with the Forest Service and served here as the then-acting district ranger for the Dolores District of San Juan National Forest. We’re glad she was able to finish her three-plus decades of service here in our corner of Colorado.
Our herd manager, Mike Jensen, gets a lot of the well-deserved credit for our recent management accomplishments in Spring Creek Basin, and we know that’s because he has had the support of the top boss – Connie – and her confidence that he was making best decisions for our herd.
Monday, Tif Rodriguez, long-time advocate for Spring Creek Basin mustangs as well as for protecting rights and rights-of-way for horsemen and horse (and other pack stock such as mules) use on public lands, and I went to Tres Rios Field Office, where Joe Manning, assistant field office manager (who also has a lot to do with our confidence-inspiring herd management), had scheduled us into a rare gap in Connie’s last-week schedule. Daniel Chavez, range tech who works with Mike (and Garth Nelson), joined us in Mike’s absence (he was returning from a trip with his daughter).
We presented Connie with a photo of Spring Creek Basin mustangs and a letter from our Disappointment Valley Mustangs group (which includes Pat and Frank Amthor, David and Nancy Holmes, and Kathryn Wilder, in addition to me and Tif) in appreciation for her years of service – specifically here and especially for our mustangs. While we chatted, she reminded us that she said 11 years ago at the roundup that she didn’t ever want to do that again in Spring Creek Basin. And because of her 100 percent support of the PZP fertility-control program in the basin, we haven’t.
In the photo above, from right to left: Joe Manning, Connie Clementson, yours truly, Tif Rodriguez and Daniel Chavez.
We’re so grateful for Connie’s leadership and partnership these many years, and we wish all the best to Connie (and her family) during her well-earned retirement!
A little autumn hunkiness for your Thursday morning. 🙂
Tenaz hangs out with his band near Spring Creek canyon. There are limited places in Spring Creek Basin where we either have cottonwood trees (very few) or can see them lining Disappointment Creek in the distance. Behind Tenaz is a tamarisk/salt cedar at the edge of Spring Creek. Like the rabbitbrush, they turn sort of yellowish in the fall, but it’s not blooming or leaves turning golden, just sort of a dying-toward-winter (dis?)coloration. But for purposes of imagery, it sure seems to *crown* our handsome Tenaz very well, don’t you think?
All in a row: Dundee, Aiyanna and Rowan. Such glorious girls!
The bokeh in the trees shadowing Chipeta is divine, as is the girl herself.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 