Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Bad news first

25 08 2009

Because there’s more good news, and I want to get this out and move on.

After a truly marvelous weekend, the very last thing I saw – that I didn’t see, more accurately – put a damper on the whole thing.

Low visibility

On my first pass down the Disappointment Road, showing our visitors the herd area boundary, I saw Cinch and Bruiser, then what looked like the pinto band walking away out of some trees … except that as they got into a more open area, I could see that Chipeta, her colt, Ty and Mesa were not right with the band. It became apparent that they weren’t just lagging behind, either.

We got to the cattle guard where the boundary ends, turned around and went back. I stopped at dysfunction junction to hike up a hill overlooking the road to see if I could see Kiowa’s group better and get a broader look downward.

Kiowa, Milagro and Spook

They were heading up this ridge when I caught up with them, and yes, that is a stormy sky in the background. I’m hopeful the basin got more rain (part of the good news). Milagro got his name this weekend, simply by being a tiny, minor, extraordinary miracle. They all are, of course … Spook is Kiowa’s yearling daughter. Also with this band is Kiowa’s 2-year-old daughter, Reya, bay band stallion Copper and black-and-white pinto bachelor Corazon.

At the top, they disappeared into the trees. Chipeta and her beau “appeared” close to Cinch and Bruiser – who had wisely moved up a hillside on the other side of the arroyo to watch the goings-on from a safe position – and David and Shadow … and finally Mesa. The first picture is how I first saw them, mostly obscured by greasewood and other brush. So I still didn’t know at this point where her colt was …

Then David, in the background of that picture, crossed the arroyo, and when he came up, Chipeta spooked … and I could see that the foal was not immediately at her side. And then it was just a matter of confirming he was not there at all.

Chipeta

And that confirmed it; her colt is missing, presumed dead. Now I know I didn’t see him last weekend in the one quick flash of open ground they crossed because he wasn’t there to see.

Chipeta and her colt

He was likely 2-3 weeks old; this photo was from my only sighting of him, on Aug. 2. Chipeta got the PZP; she wasn’t supposed to have a foal. But she did, and so his was a life to be valued as much as any of them. Posthumously, I named him Joven, which simply means “young.” Rest in wild peace, little one.

Honeymoons over

Ty chased David away – and Mesa – then “urged” Chipeta away across the hillside. Moments later, Mesa was with them, and they were perfectly calm. My gut feeling is that with all the stallions around, little Joven may have been accidentally trampled. As far as I know, he was Chipeta’s first. She’s a terrible flirt anyway, and she probably couldn’t protect the youngster in the chaos. Now she seems to be in heat.

As you can also see from the first pic, Ty is definitely grey in the face, but his body is still remarkably dark.

Cinch and Bruiser

The spotted pair were back in the south – they’re on the hill, watching the action below. All the horses were in this area because of a tiny seep in a corner of the arroyo that is part of the drainage down from the (dry) pond behind Round Top. Never much water in that area – WSA – of the herd area.

David and Shadow

These two followed Ty and Chipeta and Mesa, and in this pic, they’re looking on while Ty drank at the seep, guarded by Mesa. Chipeta stayed in the arroyo next to Ty after she drank first.

So we’re back to 10 foals … and I’m spoiling the next post.

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Bruiser, Chipeta, Cinch, David, Joven, Kiowa, Milagro, pintos, Shadow, Spook, Ty

Family visit

20 08 2009

In this case, the family was mine – literally. My mom and dad’s 40th anniversary (!) was last weekend, so they decided to come to Colorado for their first summer visit ever. My uncle T and cousin K also came – for their first visit to Colorado ever! Naturally, a visit to my four-legged family was high on the list.

It would have been top of the list but for the rain the visitors pushed into Colorado ahead of their visits from points southeast and west. We waited a day to allow the basin to dry out, and except for the washes across the Disappointment Road as we drove there, all was otherwise dry …

But almost immediately we saw the most beloved horse – of this family, anyway! – in the basin: Grey/Traveler’s band, still shadowed by Chrome. They were very near the road to the old trap site, and Kreacher and the girls were also close by, closer to the shallow pond – the only pond that has water currently.

All at ease

The boy with his girls and one little boy. Yes, yes, you see only two little bodies; our dear Jif is taking her own sweet time.

