Now

21 09 2011

All the BLM folks have been amazing. I’m not sure whether I should name them because I don’t want them to be targets any more than they already are, but they were excellent in all regards. We couldn’t have done anything that we did – and have done – without them. JD, WW, CC, TR, LA, JG, SB, LB, SW, JJ, MJ, HP, KW, SM, AB … thank you so much for your support and calm and level-headed approach – and for always thinking of the safety of the horses and humans. We appreciate you more than we can possibly express. We’re so grateful to have achieved what we have with your partnership, and we look forward to achieving our future goals with your help.

BLM has plans to re-seed the trapsite area, and that could happen as soon as next week.

Monday, after everything was over and everyone else was gone, I went back to basin.

If you go out looking for horses, be patient, use your binoculars, scan slowly and in seemingly unlikely places – and some of the same – and you will find them.

I saw Aspen almost right away (though I thought initially he was Duke, right in his home territory). Then Seven’s … Then black and grey – Bounce and Alegre?! Horses in trees … and below them … and nearby …

Bounce sticks out here … but he’s not with Alegre – he’s with Houdini. She’s right above the “C” in Creek.

While I was looking at them, I spotted another pair:

Right by the brown guzzler, Chrome and Hayden.

I went back around to where I’d seen horses in the hill, and that’s where the wild magic started to work its healing.

Traveler (back right) with Alegre (grey), Gaia (sorrel) and baby Aurora.

Tenaz and Corona. Tenaz was almost caught … Baylee was caught (she’s awaiting adoption – big, beautiful bay girl), and Storm gave observers a show when he galloped away right past them on the hill above the trapsite.

Watching the pintos …

Left to right: Reya (4), Maiku (1), Puzzle (1) and Chipeta. They’re a long way from “home” territory. Chipeta is the dam of the foal that has now been adopted. We don’t know how they got separated. The helicopter pilot was excellent about not even targeting the horses we asked him not to. That’s why he left the bunch alone when he realized they were with the youngest foal. What a story that foal could tell … I’m not even sure who the horses were that were with Chipeta’s band when the pilot did see the group. So all the pintos (and their hangers-on) are accounted for except stallion Corazon.

Here they are with Ty, who is now dominant over …

Copper, who is sticking with them.

I finally left them to find Seven’s and see whether Mona had had her foal yet. The pilot had seen “the pregnant mare” and of course left her alone. (We did see Kreacher’s band before the roundup even started – they ran across what would later be “the observation hill” with SUNDANCE immediately behind them and Kreacher following (?!). Chrome broke away from his band to follow them … leaving his band separated for quite a while (they were later captured all together). People were camped farther north on that hill at the time … we didn’t see the horses again. I am very eager to find them.

From left: Roja and Killian, Seven, Mona and Shane.

The lone bay turned out to be Aspen.

I also saw Shadow the end of the day Sunday – alone. But if I had to guess in normal circumstances where she might be, she was right there. Wind and Coal came to the trapsite with Iya and Cougar. Have not seen David.


Comments : 11 Comments »

Categories : Alegre, Aspen, Aurora, Bounce, Chipeta, Chrome, Copper, Corona, Gaia, Grey, Hayden, Houdini, Killian, Maiku, Mona, pintos, Puzzle, Reya, Roja, Seven, Shane, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Tenaz

Happy birthdays

1 05 2011

This spring will go down in record books as busy. Just darn busy. So I’m behind with birthday wishes for not one but a few – I’m sure they won’t mind.

April 26 – Corona

About a week ago. I still don’t know quite what her color is – I’m calling her pale palomino – but it’s a little “richer” this year with a bit of an apricot tinge.

As a baby with mama Raven … Daddy Corona from Sand Wash Basin is a handsome palomino.

Here’s a link to Nancy Roberts’ blog and a post about Corona’s band that includes pictures of our Corona’s newest little half-sister, who looks a lot like her!

She has a few of those darker “red” spots (her neck just above her shoulder) on her body and legs like tiny birthmarks. She definitely gets her wavy forelock, mane and tail from daddy, nicknamed “Fabio”! She’s now 2.

