As Christmas trees go, it’s a little spindly, but we work with what we have. 🙂
Madison and Temple – and all of us in Spring Creek Basin –
wish you and your families the very merriest Christmas!
Be of good cheer!
25 12 2021Comments : 7 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
O holy night
24 12 2021
All is calm, all is bright.
Merry Christmas Eve!
Comments : 7 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Some freshening
23 12 2021
It’s official: All we needed to make the brown look more *gold* and less blah is a bit of white stuff … and one very gorgeous grey mustang girl (thanks, Temple!). 🙂
Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Riches
22 12 2021
Thick velvet bay winter coat and snow drifting over the far ridges.
Sigh.
Blessed.
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Winter wings
21 12 2021
Happy winter solstice, everyone!
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Gnarly napper
20 12 2021
Winona found a low spot in a shallow arroyo on the west side of Flat Top to nap; it was as out of the wind as possible that day. Even in her sheltered spot, she had a good view of the human wandering around in the snow.
You really have to wonder what they wonder about our strange-to-them movements: I’m not grazing. I’m not looking for a spot out of the wind. I’m not with others of my kind. I’m just wandering around, clicking every now and then and making other also-unintelligible noises. What weird creatures! 🙂
Comments : 15 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Winter waves
19 12 2021
It’s not too hard to imagine the immense ocean that once covered this whole region of the Colorado Plateau from this angle, eh?
Madison looks toward her bestie while I watch the snow rolling over the southern ridges of Disappointment Valley. As it came over the ridges, the wind blew it west, and it never did reach us in Spring Creek Basin (which is included in the valley).
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
The checkout gaze
18 12 2021
As the sun was setting behind clouds over the basin, Corazon came to see just what the heck I was doing sitting there in a pile of snow (answer: because it wasn’t mud). My camera’s ISO was still set for better light, so he’s a bit out of focus, but I love his expression of curiosity!
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
A little to the left
17 12 2021
Another little snowfall … another lotta melting going on.
I was trying to catch Skywalker with the mountains in the background, but he was much too interested in finding edible bits. And the mountains, though draped in a mantle of long-awaited white, were barely visible through snow clouds. The mud makes it harder than usual for the horses (and humans) to get around, but you won’t find any of us complaining! In fact, we wouldn’t say no to more snow for Christmas. 🙂
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, Education, Fertility control, Mustangs, Partnership, PZP, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Remembering a great
16 12 2021
Six years ago today, we lost one of the greatest wildlife advocates of our age: Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick.
I’ve never known a more intelligent, compassionate, big-hearted human being. When friend and inspiration Marty Felix, champion for the Little Book Cliffs horses for more than four decades, suggested I contact him, early in my advocacy years, it was like she’d told me to call up a rock star. And when I did call him, he was just … so … kind. When I met him in August 2010, when I went to the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Montana, for the training and certification to become a PZP darter, the first thing I did was ask if I could hug him. 🙂 The memory makes me smile and cry in equal measure.
It’s still true: I honor him and his legacy to preserve wild horses (all wildlife) with every dart I fire. He is one of our mustang angels over Spring Creek Basin. He is missed, never forgotten.
(Sun halo seen yesterday over Spring Creek Basin and Disappointment Valley.)
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Disappointment Valley, Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, Education, Fertility control, Mustangs, Partnership, PZP, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
