Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Storm

6 11 2011

Storm wasn’t too far from Poco and Roach. I’m never sure how aware they are of other horses, close but unseen, or if the same obstacles – landforms – in my way stymie them as well. How big a role plays their superior eyesight, smell, hearing – being?

He was alone and napping, looking as robust as ever – clearly no physically worse for wear since his parting from Shadow (at the, err, hooves of David).

Can’t get over how much he grew this summer.

He stood for a while, watching me across a little arroyo, then apparently got bored! …

… and moved on to grazing. Do you love how he matches his surroundings?! Late-fall basin grey with snow patches – is that a new horse color we can register?

He kept an eye on me. 🙂

Handsome

He has moved a bit out of what had become his territory this summer – not surprising. Maybe he’ll take up with Poco and Roach … or not.

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Storm

The Mona story

5 11 2011

Well, Mona. I’m fairly sure she’s not pregnant anymore – at least not about-to-foal pregnant. She’s sure healthy, and she waddles like a pregnant lady, but there’s no change in udder in the last three weeks. Given her good shape, and the fact that her due date was almost two months ago now, I don’t even know when she lost the foal – did she have it at some point? And before you jump on the bandwagon that the roundup caused her to abort (as some have already done), please remember that her band was NOT targeted, at our request, because of her pregnant status (or the fact that I thought she was).

They’re all still with Aspen. Seven was alone – not too far, really, as the mustang walks – napping in the sunshine when I saw him.

Roja, left, Killian and Shane

She grazed nearby for a bit, then decided she wanted to be with the others down the hill. I think it’s safe to say now that she’s just in really good shape! She got pretty thin nursing Shane last winter, so it’s not a bad thing …

Killian (his brother Ze is doing SO well!)

My absolute new favorite pic of Roja. 🙂

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Aspen, Killian, Mona, Roja, Shane, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Skipper update

4 11 2011

Sounds like Amy and Keith are doing very well with Skipper (Milagro)!

In Amy’s words: “We’re making progress with Skipper. This last weekend, we were able to get a neck rope on Skipper and lead him without food. I also got a halter on him but haven’t led him in the halter yet. Yesterday, Keith was able to get a halter on him without food so that was a big step. Skipper still is not the friendliest horse, but I think he enjoys being worked with.”

Skipper and Amy – first time with the halter on, she says!

With the halter on and the rope over his back.

Keith getting Skipper used to things in his mouth.

Keith leading Skipper.

Amy and Skipper

A man and his mustang – love this. 🙂

Update to the update: “Skipper’s kind of a funny horse in that he isn’t super interested in us, he’s very independent. He’s not bothered by loud sounds or having the tractor driven into the building where we’ve made a stall for him at the back of it, even when he’s standing in his stall. Since I sent you those pictures, Keith worked with him yesterday, putting a rope over his back and pulling it off of him. He was a little skittery the first couple of times, and by the third time, he was more at ease.”

Love the pix and the updates! It all happens differently with the different horses and adopters, and I just love watching it all unfold. Thank you, Amy and Keith, for this glimpse into your journey with Skipper! 🙂

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Categories : Adoption, Milagro, Skipper, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Burros in Big Bend

4 11 2011

Not an uplifting story … and given that it has happened before, and the story says the public likely will not stop it this time?

Thanks to Ann for this news and contact info for Texas Parks and Wildlife. As she asks, why not try bait trapping and adoption?

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744
Toll Free: (800) 792-1112. Austin: (512) 389-4800

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Categories : Advocacy

The Found Boys

3 11 2011

Yeah, I cried. For joy. For coming around a curve, and there was Poco … and as I inched a bit on, Roach … for finding them just as I knew I would … again …

Roach and Poco

Poco

Roach

Yes, those white bits in the backgrounds of the above photos are patches of snow!

Discussing a newly christened stud pile.

And where were the wayward wanderers?

Home, sweet home.

Where else? 🙂

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Poco, Roach, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Pati & Sherwood

30 10 2011

I have all these great photos of Pati and Sherwood (Rio) from a few weeks ago … and I just don’t know where to start to share them all! That they need to be shared – Pati’s great rapport with this colt, son or grandson of Traveler – there is no doubt.

I posted a few awhile back with every intention to get to more … best intentions!

Another preview …

One of my favorite moments of watching them:

Pati brought in a tarp, which would send most domestic horses running for the hills. She placed a little bit of hay on it – that’s what you see that Sherwood’s so interested in.

Here he is, standing right on the tarp eating his hay.

And picking it up off the ground – notice he’s still standing on it. Scared? Not this wild boy!

More to come of this fabulous pair. I promise.

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Adoption, Advocacy, National Mustang Association/CO, Rio, Sherwood, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

On the hill

30 10 2011

The world is an amazing place, the creatures upon this Earth a wide and incredible variety, the magic they emit some sort of secret we humans don’t seem to be quite in on. It’s hard to think of us humans as part of this magical place … such is the harm we do to it and each other and our fellow creatures.

Sometimes my thoughts lead me to dark places, but how can a body possibly be melancholy faced with …

From high on the north hills of Spring Creek Basin, looking westish-southwestish. That’s Filly Peak in the far distance. Just beyond, the basin drops off over the rimrock edge of the world into the wider Disappointment.

An evening spent with Grey/Traveler’s band. I found a place in the open, in the sunshine, and watched and waited and felt the darkness leave my soul … as always happens …

And from that place – on the hill, in the light – the horses moved around me, in and out of my field of vision, never far away, always aware …

And I saw the color of the light change …

And heard the sound of the air quiver into its end-of-day hum …

As I watched up the hill …

And across the hill …

Caught the filtered softness of light …

And the tiny things out standing in the light …

And the very last hurrah of light …

And never wanted to leave.