April 27 – Iya

I thought it was appropriate to celebrate Iya’s birthday with a photo of her and her firstborn, whose birthday was just two weeks earlier than her own!

Iya was born the spring after the roundup to mama Houdini (still in the basin, of course, with Grey/Traveler and their three youngest daughters) and, I think, the stallion she was with in the spring (with baby Two Boots) but escaped capture with – Junior. Iya is now 3.

With mama and sister Two Boots (who is now nearly unrecognizable from this photo!) two days after she was born.

Before the baby. Strong, curious and brave – and carrying on the tradition of being an excellent mama!

April 27 – Tenaz

Taken Wednesday – his birthday. 🙂 The little mister is the son of Piedra and Hollywood, and he’s now 1 year old. His band had some recent upheaval, and he’s now with “auntie” Baylee and young Storm (who will be 3 this summer).

As a baby with mama Piedra. She guarded him tenaciously, even more so (it seemed) than she did her firstborn, Sage. Hence his name Tenaz.

My camera adores him … I can’t begin to understand why … 🙂

*HE* clearly adores mistress Winona!

From birthday-day again.

Soooooo much like daddy!

April 29 – Sage

Sage is Piedra’s and Hollywood’s firstborn, now 2 years old.

He’s changed a bit. 🙂 He takes more after mama than he does daddy – the reverse of his little brother Tenaz.

He’s been a very good big brother.

Pondering his next move back in February.

With brother Tenaz at right, daddy, Iya and littlest brother in the background.

May 1 – Spook

Nothing like birthday look-backs to tell you how you’re doing on easily-accessible photos of certain horses. Once she has her baby, I’m sure that number will increase by leaps and bounds!

These were taken in March. I’ve seen the band most visits since then but mostly from afar as I just check for new little bodies. Here, Spook – black and white – is with Puzzle, Maiku and Milagro.

With little brother Maiku, who will celebrate his birthday in June. Spook is 3 today. She shares her birthday with Terra and my “little” brother, Jeff! (Happy birthday!!)

Her mama is Kiowa, and she was born the year after the roundup, so her sire is unknown. Kiowa and Chipeta, the two released pinto mares, both ended up with Bruiser – also released – after the roundup. From my photos of the roundup, the mares came in together in a large group – but not with Bruiser. (Yes, I removed that old bit of fence.) Spook, like older sister Reya (released with her mother), looks pregnant, so between anytime now and September, I’m expecting four foals in this band! If they stick together, Kiowa will have her foal and two grandbabies all together! This will also be Kiowa’s fifth foal since I started documenting … and she holds the distinction of still having most of her foals with her; almost-yearling Milagro recently took up with elder bachelor (and former lead stallion of this band) Bruiser.

A baby pic of Spook …

Spook, right, last summer with big sister Reya. Spook and Corazon – and Raven, from Sand Wash Basin – are our only black-and-white pintos. The others range from very dark bay to red-bay.

May 1 – Terra

Gorgeous 2-year-old daughter of Grey/Traveler and Houdini.

With little sister Gem in the background.

From March, with Mama in the background …

Also from that day in March, with Daddy.

Baby girl with Houdini

*********************************************************

All beloved wild beauties of Spring Creek Basin. You are loved, always.


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Corona, Iya, Sage, Spook, Tenaz, Terra

Wha-huh? Oh! … Uh …

24 04 2011

Changes happen all the time – that’s nature. Because foaling season and re-breeding season in horses happens one right after the other (no separate “rut” like with deer and elk) – and usually (but not always) in the spring – ’tis the season of changes. I like to focus on the behavior and all the “other” going on. So you’ll rarely see “fight shots” on this blog unless I can use them to illustrate the behavior behind it (such as the play fighting with the youngsters awhile back). Also, because images of stallions fighting are so prevalent, some folks then have the idea that the stallions just fight constantly, and that’s simply not the case. Stallions do fight to protect their mares and families – but they don’t fight all the time – and what else is going on?

