One of our sights from the “count”:
Kestrel, baby and big sister Juniper.
I forgot to say that in addition to our weed inventory, we saw all but two of the horses! The pintos – like last year – even made a surprise appearance into the northern part of the basin, so were seen by both groups.
For 13 years now, members of the Durango-based Four Corners Back Country Horsemen have been visiting Spring Creek Basin every spring to help BLM monitor the mustangs. Members often set up work projects during the count weekends, and this year was no different, with help from Mike Jensen, the Tres Rios Field Office’s weed guru (I don’t know his actual title? he also was a former manager of SCB), and Kathe Hayes with San Juan Mountains Association. Mike gave a great talk Friday evening about the particulars of knapweed, in particular. Kathe readied maps and record sheets for the groups and led the horseback riders Saturday.
Special thanks to Pat and Frank Amthor, long-time 4CBCH members and organizers for most of the last 13 years of the count. Their knowledge and experience is invaluable! (And I have to give a special nod not only to the food in general but specifically to Frank’s awesome homemade strawberry ice cream!)
We had one group of horseback riders and one of vehicle drivers (horseless but not clueless – ha!). Between our groups, we mapped 14 sites for weeds – knapweed, musk thistle and tamarisk – so BLM can cut, dig, spray and/or “de-weed.”
One highlight of the weekend – besides the food (oh, the food!) – was the Irick family of Denver (area), who came with their Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Breeze (adopted in 2005) and Sage (adopted in 2007). Brother Luke stayed home, but Teresa and Steve rode with the group, and daughter Sara rode with our vehicle group and helped with recording the weeds.
Teresa and Steve riding out on Breeze, pinto, and Sage.
It was an emotional ride, Teresa said afterward, seeing the boys remember their home. They’re not the first who have brought their adopted mustangs home to the basin, and I hope they won’t be the last! These boys are so loved and cared for – part of their family.
I didn’t take any pix of the horseless few, but here are the rest of horse folks who rode their horses to inventory weeds:
Kathe giving the safety talk at the beginning of the ride. Crow has obviously heard it all before!
Todd and Judy and their horses, Red and Dandy.
Nancy and Aspen, who came all the way from Corrales, N.M., where Aspen holds the distinction of “pet mayor”!
4CBCH president Bob and his lovely horse – whose name I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t ask, though I was very taken with this handsome fellow (regular readers may know my fascination with dark bay horses!). Just a young guy – 5 – but he did very well.
Riders heading out in the morning.
Riding into the sunrise.
Thank you to the Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, BLM and SJMA – and to Mother Nature for the truly excellent weather. After Friday night’s wind and chill, Saturday and Sunday were simply spectacular! Weed inventorying and eradication is part of our partnership objective with BLM under the Director’s Challenge grant we recently received. What a great start!
Can you get enough of this little man?
I thought not. 🙂
Just for fun. 🙂
Sundance enjoyed a nice nap in the sunshine, then woke up with a biiiiiiiiiiig stretch!
The thrill of anticipation, surpassed only by the joy of arrival!
With a face like that, it can only be …
Raven’s little blackbird!
Baby and the family. They gifted me with the most gorgeous visit … I can’t begin to tell you how my heart sings just to sit with them in their world, on a hilltop surrounded by hills and valleys and open sky. It’s a place so full of magic, wild life, you can’t help but be touched by world’s grace.
One bit of distressing news: Apollo is missing from the band. I’m hoping he shows up with youngsters Hayden and Tenaz. I haven’t posted pix of them yet, but they’re together.
Sundance, baby’s stepdaddy, snoozing with the band. Kreacher is the colt’s sire; he lost the band to Sundance just before the roundup last fall. Apollo is baby’s full brother, and Mysterium is his half-sister.
One little teeny spot marks him a pinto like mama. I had wondered whether she would eventually pass on her spots … but I’m not sure baby will stay black like her. He’s sort of “faded” in the middle, and I’m guessing he will go grey like daddy.
Showing off more white, preparing to lie down near sister.
Speaking of Mysterium, isn’t she growing up gorgeous?
Do you not love that face?!
And the big mustang walk already. 🙂
Let’s hear it: Awwwwwww!
Welcome to your wild world, little one!
Where, oh where does it go?
Days are full. Days are getting longer – and starting earlier. Days are busy. Days are magic. Days are happy.
Note to family and friends: I am so thankful for each of you. That I’m totally and literally “carried away by wild horses,” you know and appreciate and support fully. How did I come to be so blessed?
This morning, what a morning. Not another human being for leagues. Surrounded by 48 horses – not just any horses, THE horses – and plants with names I know and don’t know and am learning, secret trails and not-so-secret byways, caressed by spring wind – still chilly at times – cushioned by solid earth, warmed by golden light – amazed. Awed. Inspired. One new little life. I knew him (!) as a big, round belly … and now here he is. Can you imagine the miracle?
Every day, somewhere, babies are born – human and otherwise – it happens in every time zone, on (almost?!) every continent. It happens with support and without, in conditions good and bad. Some little being takes a gulp of air, and the world heaves a sigh of happiness. Next? Oh, next comes … everything.
Normal? Taken for granted? Never. The magic of life, continuing, can be nothing less than celebrated as the miracle it always is.
Thank you all for sharing this journey. A strange post, maybe, but I’m still riding high the beauty of the day. I just needed to express the absolute joy I have in the horses, all they mean to me, that I may share with you who have come to love them. What an amazing journey it continues to be.
She’s growing into those ears. 🙂
Gorgeous girls.
So many photos, so little time to get them posted!
But here’s a recent pic of Raven, in all her big-belly glory!
Raven and Mysterium. This picture doesn’t do Raven justice. The lady is very large.
Corona looking much less pregnant even than previously, and Gaia showing a bit of her growing middle. The girls are watching Sundance’s band.
Just a matter of waiting. Mama knows best!
All mamas need a little love this day!
Give your mama some love today. Tell her how much she means to you, how much she taught you, how much you love her.
Reya, not due till the end of the month or early June, has a baby boy! Our first of the season.
Reya and her darling boy.
Thanks to DG for alerting me to baby’s arrival in the world. He has named the baby S’aka. “It means strong, mighty. It is Lakota. It is pronounced ‘Sh-aka.’ One word with a stop between the first and second syllable.”
Baby was no match for the warm sunshine.
Baby catching up to mama, walking past Chipeta and Uncle Half-brother Maiku (Reya’s little brother by their mother, Kiowa, and baby’s brother by their sire, Copper).
If you have been to Spring Creek Basin in the spring, you have done battle with the gnats. They seem especially bad in the southern part of the basin. They’re not bad – yet – but they’re out. Baby was battling them. Isn’t he divine?
Reya is being a very good mama. Her first foal was born last year, and it died before I saw it. I wasn’t looking for her to have a foal before the end of the month.
Baby and his big half-sister Puzzle – same sire again. They inherited Copper’s red bay, while Maiku takes after dark mama Kiowa.
Just scrumptious!
Switching gears just a little: I saw David and Shadow, too. No baby, and I can’t say with certainty either way: that Shadow is or is not pregnant. I will say that, from a distance, she doesn’t really seem to be.
Raven – more specifically, Raven’s belly – is huge. Ginormous. Apollo was a big foal, so maybe this baby will be, too. She’s past due. Gaia looks to be making us wait a bit. Corona seems to have lost her foal. She no longer has even a “maybe baby” belly.