Such is the magic, eh?

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Alegre, Aurora, Corona, Gaia, Grey, Houdini

Light

27 10 2011

Sorry about the quiet. Busy-ness. And I couldn’t even get out to the horses this week because of rain and snow. But we never complain about moisture around here!

Another pic of Mysterium and Kootenai from a couple-of-weeks-ago visit … could have bottled that light and the horses with it … and here it almost looks like I did just that …

How lovely are they, gorgeous girls that they are?!

Our Wild Bunch had a meeting last night. We had a long list of discussion points, but what I enjoyed most was the talk of two of our members about the horses they’ve adopted. Their faces light up, and they could talk forever – and I could listen. 🙂 It’s an amazing thing, the connections these horses forge with us, with each other, connecting us to people we might never have known. Fortunate are we who learn their language without demanding they know ours.

Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Kootenai, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Steeldust update

25 10 2011

He’s home! His forever home, with Melissa and his grandson Varoujan, now called Banjo. Can’t tell you all how my heart sings with this news.

From Melissa: “I sprung Steeldust from prison yesterday and got home at around 7:00pm. I pulled the trailer around to the round pen and Banjo came running up whinnying & greeting his granddaddy. I unloaded the Boss, and they nuzzled through the fence and greeted each other. I checked on them all night as they stayed side by side through the fence as the weather moved in & it spit snow & was windy. This morning I let Banjo into the pen with Steeldust and he did a run in a circle around him kicking & farting. I moved my chair into the pen along with a small pile of hay I placed under the chair. Banjo came trotting right up to eat of course. About 5 minutes later Steeldust decided I wasn’t going to eat him alive and cautiously came up and began to eat out of my hand. He had been here less than 12 hours but is eating out of my hand. I keep going in every hour or so to sit & offer more handfuls of hay. He has certainly lost weight in Canon City and he is ribby & hippy and sunken in a bit.”

How’s that for a 20-year-old former wild stallion! Banjo at right.

It’s a process …

Love this. 🙂

Feeding them both.

Banjo and his granddaddy, reunited.

More from Melissa: “You really CAN see his true age up close especially by his head & eyes. When I picked him up, there was a vet there drawing blood from the new group of horses. They put him in the squeeze chute to put his halter on and load him which went very fast & easy. His teeth are VERY worn. The vet said they need to be floated when he gets to the point that he can be handled but said that he is in remarkable shape for a 20 year old wild fellow who had held his position as a band stallion for so long. He concurred with the other vet that Steeldust is indeed around 20 yrs old and they put down 1991′ as his foaling year on the paperwork. He is a good size with nice strong, straight, long legs with good feet & canon bone. His eyes are hollow with weight loss and age but are very kind. He is not quite the fire breathing dragon right now in spite of his full body scars that give you the impression that he is. (we’ll see what he’s like when he gets weight back on him) but he is currently NOT the aggressive fellow that was expected after so many years as a fighting band stallion. It is expected that it will take about 20 months for all the testosterone to be out of his system. (one month per year of age) But I don’t have any mares anyway or any reason for him to feel the NEED to fight. I may not need to put up the extenders on the top of the pen if I don’t pressure him too much during the gentling process. Banjos presence seems to give him comfort & confidence without the need to fight for anything.

“There is weather expected and we should get a few inches of snow tonight. Last night I mixed up some bran with hot water & mixed in sweet mix and chunks of carrots & applesauce and mixed it all together in a hot mash with crunched up hay in a pan and gave that to him around 4:00am. It was all gone this morning so now that he has the taste for it, I will be able to give him a hot bran mash every night to get some core heat going during this cold snap till he can start to put some fat on. Our winters at 9,600ft can be bitter cold sometimes and this old man is going into winter without a lot of fat reserves on him. I am hoping he settles into a peaceful retirement here in the mountains and am glad he didn’t end up in a can of dog food somewhere. He is truly the poster child of the tough, hardy, intelligent, wild mustang that belongs to America. I feel honored to have such a iconic old warrior in my front yard and be able to give him a safe place to live out the rest of his life if it was not to be as a “wild one”. As an old man he would probably not have had a very pleasant or comfortable end in the wild and his days as a band stallion were coming rapidly to an end. Here he will at least be well fed & cared for for the rest of his life as well as sharing it with a family member in Banjo.”

Happy days for this valiant elder. SUPER update! 🙂

Comments : 13 Comments »

Categories : Adoption, Advocacy, Banjo, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Varoujan

Milagro – now called Skipper

24 10 2011

Milagro, now Skipper, is doing well with his adopters, Amy and Keith. Tif, who adopted Ze and Asher, went to visit recently and sent this write-up and photos of the little guy (Kiowa and Copper’s son).

Here’s her report: “Talk about a lucky mustang! Skipper (formerly known as Milagro) has what I would call a chateau at his new home in the forest. Keith and Amy absolutely adore him, work with him often and have come a long way. Skipper is calm, confident and aloof, is how I would describe him. I was honored when they invited me up to their place to visit with them and see how well Skipper is doing. He eats right from their hands, works for them, lets them touch him and pet his face and all in all is really calm in their presence. It warms my heart to see how well this little guy is doing. They are in the process of getting his place ready for winter. Yes, I did say “his place,” complete with access to a beautiful round pen, a run that leads right into an indoor stall inside their barn. Wow. I’m impressed. I better not let my boys over to play, they may get a little jealous! Thank you, Keith and Amy, for letting me see how well Skipper is doing and how patient you two are. Thanks, too, for letting me join in the fun!”