When I first saw Hollywood’s band last week, I was confused. Kestrel and Winona were nearby – that has been fairly typical lately – but not Comanche … and not Hollywood. This was all from a distance through binoculars, by the way – and then realization hit me: Comanche WAS there – WITH Hollywood’s band – WITHOUT Hollywood …

Comanche stole Hollywood’s band – minus Piedra and, as I found later that day, their new daughter. (So much for the belief of the visitor who was adamant Hollywood could “kick that grey stallion’s ass.”)

When I finally figured out what I was seeing, it looked like the band must have been new because there was a lot of chaos swirling – and Kestrel and ‘Nona were staying apart from it.

As it turned out, I found Grey/Traveler’s band with their new filly and, late in the day, Hollywood and Piedra and Bri, and I never walked out to Comanche’s new band until the next morning.

By then, Comanche was sort of bridging the continuing gap between “Hollywood’s band” – seen above – and his original girls, Kes and ‘Nona. And except for one brief bit of interest in Baylee, Comanche seemed to be leaving them alone – and I didn’t quite understand that, either …

I’ll skip the graphic details, but Iya was clearly in her foaling heat … and it was SAGE trying to breed her! The little guy is just 2 (end of this week), and he was pretty awkward. Add to that his “auntie” Baylee, who has now fully switched her allegiance from Sage and his brother Tenaz to Iya’s little boy, and it left this human feeling confused. Why wasn’t Comanche filling that duty?

They went round and round, and Sage still found gaps in her defenses and tried to breed Iya several times while I was with them. I don’t know whether he was successful … and we won’t know till next year!

Baby was NOT hurt, I want to make very clear, and he was never in direct danger from either Sage, his half-brother trying to breed his mother, OR from Comanche, who just stole his mother and the others. Anything can happen, of course, and have foals never been trampled by a stallion trying to get to a mare to breed her? I’m sure they have been. But I know the “cult rumor” has reached epic proportions that “a stallion will kill any foal that’s not his” (I have BLM as well as non asking me this all the time), and I want to make it clear: Even in his zeal to get to Iya, Sage avoided the baby, and, as I’ve said, Comanche almost completely ignored them altogether.

What really confused me was Comanche’s behavior.

He was completely calm. Other than following them and making sure Kestrel and Winona followed him, he seemed to mostly ignore Sage AND Iya. That was the most confusing part. With her so obviously in heat (she stood for Sage patiently every time he tried), why was Comanche ignoring her? Wasn’t that probably the catalyst for Comanche stealing them in the first place? (Hollywood did not emerge unscathed from their apparent encounter, but he’ll be OK.)

Comanche at right, Sage in the middle, Tenaz, Iya and the baby in front of him and beside Baylee. Sage is in a rather tentative “stallion” position here, between Comanche and his band/family … but in the next moment:

Baby clacking!

Sage then went to the mares, and Comanche went back to grazing. Comanche showed no outward sign of injury, though he certainly could have been bruised. His attitude – in very human terms – seemed to be one of just biding his time.

Kestrel seemed to ignore the new additions even more completely than Comanche did. Here, the horses are behind her and up to the right. She’s looking long down the hill, possibly at Seven’s in the far distance (very visible this week).

Tenaz tried to take advantage of the situation by sticking as close to Winona as she would allow, but she wasn’t too interested in playing with him.

I was so hoping ‘Nona would turn her head and present me with a lovely shot of Tenaz, her and Kestrel all in a row … but she wasn’t so accommodating. 🙂 Comanche is just behind them, and the others are in the arroyo beyond.

Iya – the eye of the storm – seemed exactly as calm, taking everything in stride, focused almost completely on grazing and her baby.

No mistaking these two!

Comanche watched Iya, baby, Baylee and Sage in a wide arroyo before he led Kestrel, Winona and Tenaz down to join them.

Sunrise was almost completely cloudy (and storm-cloudy) except for this bit of softness.

Always changes … always more to learn … ALWAYS more wonder!


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Baylee, Comanche, Iya, Kestrel, Sage, Tenaz, Winona

Hollywood’s

18 04 2011

Some of Hollywood’s other family members …

The sun had lit the west, but we were still in shade when Hollywood and his firstborn, Sage, appeared in relief on a ridge against the sky. Between seeing them and training my lens on them, Sage’s expression drooped, and in the next half-second, off he went. They do appear very different, don’t they?

