Handsome Tenaz with one of his young mares, seen over the back of a closer horse that was grazing. On that particular day (before the snow), it was trying to spit rain, and a rainbow, which had been spectacular and long-lasting and that faded and came back at least a couple of times, was stubbornly (!) NOT appearing while I was in the basin in the presence of horses – even though the clouds were opening to the sunshine and closing like a camera’s shutter.
If you look closely, you can see the sprinkles.
I never did get a pic of the rainbow with the horses, but it was a beautiful visit with the band nonetheless.
Mysterium seemed to be ready to head to water during the short visit I had with her, Flash and Gaia the other night. I was mostly focused on the latter two because beyond them was the magnificent view northwest toward Utah’s La Sal Mountains. When I turned to leave, Myst had moved to directly opposite, and the backpack zipper as I started to pack away my camera caught her attention. It’s maybe hard to tell, but she’s looking over her shoulder (and hip) at me.
Corazon’s band has seemingly been traveling with another small band recently (the last week or slightly more). Mostly, they seem very comfortable with each other (a couple of the mares – one in each band – are sisters), but sometimes, somebody wanders uncomfortably close (for the comfort of one or the other of the stallions), and that just has to be corrected!
Flash and Gaia (until recently, one of Storm’s long(LONG)-time mares) start their evening browsing in the mud among the patches of snow (! still) after rousing from a nap. Mysterium also is still with them, but she seemed to be already ready to head for a water source and was just waiting for them to wake up.
I do think I saw Storm a week or so ago, from a very great distance – and he was actually watching young Flash and his former mares. I still haven’t seen him close, but he seems to be OK.
Flash has acquired and lost, acquired and lost a few mares these last couple of years, but he seems to be doing well with Gaia and Myst … and they with him.
Well, I’ve seen Hollywood recently. Once far and once near.
He’s thin. Really thin. It hurts my heart, and though I want ya’ll to know he’s still gracing the basin with his presence, it may not be for much longer.
All decked out in her velvet finery for the long winter ahead, Cassidy Rain is just a lovely, lovely mustang mare. (It was super windy that day, and I love the little curl of her blowing tail.)
Hope you’re all ready for Thanksgiving feasts with family or friends or both! Happy Thanksgiving eve!
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!)
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 