
Sunshine. Check.
Breeze ( a little strong). Check.
Warmth (near 60F). Check.
Perfect nap weather for Maia? Check.

Sunshine. Check.
Breeze ( a little strong). Check.
Warmth (near 60F). Check.
Perfect nap weather for Maia? Check.

In the space between napping and rousing and grazing, Seneca gives me her sweet look as if to ask if I also see the fabulous scenery. Yes, indeed, dear girl. I see you.

The handsome fellow has been elusive for the last couple of months, and I hadn’t seen him either alone or with the other (mostly young) bachelors.
Finally a friend alerted me that she was “85 percent sure” she’d seen him from Disappointment Road on the southern side of Spring Creek Basin. … I looked for him in that area on a couple of drives but didn’t spot him (or any other horses). From interior, with another band, when they turned as one to look at *something*, I did, too, and there he was, glowing orangey-dun on a drab taupe hillside. 🙂 The decision to hike out to him was MUCH faster than the actual hike.
He’s still pretty lean, bordering on downright thin, but he’s OK. His hip gouge has healed, and his right eye is open but squinty.
He couldn’t have made it more plain that he didn’t want to be bothered by an overly-happy-to-see-him human, so I didn’t visit with him long. I really was very happy to see him.

Sometimes the mares (Piedra in this case) get a wild hair and try to outrun their stallion. In this case, her band and the band that moseys with her band had gotten a little separated when they chose different sections of an arroyo to drink in.
Her stallion followed along, and maybe she just needed a little gallop because he fairly easily and quickly collected her – and she let herself be collected.
Oh, those wild shenanigans!

Mountain areas – Utah’s La Sals above – have lovely snow, but we don’t. And there’s a lot of brown expanse between here and there.
It’s an easy winter for the wild ones (so far?!), but it’s gonna be a tough summer (unless something changes PDQ).

If a rival stallion is within view, he’s worth taking notice of. Buckeye not only noticed the stallion (and his band), he actually walked halfway toward him (a distance of maybe half a mile). Only after those horses had dropped out of sight over a ridge did Buckeye return to his family. Potential crisis apparently averted. All well in Buckeye’s world.

No, it didn’t stick, or make the ground wet, or even white.
Yes, the sun was shining through low clouds while flakes wafted from high clouds.
Oh my gosh, yes, it was magical with Mariah and her bandmates so peacefully grazing all around.
The blessing is that this magic is not rare with the mustangs in Spring Creek Basin.

When photographing Corazon, one has to be ready for the one moment when he looks up from grazing, ears pricked with interest and eye(s) glowing – the one moment in many long moments of otherwise peaceful, quiet wandering – to hit the shutter and capture his handsome self.