Curious George of colts …

… and George II – brother Tenaz, too! This little guy more closely resembles their daddy.

Watching Comanche’s crew … Tenaz and Hollywood were just to the left … baby and mama Iya at right.

It’s no wonder he was (at least) once mistaken from a distance for a sorrel – how red he glows in the early light!

Mama Piedra stood thus entranced for quite a long while (notice her shedding along her topline), and I couldn’t quite figure out what she was so intent about …

… until I looked up the hill and saw this little – still her youngest – moseying about, sun behind him from mama’s view. What was she thinking? What was he? … I could be completely wrong, but he demonstrates this lagging behavior every time ‘Nona is in the vicinity … 🙂


Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Hollywood, Iya, Piedra, Sage, Tenaz

Hollywood’s

27 03 2011

Monday, March 28, is the deadline to call the Dolores Public Lands Office at (970) 882-6800 *to request placement on the mailing list* to be sent the scoping letter for the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area roundup this fall. The scoping letter then should be coming out very soon. The scoping letter also will be online, and I’ll post that link when it’s ready. The deadline for comments will be in that letter.

********************************************************************************

Hollywood’s band was *right* off the road when I was making my way out of the basin, all hope of sunset light disappearing behind clouds. He made quite a striking figure standing sentry with some low hills, still spotted with snow, behind him (beyond the basin).

Though the golden end-o-day light didn’t break through as I had hoped, there’s something really lovely and soft about the last diffused light we did get – especially on Holls’ gorgeous dun coat.

Hollywood

Hollywood’s girls – and one of his boys: Baylee (left) will be 4; Iya will be 3 in late April; Sage, his son, will be 2 in late April; and mama Piedra is likely at least 5 this year.

BFFs Baylee and Iya. Has anyone else seen the news that the Oxford English Dictionary added that “word” recently? Like, OMG, I LOL at the ridiculousness – IMHO, of course. 🙂 I (heart) Spring Creek Basin mustangs! I’d try to get *meep* in the discussion – you know, like the roadrunner “says” in the Wile E. Coyote cartoons? – but I just can’t come up with a basin meep. I’ve heard marmots meep but no mustang meeping. Heh. (Wait, is that a word?)

Tenaz seems to be floating above Spring Creek canyon, which is really quite a distance away. That tiny glow of pink in the sky is all the color we got at the close of another wonderful day.


Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Baylee, Hollywood, Iya, Piedra, Sage, Tenaz

Subtlety

23 03 2011

This will be at the top of posts until the deadline – Monday, March 28 – to call the Dolores Public Lands Office at (970) 882-6800 to request placement on the mailing list to be sent the scoping letter for the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area roundup this fall. That should be coming out very soon.

*******************************************************************************

The following are photos from my visit with Hollywood’s, Comanche’s and Mahogany’s bands last week. They were once all part of Steeldust’s large band (except the youngsters and Iya) – though not for a couple of years now. 🙂 Mahogany leaving with Sundance and bachelor Aspen is the most recent development.

Full brothers Tenaz, almost a yearling, left, and Sage, almost 2, right.

Here’s the rest of that story:

“Reading” stud pile messages. Iya in the background.

Mahogany (bay) and Sudance. SunD stays close to her to ward off Aspen. Mahogany is in much better shape this year after a year’s rest from raising a foal.

Mahogany is the dam of Baylee (almost 4), Pinon (almost 3) and Sable (almost 2). Bayles is with Hollywood; Pinon and Sable are with Hook. She should be due in May.

Aspen with Round Top in the background. See the road? It ends just above the curve you can see. That’s where I parked the day before and walked around the west side (to the right) and came back to the Jeep from the east side (left). Seven’s and Bruiser were “behind” it on the leftish side – basically southeastish.

I’m positive Iya is pregnant.

Baylee sure doesn’t look pregnant …

Watching me carefully while she rubs an itch using that greasewood! (Check out her lip!)

What do YOU think?

