Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Worldwide, and on the home ranges of wild horses and burros, 2016 was a fairly tough year. It was a pretty darn good year in Spring Creek Basin, but I’ve heard a number of people say how glad they are to put 2016 behind them, and they hope 2017 will be better.

I count my blessings every day for this life I love, that I get to live among wild creatures in a stunningly wild place (which has its own human challenges). So in saying good-bye to one year and looking forward to the new, hopefully gratitude will remain my best attitude. With the horses reminding me every day how beautiful is this amazing natural, wild world, that doesn’t seem to be a resolution that will be at all difficult to keep. 🙂

Farewell, 2016!

Copp’ry Copper on a glistening winter day full of snow … and mud. But the mucky stuff didn’t deter this intrepid mustang tracker from enjoying the day and the mustangs. 🙂 And it was a beautiful day with beautiful horses!

The look of ages. Sweet Kestrelita.

It was very windy during the days leading up to Christmas, and that and the warm temps helped melt the snow on the yonder hills.

Technical issues have been challenging lately, as well as mud from melting snow in 52-degree late-December Colorado weather. Comanche, pictured above on Christmas Eve with Spring Creek canyon in the background, was enjoying the grazing – sans snow but with mud that packed his hooves and covered my boots.

Then we got snow again.

Then it melted again.

Then it snowed again.

And now it’s melting again. 🙂

That means Santa and Ma Nature have given us a whole lotta moisture for Christmas, and we love it!

Corazon makes a funny face during a pause in his grazing in snow that was a few inches deep.

Reya shows off her fuzzy spots against a wintry backdrop of Round Top and the far blue mountains, the La Sals.

This is why I mountain bike (well, and because I love to mountain bike) – to stay in shape to track mustangs. 🙂

Add a couple to a few inches of snow to that 5.62 miles, and 1,116 calories burned seems pretty measly. The temperature is a bit skewed because I carried the GPS in an inner jacket pocket; I don’t think the temp rose out of the 20s.

The green tag shows where I started: on Spring Creek Basin’s boundary along Disappointment Road. From there, I hiked north, then to the northwest. The farthest northwest point is the point at which I realized horses were waaaay over at that easternmost point. (Of course!) So I backtracked my tracks, then followed horse trails and avoided arroyos, heading southeastish, to the little flat loop – which is where the horses were.

The ziggy-zaggy line is where I walked (this was all on snowshoes) the bottom of an arroyo until I cut my original trail and followed it back to the Jeep.

Seeing this handsome youngster (Killian) makes it alllllllll worth it!