Luscious late light warms a not-too-cold Christmas Day in Spring Creek Basin. The horses were following a road around a curve, which gives them the seeming zig-zag pattern from my vantage point at a spot a bit farther west. Moments later, they were peacefully grazing in the shade of the world’s edge (at least our part of the world), and I headed out to await Santa’s flyover.
Alegre and Kestrel drinking from the trickle that is Spring Creek in the eastern part of Spring Creek Basin on Christmas Day.
At least if we don’t have much snow, the water isn’t all frozen.
Can you see the snow?
You might need to zoom in a bit.
It didn’t stick (at all), but for a brief bit of morning the day after Christmas, I think we could say it was still Christmas snow. 🙂
Buckeye and his band were on a mission up a drainage (maybe to the pond), so they didn’t stick around, but I was super glad to see them as I’ve been looking for them the last week or so … obviously (I now realize) in the wrong places!
Can’t do much better than spending part of Christmas Day with dear, handsome Sundance and his family. 🙂
We didn’t get a white Christmas, but we did get some moisture, which was much needed!
Let love and kindness, joy and hope light the way this Christmas season, and stay true to what matters most on this Earth with the time we are given. 🙂
First to the pond, Mysterium and Flash drink from the melty-icy water (high temps in the upper 40s to lower 50s will do that, and it’s OK because while there are patches of snow, water always is better).
As of at least this day – and I think it happened relatively recently – Flash has all of Storm’s mares. Good for the mares; too bad for the other young stallion who’d successfully held four of them for the last little while (and who was nearby, not quite content or ready to completely relinquish his possession).
Reading into things as a human will, I believe the mares have been seeking each other since they split.
No recent sightings of Storm, but I think/hope he’s deep in the areas that are familiar to him, and I’m sure he’s doing well.
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Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!
The day started with plentiful sunshine, then the clouds moved in for most of the day.
At the very END of the day, a sliver of clear sky above the horizon allowed a glorious wave of light to light up our whole world … including Mariah, napping in view of a dramatic background. Crazy how that happens at just the right moment. 🙂
Light from the very low sun at the top of the basin’s western rimrocks highlights one of Temple’s gorgeous eyes at the approach of another night on winter solstice.
The days may be short, but we’ve had no shortage of blue Colorado skies the last couple of weeks. Some snow may be heading our way next week … in time for Christmas?! Santa may need his sled after all and not his (light-on-the-land) off-road tires. 😉
Chipeta, looking very fuzzy and wonderfully wuzzy a couple of weeks ago when the ridges still had snow.
Dear Santa: We’d like some snow for Christmas. Thank you very much! 🙂
Happy winter solstice, folks!
The view from the hill, up out of the arroyo, was pretty grand. And the mountains aren’t a bad backdrop. 😉
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Happy big 7-0 to friend, fellow mustang advocate and writer extraordinaire, Kathryn Wilder!
She is, as many of you may know, the author of “Desert Chrome: Water, A Woman, and Wild Horses in the West,” and her new book, “The Last Cows: On Ranching, Wonder, and a Woman’s Heart,” will be out next fall.
Read more of her writing at https://katwilderwriter.com/
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 