Straight-on of Baylee …

Straight-on of Iya.

Hang in there, mama Piedra. Only about another month for you.

If she’s as consistent as she was with Sage and Tenaz, she’s due around the end of April.

Sundance – check out that groovy, wavy mane.

Camouflage, naturally. (Did anyone see him in one of the pix above of Baylee?)

As he grows up, he reminds me more of Chrome in his carriage.

Comanche

I had been photographing Sage and Tenaz playing over the stud pile when I noticed ‘Nona moseying in our direction. Hollywood’s had spread out grazing, but Tenaz was lingering even after Sage had wandered off. Oh, sly boy, I wonder why? 🙂

Winona walking down into the shallow arroyo. Sure-footed and beautiful.

Earlier, Tenaz sticking to big brother.

Big trot …

Do you see the future? Mr. Tenaz guarding his family? Brother Sage and auntie Iya in the background.

Watching daddy Hollywood, who hadn’t yet crossed the arroyo. Don’t you see Hollywood in this boy?

Curious George, err, I mean Tenaz. 🙂

I went on up the hill to watch them, and Mahogany and SunD came up and past me again … Lack of golden sunshine didn’t diminish the beauty of the basin.

Someone in Telluride asked me (basically): Of all the wonderful places in the West that are loved and cherished and protected and should be protected, what’s so special about Spring Creek Basin?

An innocent question (I think … I hope) … one whose answers completely undid me.

“It’s magic,” I finally managed. I can’t remember what else I said through my tear-choked throat.

Is magic enough? To protect this place that most would see as empty, desolate, scrubby and lonesome and well off anyone’s definition of a beaten track?

I think I tried to say that I write a blog to try to tell people just what’s so special about it … Mostly, my attempts fall short.

The wind, howling the day before, howling overnight, was still at dawn and for a couple of hours … until it returned seemingly out of nowhere about midmorning. I got up to head back down the hill, and saw that Winona had laid down for a nap not far below me.

Ordinary? She’s watching a pair of noisy (mating?) ravens flying across the hill that had been with us all morning. Maybe, to her, alert to the goings-on of her world. Extraordinary.

Loved the soft light illuminating her mane, the dark eastern ridges rising above her, complementing her buckskin gold.

Head. So. Heavy.

What’s so special?

Really?

Do words even exist??


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Aspen, Baylee, Iya, Mahogany, Piedra, Sage, Sundance, Tenaz, Winona

Merry bands of Hook and Hollywood

28 02 2011

Hook’s is an interesting tale (that I know) … young bachelor, bottom of the totem pole, following after his pals and Steeldust’s band. Last spring – early, probably at least this time of year – I started to notice Ember and Pinon together, at the edge of the band, Hook always nearby. And then they were together – separate from the band. Shortly, Hannah joined them … then Sable. Both fillies – both yearlings – left their family band before their mothers had even had that year’s foals (Mahogany lost hers; Luna’s Gideon is quite robust). Hook is an admirable band stallion, much more cautious of me now that he has a family to protect … except that all these youngsters have known me since the day they were born (Sable) or soon after, and the mother of two of them (Luna, dam of Ember and Hannah) is the most patient and tolerant mare in the basin, and in fact, was the first to use me to shed her pesky stallion. So Hook keeps a watchful eye, and the girls and Pinon treat my presence as acceptable.

Hollywood also has an interesting tale (OK, who doesn’t!). When I first started documenting the horses, the day Grey/Traveler was brought back to the basin after the roundup and his trip to Canon City and his three weeks in quarantine, Hollywood and Jif were the first other horses I found – close to Steeldust’s band, as they would be until Grey somehow managed to steal Jif right out from under the noses of Steeldust’s band and the closely-following Bachelor 7 the next April. Maybe Hollywood already had his eye on Piedra … in any case, rather than follow Jif (in Grey’s smaller band), he stayed with Steeldust’s bigger band (and still followed by the Bachelor 7 at that time) and wooed Piedra (yes, he really did), and eventually they broke off together into their own little band … followed shortly by Baylee, daughter of Mahogany (and Pinon’s elder sister). I have speculated that Piedra may be Baylee’s elder sister, and that’s why she followed … and that idea seemed strengthened by what happened with the siblings following into Hook’s band … but something has always nagged at me about Piedra’s more graceful appearance than Baylee or Pinon or Sable … and this year, particularly, I really start to doubt a blood-bond there. (Though they do share those ears!)

