With mama and daddy and “auntie,” life is good for the littlest.
Chrome, Kwana, Terra and Winona at home on the range.
Family, complete
19 09 2012Comments : Leave a Comment »
Categories : Chrome, Kwana, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Terra, Winona
Art for mustangs
18 09 2012Saturday was the opening reception for an art show at the Ridgway (Colorado) library featuring paintings by Alice Billings and Karen Keene Day.
The door counter registered 180 people coming to view and appreciate the art these talented women have created of mustangs – current and removed – of Spring Creek Basin.
From left: Alice, yours truly, Karen and Martha (librarian) in front of Alice’s (behind me and Alice) and Karen’s paintings in the entryway.
Behind Alice, a little piece of Maia, then Jif’s foal (Jif was found to be branded and ended up being sold through – and rescued from – the sale barn and lives now south of Ridgway) and the noses of Kwana and Terra. Alice adopted Liberty, who lives with her and her herd in Ridgway.
Karen and her husband, Floyd, in front of my favorite of her paintings: “Return To Disappointment Valley @2008,” a tribute to all who were rounded up in 2007 in Spring Creek Basin. (I want to mention that Floyd, who started life as an engineer, is an accomplished artist in his own right. He likes to paint cows found in the mountain meadows of the San Juans, but we won’t hold that against him! One of his paintings of a cow and calf was used as the centerpiece for a quilt for the Ouray Historical Society this year.) And I’d like to point out Karen’s necklace – pieced together by her farflung grandchildren!
Three of Karen’s paintings. In the middle is her stunning tribute to Steeldust. On the right is one of Karen’s “oil-pan paintings.” It literally starts life as the metal pan under her canvas to catch the oil paint drops. The horses she finds in this “discarded” paint is simply fascinating! I have one of these, a gift after the roundup and adoption last year. Treasured.
Alice also has painted tributes to our Spring Creek Basin horses here now in spirit. These are Cinch (left) and Hook, from my photos.
Alice painted portraits of all the foals (current as well as some not still in the basin). I thought it was awesome that they were arranged on the wall by the children’s section in the library.
She nailed cheeky Skywalker, didn’t she!
A close-up view of Temple. Each of the paintings had cards by them to identify the mustang with a short description.
In addition to her large canvases, Karen paints these 8-inch by 8-inch pieces. I have one she did of Bounce. She’s talking with Mary, a friend of Alice’s who provided beautiful guitar music throughout the reception.
A second group of Karen’s smaller paintings with one by Alice in the background by the window.
“Mainstream” artists, these ladies are not! I love the spirit and movement they each manage to coax from their chosen mediums, each reflecting the joy and beauty of our mustangs. What I really love is the aspect of education both feel compelled to impart through their paintings.
Karen’s and Alice’s art will hang at the Ridgway library until Nov. 9. Stop in and see it for yourself if you’re in the area!
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Education, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Kids and mustangs
17 09 2012Today, 15 seventh-graders from Naturita came with their science teacher to Spring Creek Basin for a wild horse educational unit set up by Alessandra and Laura of the Telluride Institute.
Kiley Whited, our herd manager based at the Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores, and Kathe Hayes, volunteer program coordinator with San Juan Mountains Association, offered the students a fantastic hands-on activity checking plant inventory along a transect Kiley set up near the water catchment. Students learned about grasses such as blue grama, galleta and Indian ricegrass and shrubs such as shadscale and greasewood, and how those form part of the horses’ diet – and how BLM managers inventory the range to know the appropriate population range – appropriate management level – a given area can support.
The range is looking fantastic now with a lower population level after the roundup and less pressure on the range, despite a significant lack of rain this year. But the little rain we have had has really brought up the vegetation!
Kiley talks about vegetation within the frame along the transect with a Naturita student.
Four groups of students worked along four transects to identify and weigh plant material.
