Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Alegre shows off her impressive braid-loop during a nap with daughter Maia in the warm late-summer sunshine. Maia also has a couple of nice braids, and I’d love to get a portrait of them each showing off their coiffed finery. 🙂

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.