Ember had Fierro last July – already pregnant before she joined Hook’s band (likely sire, Mouse, though I can’t confirm). Shortly before Hannah left Steeldust’s band for Hook’s (sister Ember’s?), she managed to “stray” into Hollywood’s band. I was visiting Bounce’s (the calendar’s April photo was taken during that visit) and watched the chaos while they ignored it all (or seemed to). Hannah was frantic to get back to her mother’s family; Holls was just as adamant that she stay with him. As young as she was (yearling), I knew what that meant … I don’t know how she ended up with Holls, and I don’t know how long she was with him – running the whole time I watched at least – half an hour? An hour? – but she made it back to mama Luna. Very shortly after that, as I remember, she was with Hook and his little band. And now what do you see in the photo above? Like her sister Ember, she’ll be a mama at 2.

And Sable?

Switching back to Hollywood’s band, although coming-3-year-old Iya looks pregnant at a glance …

…

coming-4-year-old Baylee (elder sister of Pinon and Sable) seems still girlishly slim:

Bay-Baylee-girl

But Kestrel, who had Winona last year as a 3-year-old and elder sister of Ember and Hannah, kept her “condition” quiet until close before she foaled, so that’s just observation at this point.

Normal? Symptom of our small herd size – which is bigger now? Coming-4-year-old Reya’s condition is unknown. Her coming-3-year-old sister, Spook, lost her foal last year … Just something to make us go “hmm”?

Fierro and Ember, Pinon and Hook

Hannah

Baylee, Iya and Hollywood. I liked that I could see all their eyes. Bayles took another couple of steps that made an even better composition, but then she closed her eyes!

Iya and Holls

Pretty Piedra

Mama Piedra and her youngest, Tenaz

How toasty warm he must be in that fuzzy coat!

Tenaz and daddy Hollywood

This one is meant to show a comparison between Iya’s and Baylee’s bellies … Round Top at right, Brumley Point straight back – Tenaz at far right.

Brumley Point. To get your bearings, McKenna Peak and the unnamed promontory are to the left. The far background rimrock hills are outside the herd area.

We’ve talked about how wonderful it is to enjoy horses in their quiet moments. I am incredibly fortunate to spend such time with these horses that I can witness those moments. But they’re wild and ever watchful. Spooks do happen. 🙂

Hollywood initiated a “charge” of maybe 30-50 yards? From in front of me to up the hill a little to my right, into the light …

So unfortunately out of focus …

They didn’t go far …

Calm again. Holls and Bayles … love that light illuminating his eye! Another of my favorite images of the day.

They are wild … sensitive to movement and sounds – and that darn mud made it hard to move in steady motion.

Moments after:

Piedra

Piedra and Sage

Hollywood and Sage … I just liked their shapes in the sunlight.

And bidding farewell when everything was back to calm. Love the little hitch to his nostril.

Of the pix of Holls and his band running – like or dislike? Why? Does it matter that you know “the rest of the story”? It happens … with or without my presence … It’s part of the story thread of the basin …

I still had a decent trek to the Jeep, in the mud … I didn’t know at this point what was waiting for me at the bend … But I knew I was deliriously happy, right then, right in those splendid moments in the wild American outback. Give and take. Still and in motion. Light and shadow. Questions and wonder and mystery. How much will we know? How much do we want – need – to know?


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Baylee, Ember, Fierro, Hannah, Hollywood, Hook, Iya, Piedra, Pinon, Sable, Sage, Tenaz

Random happiness

23 02 2011

Life got in the way of me posting yesterday (though I started one), so I didn’t quite make good on my promise to post every day for a week. The snow-weather that prevented weekend visits has given way to warm and wet (melting) weather now, so a visit to the basin this week may not be in my cards. The good news is I have a lot more photos from last week’s visit!

