This beautiful buckskin girl is getting close, too.
Kestrel, looking at Comanche, with her almost-yearling daughter, Juniper. I love that spattering of dark dapples on Kes.
Stunning Comanche, gorgeous in any light. Keeping watch over his girls. He is the sire of Juniper and Kestrel’s baby-to-come.
And yes, the girl’s udder is big. Much bigger than Raven’s, even though she’s actually due a week after Raven – in mid-May.
You can see a bit of her udder in this one.
This will be her fourth foal, all sired by Seven. Speaking of whom, though he managed to get her back from Aspen, he lost her (and Killian) to Storm … who also has Mona, stolen from Seven by Aspen.
Friends spotted the spots yesterday, right above the Disappointment Road. After seeing quite a bit of them this winter, I’ve barely seen them this spring. Reya was heavy pregnant last year during the Four Corners Back Country Horsemen’s annual wild horse count, but then she lost the foal (her first), so I don’t have an exact due date on her. Late May/early June is my guesstimate. That’s her grazing with band stallion Ty. Bachelors Corazon and Copper are still with the band.
Better o’ da belly. (OT: Isn’t it interesting how most of the the pintos’ tails are mostly white at top then go to black and Ty’s tail is dark (greying) at top and goes light ? :))
She’s definitely in the mode of nap more, move less!
Oh, the girl is tired. She is ready. She is due in just a few weeks.
Napping in the warm sunshine.
Can’t resist throwing in a pic of this handsome mister:
Apollo, Raven’s big yearling boy, is a full brother to baby-to-be, sired by Kreacher.
Most readers of this blog aren’t local to this neck of the woods, but if you are, I’d like to invite you to the “Southwest Colorado Spring Creek Basin Wild Horse Management Program” at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango. It’s part of the center’s “2012 Program Series: Celebrating the Preservation of our Natural and Cultural Heritage.”
Guest speakers will be Fran Ackley from Canon City; Tom Rice from the Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores; and Kathe Hayes with the San Juan Mountains Association. Our Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners will represent our member groups – National Mustang Association/Colorado, Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen and SJMA – during the event. It’s a great way to let the public know about our groups individually and Wild Bunch as a whole, and educate people about our Spring Creek Basin mustangs and how we help, including being part of the Director’s Challenge award that netted our BLM office $25,000 for projects for the horses. We’re excited to be part of this educational series hosted by the Center of Southwest Studies!
The event will start with a reception at 5:30 followed by the program at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the center’s Lyceum on the Fort Lewis College campus.
If you are local, or even passing through, we hope to see you there!
No words, just love.
Don’t you love surprises?
On my last visit to the basin, I found Grey/Traveler’s band – and Mariah – pretty quickly, about where they’ve been the last week. Not too far, but I thought I should be looking for Piedra. I almost kept driving, but Houdini and Mariah were so temptingly close …
Bounce and Tenaz were below.
Chrome’s came into sight above.
After I spent time with Grey’s band, I went up to Chrome’s.
Hayden and Terra at the top of the finger hills.
Chrome, looking so handsome and relaxed in the morning light.
Winona was almost out of sight, taking her own little nap:
🙂
And it was about then that I looked west and saw Hollywood’s band. He was standing, napping; Shane was lying down. Piedra was standing a short distance away … and there were ears at her feet. Oh!
Oh, how glad I went for a hike.
Mysterium gives mama Kootenai a nuzzle. Who can resist that sweet baby?!
I hung out with these ponies for a while – it was mostly sunny, and it was warm – just enjoying being in the basin with them. Then I walked on around Round Top to look for the pintos. I didn’t find them, but I did see David and Shadow. The last time I was in that area, the last time I saw David and Shadow, it was snowing! Spring is here, and it is wonderful!
Kreacher and Duke were hanging out by the dugout when I drove by the other day. I’ve seen the boys almost every visit, but they’ve been far away, so I’ve been keeping tabs on them via binoculars. This day, they were fairly close, so I walked out to say hello.
Duke. It had gotten windy, and how handsome this wild boy looks with his long locks!
They’re very comfortable together (they’ve been together for a while now), and Duke is the leader.
Basin boys.
Aspen has been hanging out alone. These boys had been keeping a watch on him earlier. Maybe they’ll bring Aspen into the fold.
Baby distraction – that’s my excuse!
Young mister Storm does, indeed, have mistress Mona. He’s hanging out in the territory he basically claimed last year with Baylee and Tenaz – the east pocket.
The odd thing this year is that because of our mild winter, no one is back to share it with them! Grasses are coming up spread out all over the basin, and so the horses are spread out this year as well. That’s a good thing! A few ponds already are dry, but BLM plans to dig out another three with some of the Director’s Challenge money we got.
