Skywalker was chasing the green this evening.
The mustangs are fairly single-minded about their grazing and foraging. As they’re snipping the good bits, they’re looking for their next spot of green, and on and on. They’re finding it, and most of them are pretty well shed out.
‘Water, a Woman, and Wild Horses in the West’
Kathryn Wilder‘s debut book, “Desert Chrome,” will be published in mid-May by Torrey House Press!
Longtime readers will recognize Kat’s name as an advocate for Spring Creek Basin mustangs. In this vulnerable, deeply touching and wide-ranging memoir, she recounts her life’s journey that eventually led her to Disappointment Valley and Spring Creek Basin – among earlier and parallel events that shaped her among heartbreak, water and wilderness. About the mustangs, she writes about getting to know them and the great strides we’ve made in the management of our herd with the use of PZP.
Kirkus Reviews calls it “testimony to the healing power of wildness” and “a spirited and impassioned chronicle.” And it is, without a doubt, all of that.
Suzanne Roy, fierce director of the American Wild Horse Campaign, wrote: “Kat Wilder’s beautifully written memoir takes us on a journey of a life lived on the move, full of love, loss and searching, finally finding peace among a herd of mustangs in Colorado’s magnificent Disappointment Valley. Wilder’s insight into the wild horses, why they’re worth saving and how to save them, will be of interest to anyone concerned with preserving the West’s last remaining wild spaces and the wild animals that inhabit them. A must read.”
Pre-order the book from Torrey House Press, your local independent bookstore or from Amazon.
Kat will be doing numerous readings, both virtual – Garcia Street Books in Santa Fe, and Maria’s Bookshop and Cortez Public Library here in Southwest Colorado – and in person at Sherbino Theater in Ridgway and Entrada Institute in Torrey, Utah.
Here are some particular deets:
Maria’s virtual event for “Desert Chrome” will start at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 20, on Zoom and Facebook Live. Check Maria’s events calendar page for details.
Kat’s first live reading will be from about 6 to about 7:45 p.m. Saturday, May 22, at The Livery in Norwood. This is basically our backyard! Head over to Between the Covers’ Facebook page to find out more.
The Cortez Public Library will have an online reading with Kat starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 26.
On Thursday, June 10, Ridgway’s Sherbino Theater will host Kat for a live reading from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Visit the website for tickets, on sale 30 days before the event. Ridgway’s also fairly local to us, and several mustang friends call it home.
If you’re in Torrey, Utah, on Saturday, June 26, stop by the Entrada Institute for a live reading.
Be sure to find and follow Kat on Facebook to keep up with other events as they’re scheduled, and I’ll post reminders about the above readings close to their happening dates.
Happy birthday to my brother, Jeff!
Hayden makes a beeline for his mares as they head to high ground away from a visiting stallion.
He’s starting to look pretty sleek!
It doesn’t look like it here (Cassidy Rain did NOT hang around to model her beautiful self with the wind screaming at us), but this was one of the windiest days in the basin this spring (and as windy as it always is in the spring, and as WINDY as it has been even the last few days, that’s saying something). I got a kick out of a pic I saw recently of a Quarter Horse, posed saddled and bridled, on what the photographer said had been a windy day in Texas. They used two cans of hair spray to keep the horse’s mane neat for the photo.
Well, our secret mustang stylists don’t use hair spray, but there’s lots of wind spraying about … and I think it makes for the most LOVELY horses imaginable! 🙂 And fortunately, they’re finding wet spots in which to drink and roll. … And do you see the green? Yes, look hard … but it’s there.
(Note: I greatly respect the photographer mentioned above. It was just a funny thing to think about for someone (moi) who photographs way more mustangs than perfectly coiffed domestic horses. :))
We got a little rain yesterday and last night. 🙂
It’s hard to say how much. After it rained in one location, I went for a drive, and within 100 yards, the road was bone dry. … How does that HAPPEN?!
Just a couple of hours later, I had to hustle out of the basin, white-knuckling the steering wheel, as the spatter of damp dirt against the underside of the Jeep competed with the squeak of the windshield wipers.
As I neared one band, we had a little of this happening:
Before I got out to the horses, it was pretty well faded, but a little red-gold made up for the lack of a pot. 😉 (Interestingly, the rainbow is highlighting the edge of Knife Edge, seen from the southish. The far heavily-treed ridge is where I was the other day.)
Always glowing, our little Tesora girl (and still shedding, as it turns out!). 🙂
A few evenings ago, I found Terra and her band WAY deep in Spring Creek Basin, in an area I call the east pocket. I sometimes write in my notes that I found a band in the “deep east pocket.” This band was deeply into the deepest pocket possible of the east pocket! I saw them from a distance and hiked out … and up to the highest point I could find, and – as almost never happens – I couldn’t see them from above. I had to hike back down to find them ambling out of the deep and back out to the “flats.” Then, they were about as calm and willing to hang out as I’ve ever seen them.
In the background is the “back side,” which is to say the north side (basically), of prominent big ridge Knife Edge, which is more commonly seen from the westish or southish or southwestish or, maybe uncommonly except for me, southeastish.
More clouds, more wind. I wish I could say we’ve had some spectacular sunsets with those clouds, but sadly, as with the lack of rain, nope. The moon wasn’t even visible until much later, nearly full in the black, star-studded night.
How do you fill a heart full to bursting? How do you fill a heart already so full you think there’s no room left?
That’s the crazy thing about love, isn’t it? This little teeny muscle inside the human chest is just a little magical in its ability to hold all the love you can pour into it.
Every mustang, every visit, I love them all, every time, all the time. It’s simply impossible to feel otherwise. 🙂
So, really, there must always be at least a little bitty bit of room left? For all the days and all the love to feel?
Wind and clouds. No rain.
Really? Just a nice little drenching downpour would be super. A toad-gagger to fill ponds and recharge seeps would be excellent. C’mon, Ma Nature! Pretty Piedra wouldn’t mind a shower.
Hollywood flirts with his eldest lady, Houdini, surrounded by his family.
Every age is the right age for love. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 