Here are some random images from the day that don’t necessarily fit into a “category” … they just are as they are.

Tenaz checks out some tasty morsel mama Piedra seems to have found.

Kestrel protested mildly, but Winona finally got her way.

Comanche – Kestrel and Winona were just up the hill to the right.

What a … stud! 🙂 Isn’t he just wonderfully handsome?

Scenery interlude: All the near foreground is within Spring Creek Basin. The La Sal Mountains in the background are in Utah.

What caught my eye was that through-the-clouds spotlight on the mountains. A long lens is essential for photographing wildlife, and it’s also perfect for isolating parts of landscapes. The first two “layers” in the foreground are in Spring Creek Basin – the hills in front and the hills rising up behind. Then the next couple of layers are outside the basin, in Disappointment Valley. And the mountains beyond.

The entire foreground here is Spring Creek Basin.

Layers and layers of beauty

Fierro catches a snack surrounded by family – Sable just out of sight to the right.

More coming …


Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Comanche, Ember, Fierro, Hannah, Hook, Kestrel, La Sal Mountains, Piedra, Pinon, Tenaz, Uncategorized, Winona

Some boys

19 02 2011

Tenaz and his daddy, Hollywood

Comanche

Fierro

Hook (it was very windy!)

Pinon

Pinon, Fierro and Hook

Sage in a rare moment of looking at me long enough to set, focus and fire my camera!

Tenaz (check out the mud splattered on his face – such a little boy!) – I see you, peek-a-boo boy!

Hollywood – I love that light illuminating his eye.

Kreacher. I loved that light enveloping the horses. He’s right at the edge of the road … Raven, Corona and Kootenai are to the left. They’ve found a bit of snow, and they’re getting their fill like kids at the neighborhood ice cream truck. Kreach stood here so quietly … he never moved a step from when I first saw him from the Jeep. Talk about a passive leader (I think I mentioned him in an earlier post where I was referring to Beautiful Mustang’s recent posts) … so calm. So confident. So young (still relatively dark).

Just as the sun slipped over the edge of the world, the girls were finishing their snow and making their way toward him. That was his cue – was he just waiting for them that whole time? – and he started off up the road. Stopped once to leave a pile, which the girls investigated thoroughly (?), then on up the road and finally up the hill at the next bend. They grazed not far off the road when I slipped past them … the basin covered in shadow – light just on the upper ridges of the eastern boundary, McKenna’s point, the promontory’s rocky face. Kreacher does lead … and his girls do follow him.

All these boys … so amazing.


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Comanche, Fierro, Hollywood, Hook, Kreacher, Pinon, Sage, Tenaz

Maybe …

8 01 2011

… I should do it like this …

Winona and Tenaz

… get pix up to share …

Kestrel pawing through snow

… because they’re the ones that have caught my eye …

Tenaz and daddy Hollywood

… on my first trip through the images.

To me, they speak volumes … but I started wondering, what do they mean to you?

And that led to remembering something I think one of you touched on in a recent question … that led me to wonder, just what DO you all wonder about?

What questions do you have about the horses, their home, their relationships, their history, the future I (at least) hope for them … what else?

Winona and Kestrel

What can I tell you, share with you, increase your understanding of?

Sharing winter grazing

For example, Winona and Kestrel are finding something yummy here under the snow that occupied them for a few minutes … Baby learning from mama; mama ever-so-patiently sharing whatever she had found …

… until Hollywood’s band, down the hill, caught ‘Nona’s attention, leaving mama Kestrel to finish the morsel.

Some of the horses pawed – almost all of Hollywood’s band members – but some seemed to just snuffle along with their muzzles in the snow and barely pawed at all – those in Steeldust’s band. Why?

Disclaimer: I still have as many questions as I may have answers! 🙂

But I’d like to know your thoughts and questions and topics you’d like to see addressed here. This is going to be a big year of education for us, and what better place to start than the blog? I do plan to talk more about fertility control, but feel free to ask anything.


Comments : 25 Comments »

Categories : Hollywood, Kestrel, Tenaz, Winona

« Previous Entries Next Entries »