Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

OK, one (two) more because Odin is just too cute to leave out of the snow pix!

Here he is browsing in the deep (face deep!) snow with his mama, Shane. 🙂

While Maia chose a whole-body rolling session to conquer her itchies, Kestrel took a more specific approach, using this old tree and its knobs and remaining branches to get just the right spot(s).

Check out that lip! 🙂

I think this might be the last of the snow pix (hopefully for *now* and not the whole winter!), and then I’ll get back to some more recent pix … and some from before the snow that didn’t get published before that auspicious event. … One in particular will be a little bittersweet.

When I went into the basin the other day, I was planning to check the mud-to-dirt ratio. … Nope, it was still in the snow-to-mud phase! While some parts of the valley have dried out fairly well, most of the basin ground – including roads – was still damp to downright muddy. In fact, one of those recent days, I took maybe half a dozen pix of Skywalker up on a ridge at a distance, but the rest of the 1,100 pix (I’m not even kidding) were of DEER. In particular, one rather, uh, randy buck keeping all of his ladies together from another, younger/smaller buck. If anyone thinks herding cats is difficult, I’d urge you to talk to that poor fellow! I’m debating whether to post any of those … at least yet … because I’m not sure that people aren’t still roaming the area with antlers in mind. But they’ll probably see the light of a morning post sooner than later. He *was* rather handsome – and one of the lucky ones.

Terra was being pushed around by her stallion – that’s why she looks a bit grumpy here – but I was trying and trying to get a pic of her with the candy-cane-striped ridge in the background, and because she was mostly browsing in the face-deep snow, I just wasn’t catching the shot I wanted.

When it’s not snow-covered, that ridge and a couple of others are very orangey in red-rock appearance, and they look like giant ocean waves at the northish rim of our high-desert enclave.

I loved that in the snow, the orange rock showed through almost like candy cane stripes on a very festive, gorgeous morning (especially when the sun finally cleared the clouds!).

(Please note that all that snow is long melted now; as I wrote previously, I had a lot of beautiful pix to share of some mustangs in snow!)

It’s possible that Maia set out to make a snow angel … and then got caught up in the exuberance of rolling in the snow! It must have felt pretty good on an already wet fluffy coat. 🙂

You’re welcome for your morning laugh (I hope you didn’t spit up your coffee)!

Sunshine has come out as Maia tries to decide on a nap location. She walked down from a bit higher up toward the base of Knife Edge. Really, when it’s this beautiful, and the sun is shining, naps are just the thing to relax and take in the enjoyment, when the storm of it has passed.

Let me first say that the basin does NOT look like this currently/anymore. 🙂 This was a few mornings ago under about 3 inches of fresh snow. Much of it has melted, except on north-facing or other shadowed slopes and arroyo walls. So I hope you also don’t mind some more pix of snow-ponies because I took a great many that day!

This is Mariah, looking at another band from her location down in a little drainage between … not ridges, really, but places of higher ground. Clouds were still swirling, and the sun had yet not managed to clear them into the blue sky we’ve had since.

You know, it’s a crazy phenomenon: I could feel the cold – and it was *sharp* – on my walk out to the horses, but while I was WITH the horses – even before the sun made its appearance and I realized I hadn’t even thought about sunscreen with the shine so warm on my cheeks – I didn’t feel it at all. I was standing, sitting, stretched out on my belly – in 3 inches of snow!

I consciously noted how cold I was before I got to them.

I consciously noted how NOT-COLD I was when I was with them.

And it’s not the first time (and I know it won’t be the last). There is that weird (wonderful) bubble of … all-rightness? … that comes with being in their presence.

Do you ever lose track of how hot or cold or windy or still it is when you’re immersed in nature/something/somewhere you love? Do you *realize* you’ve lost track of any of that? Like an awareness you just can’t explain. Part of the magic, I guess. 🙂

Terra’s very name connects her to the earth, in all its seasons, all its lights. It could be the name for every mustang, every wild thing.

So beautiful.