Shadow-Chrome

There’s Chrome at right, looking pretty worn out. I guess his plan isn’t working against the old man of the basin. The horses were considerably calmer than the first time I saw Chrome with them. Ahh … the young men, always thinking their youth is more than a match for wisdom – usually wrongly.

Away, the girls

After we had watched the horses for a few minutes, Kootenai decided to leave, so she turned and led the horses toward the pond. They paused there but didn’t drink. They ended up at the catchment, followed by Traveler’s band.

Keepin-up Kreacher

This is one young man who knows who the boss is! He followed his girls, lickety split.

Traveler’s band looked quite calm, so we headed on to see who else we could see.

Steeldust’s band was up on the northeast hills – we could see them through the binoculars. All was looking good for us getting to where they were … until we came down the hill and around the curve and stopped dead at the wash of mud and boulders where the road had previously gone over the first Spring Creek crossing. Uh oh. To be sure, there were only four boulders, and none were very big – except the first one, closest to the Jeep side of the crossing – but the whole situation stopped us as if we’d been facing a raging river. There was a bit of water still flowing from previous rains, which is always good for the horses, so it was hard to be totally upset that I’ve been able to take everyone else out to the basin to see the horses, but then when my very own family comes, I get stymied at the first major arroyo! 🙂

I do have to mention the bet my uncle lost. He bet that the dry pond by Flat Top would have water in it from the recent rain. Unfortunately, I won.

But of course, all was not lost. Grey/Traveler and his band and Chrome and Kreacher and the girls were calmly grazing west of the catchment, so we got to see them again as we drove out. (Oh, and Cinch and Bruiser were up on the hill with Steeldust’s band.)

We headed down the Disappointment Road with the high hopes of seeing the pintos. Not too far into Dolores County, my dad sounded the horse alert: David and Shadow RIGHT inside the fence RIGHT off the road! So we had a nice little visit with them while they grazed and browsed on greasewood. Shadow barely looked up, and they eventually let us slide on by while they kept on doing what they were doing! Cool!

Unfazed Shadow and David

This was our view – David looking at us and Shadow … well, not.

Two faces

Ah, and there they are, both looking at us calmly. You can see the fencepost at right. We didn’t get out of the Jeep – just shot right out the windows.

Just a little farther down the road, we had the other great good fortune to spot the pintos back in the “valley” below their old favorite hill. Mesa was on the east side of the arroyo, and the rest of the band was on the west side. We couldn’t see everyone because of hills and trees, even when they crossed to the east side of the arroyo, so I wasn’t able to get a good look at the as-yet-unnamed colts, but it was good to be able to point out those ponies that are seldom within view.

Mom and Dad, T and K, thanks so much for “meeting in the middle” and allowing me to show off my “other” family. 🙂

Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Chrome, Cuatro, David, Grey, Houdini, Iya, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, New girls, Shadow, Terra, Two Boots

A day under the sun

9 08 2009

This might be the shortest basin-visit report ever – only two pix! – but it was nice. Hardly a cloud in the sky and the thermometer didn’t rise above 82 degrees! Yep, it’s August, and I don’t care what the weatherman says; the monsoons are NOT here.

Here’s the spoiler you’re waiting for: Mistress Jif has not shared her firstborn yet with the world … but she is looking a bit more “droopy”! Chrome was back with the band – and Aspen out of sight (and Hook and Twister, too) – but they were calmer … but still moving all over the basin. The good news is that when I finally headed out and away, they were in the immediate vicinity of the water catchment. I didn’t actually see them drinking there, but it’s a hopeful sign. Cinch and Bruiser also were very close, having come down from the northwest hills; I’m certain they’ve found the fresh water.

Kreacher and the girls, so visible in that area in recent visits, had wandered away, but I have it on good authority that they’ve been over to Wildcat, near which I found Steeldust’s band today, napping under the trees.

Seven and his family made another appearance today! But they were right by the road down by Lizard Mesa, so I stopped where they could see me but not too close, took the day’s only photos and then just watched them.

Sevens family

Sweet Molly-girl is a bit thin, but little Liberty looks pretty good, if not as stout as Starla last year, and look how big little Mr. Ze is! He’s the oldest of this year’s babies (April 6).

And look who was nearby:

Walk on by

In the background, Alegre at left, Whisper lying down in the middle, Bounce and Gaia at right. In the foreground, Seven following Liberty and Molly; Roja and Ze were leading the way, already out of the frame. That’s what I call Lizard Mesa as the hill in the background.