Painted fingernails and a mustang hoof. Kathe Hayes brought this hoof and leg found in the basin several years ago to demonstrate how veterinarians and others are learning about good hoof construction from the hooves of mustangs. The kids thought it was “grody” but kinda cool!
Some “juicy” words the kids used to describe the mustangs: Majestic (love this one!), pretty, field trip!
We had lunch near Seven, Kreacher and Duke, Hayden, Tenaz and Apollo, and also got to see Chrome’s band with little Kwana during our trip.
Thanks all around to everyone who made this trip possible – including the parents who transported the kids! Hopefully we can make this an annual event. The Naturita Colts certainly deserve to learn about the mustangs in their backyard!
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Education, Kids & Horses, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area
Ty
17 09 2012Mr. Fierce.
Ty keeps Chipeta and Puzzle, and Corazon has claimed Reya and S’aka. Maiku is generally neutral … but not always. And they’re one big, mostly happy family. Closer, even, than Hollywood’s and Comanche’s families.
Another shot that seemed to beg for extra contrast in black and white. Ty and his “fierce face.”
About 60 seconds later, they were all grazing in peace.
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Ty
One year
16 09 2012A year ago today, our roundup started, a day late because of rain. Clear, clear skies this year. Many changes. Many things the same. Some things better. Some things, not so much.
We lost some. We gained more.
I like to think positively and look ahead.
But it’s impossible not to remember.
Management of our Spring Creek Basin mustangs is moving in a positive direction, and I think the great condition of our horses and range proves that.
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Puzzle, S'aka, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Two
16 09 2012Stallions Ty and Copper.
Ty was keeping Copper away from the band.
I think I’ve finally sort of figured out now that this actually is two bands – Ty’s and Corazon’s – and they are just even closer than Hollywood’s and Comanche’s, with Copper as the satellite stallion. Coincidentally, Ty and Copper are the non-pintos in the “pinto band.”
As an aside, does that profile on Copper remind anyone of Cinch?? Very distinctive; Cinch’s was even more pronounced.
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Copper, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Ty
‘Nona Winona
15 09 2012Reminds me of a pic I took of her as a baby …
The light on the grass makes it look like she’s surrounded by fireflies. Last light high on the rimrocks.
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Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Winona
Little blue eyes
15 09 2012
Coming up with a mustang baby’s name has never been so difficult – or seemed so important.
I wanted to choose a name for this colt that reflects his heritage as the grandson of our marvelous stallion, Grey/Traveler, this home he was born to, Spring Creek Basin, Colorado, and the legacy he has inherited.
Grey Eagle was the sire of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s famous war horse, Traveller. That might be swapping things around a bit, but because Traveller was gelded, he left no offspring. Eagles – both golden and bald – can be seen here (infrequently, though a couple of Forest Service folks were here in late winter to count them and check nesting sites, and I have seen raptors of both species in the sky and on land – and fence wire). A terrific, family-published book, Where Eagles Winter, by Wilma Bankston, paints a fascinating history of Disappointment Valley and the surrounding region. The Utes traditionally hunted and traveled this land, and knew it more intimately than we ever can.
The Ute word for eagle is kwana (kwah-nah).
He may be somewhat lacking in fierceness at this tender age, but little Kwana has some big hoofprints to fill.
And he’s going to turn grey. 🙂
Comments : 7 Comments »
Categories : Kwana, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Terra
All eyes on the belly
14 09 2012Not yet … 🙂
‘Nuff said.
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Chipeta, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
See ya!
14 09 2012Took some friends into the basin. Saw Comanche’s and Hollywood’s and Bounce at a distance. Grey/Traveler’s band offered us a great visit right off the road! Then, as we were headed to the northwest valley to check for bachelors, here they came! We stopped in a near tunnel of trees and got the cameras ready. They came right up the road, then around and past us through the pinon/juniper!
Too fast! Too many trees! But I snapped this one of Hayden just before he dashed through the trees and out of sight:
Showing off that big mustang trot!
And just like that, they were lost in the trees.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Hayden, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
