Seneca and Chipeta wait to be notified of an “all clear” message enroute to a water source. Another band was there first, but the hierarchy of Seneca’s band was higher than that of the first band, and they all got to drink while the other band moseyed off to graze.
The softer side of Flash; he’s checking on his mares, who were scanning the land below the hill where they were grazing. He’s quick to protect when needed, but in a lot of cases, he lets them do the scanning while he concentrates on his groceries.
Where there’s tamarisk (aka salt cedar/saltcedar), there’s usually water (even if it’s mostly underground). Unfortunately, tamarisk is massively invasive and, with its ginormous taproot, sucks up horrible amounts of water. In the West, where we’re always worried about drought and lack of or limited water, tamarisk = bad. (Though I’ve read and heard that some bird species are starting to use tamarisk for nesting, making it … notasbad?)
Buttttttttt … add a pretty mesteño (Aiyanna), and the feathery leaves creates a sort of magical view at her beautiful self.
And yes, there was a lovely longish stretch of water there for the whole band.
It makes my heart happy to know that there’s enough water in Spring Creek Basin to make mud for Maia to enjoy a good, coating roll. 🙂
Be kind.
That’s rain beyond Tenaz. 🙂
It wasn’t in the forecast. Of the previous six days that had rain chances, we got rain only one of those days. The rain yesterday was *wildly* variable, even just over Spring Creek Basin. Some places didn’t anything; some got something.
We’ll take anything, anytime. 🙂
This pic of Dundee was taken before the rain. She was very calm, almost napping, watching some drama below between a couple of stallions. It makes you wonder what the mares are actually thinking when they watch the boys. … And most boys think *girls* are dramatic. 😉
Storms don’t last long here; rain showers don’t linger. The sky clears quickly.
Usually.
The above is the eastern horizon beyond Spring Creek Basin from not very far below the western rimrock boundary as the last storm (Tuesday morning) cleared. The rain was in the morning; the pic is from early afternoon.
Wowza.
Mustangs were grazing below me, but I couldn’t get them in the view until Buckeye had a chat with Maiku.
It may not look very damp, but it was – after a quarter of an inch of rain that morning! McKenna Peak and Temple Butte were wreathed in clouds (very unusually) until early afternoon, and this doesn’t capture that, but Tenaz is the star of the show anyway. 🙂
That gives us 0.35 inch of rain (Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning), which is more than we’ve gotten in about three months? At least. The ground still is pretty dry under the top layer of dampened soil, but it has to help the vegetation (and the water catchments, too).
There are places where the horses drink where they also can roll and get muddy, but I like to hope that Cassidy Rain’s “adobe coat” (thank you, Sue!) is from anywhere in the whole wide basin that got rain on Friday. The damp ground didn’t last long, but it was a relief, nonetheless.
(Thanks to Luke Bryan for the title of today’s post: “Rain IS a good thing“!)
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 