Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Isn’t it amazing that we have these wild, wide-open places in America? For our wild horses, our wildlife and wild lives?

Love them. Protect them.

You might think this is a peaceful scene, but see the rocks just to Aiyanna’s right? That is the edge of the rimrock layer that forms the western boundary of Spring Creek Basin. See it out in the middle distance, basically above her head and neck? If we were over there, looking back this way, THAT’S what it looks just just to her right.

It was *ahhhhhhmazing* to be with the mustangs up there … and also my old-person brain was going “get away from that edge RIGHT NOW!”

Buckeye, who has been fearless all his life, had me especially sweating buckets as he grazed literally right along the edge looking north (this image basically is looking south).

But mustangs, as I’ve long believed, are closely related to bighorn sheep and mountain goats, and they really are very sure-footed and know *where they are*. That said, I’ve also blocked trails of theirs that are crumblingly close to the edges of arroyos as they shift and erode and disappear. I’m sure they don’t NEED my interference, but wowza, have a heart for a human’s delicate sensibilities. 🙂 (As a kid, *I* was the one being told to “get away from the edge RIGHT NOW.” … Now, it gives me the weak-legged willies to see children, dogs, horses at drop-off edges.)

And wow, is it gorgeous up there and *from* up there. 🙂