Whisper was under a tree behind Alegre when I first saw them. Seven’s band had to walk to the left to cross the arroyo, then Roja led them back across in front of Bounce’s band. In the meantime, Whisper sauntered out and laid down!

Hollywood and his band and hangers-on Poco and Roach were hanging out on the northwest hills, lower than Steeldust’s band last weekend. Poco and Roach were attentively guarding the family from Cinch and Bruiser earlier in the day. They had moved up to the area between the boundary and the road to the old trap site by the time I headed home.

I had a great hike around the west side of Round Top and out to the ridge and down and up the hill looking down a drainage below the dry pond … and guess who I saw down at the seep near the road? Mr. David. I didn’t see Shadow in the trees, but David walked a few steps down the trail, pooped on the stud pile there (I know it’s there, I couldn’t actually see it so far away!), then turned around and cocked a hip! He turned his head a couple of times to look at something I couldn’t see, and it was strange that he picked the stud pile tree to hang out under. I’m sure Shadow was nearby. I glassed the hill where I found the pintos last weekend, but they weren’t there. (I had a flat tire last weekend on my drive to the basin – many thanks to mustang advocate and all-around great guy David Temple for stopping a couple of minutes after I had my flat! But I’m waiting on a new set and driving on the spare and thought pavement might be a better choice for this weekend’s trip, so I didn’t have the chance to look for the pintos – or David and Shadow again – on my drive there or home. David T is one of David’s namers, by the way. 🙂 David O and David J are the other two contributors, and now you know the rest of the story!)

It was a beautiful day for a visit with the ponies!

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Alegre, Bounce, David, Gaia, Molly, Roja, Seven, Whisper, Ze

Good relations

6 08 2009

Home

If there are any landmarks that say “this is Spring Creek Basin,” they might be pyramid-shaped McKenna Peak and the promontory that has no name. Kind of fitting to see two natives and a transplant within the same frame.

Corona and Raven

Nourishment

Family

That’s mud on the upper part of Corona’s forehead. She has a blaze, but I still can’t make out any other markings … or even her color. She’s quite a beauty, though, eh?

Weren’t those worth the wait? 🙂 Seeing the ponies is always amazing … sometimes you get lucky with an amazing combination of horses and light and background. We see it in a photograph as something special, a moment in time. They see it as home, under rain and sunlight, height of day and depth of night. The horses complement the landscape, and the landscape shapes the horses.

Love the horses, love their home. Protect them both.

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Corona, Duke, Raven

Some good news

5 08 2009

Federal judge blocks BLM plan to remove wild horses from the West Douglas Herd Area!

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/20295785/detail.html

Here’s another link from Pam Nickoles’ blog: http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog/federal-court-slaps-the-blm-says-mustang-removal-illegal/

I was thinking about the mustangs in Nevada the BLM wants to remove when I read this article, and this next-to-last sentence is perfect: “To my knowledge, this ruling on the Colorado herd is the first ever that addresses the BLM’s illegal actions against the wild horses. It could be the beginning of a new day for this icon of the American west.”

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Wild horses in the news

Earlier

4 08 2009

So … I should have posted these pix before the ones of Seven’s band and Chipeta’s new colt, but I wasn’t going to post these until I could relate the story of the whole day … and it looks like it might be awhile before I can get to all the pix, so I hope you enjoy the teasers from last Friday until I can get to the rest. I have some really lovely images of stunning Corona and her mama, so I promise it will be worth the wait.

The water situation continues to depress me, especially after seeing all the nice ponds in Sand Wash Basin – with water, not just cracked, dry depressions in the ground where water should be. Grey/Traveler was being harassed, but the fact that it was by bachelor Chrome was just something I couldn’t do anything about. Kreacher picked up the chase at the end of the day, even leaving Mona and Kootenai far behind to keep up with Grey’s band and Chrome. Maybe they didn’t want any part of it, but they always followed. When Aspen was with his band Sunday, it was at a respectful distance, and the horses were relaxed and not moving too far.

But on to happiness. When I checked Wildcat Spring – yes, water – I spied Hollywood on a hill above me, just watching me. Ha. I haven’t spent much time exploring the hills in that area, so I walked on up. The ponies have a good network of trails up there. Poco and Roach are still with them; I did take pix but didn’t tweak any of them yet. It started sprinkling out of the clear blue sky – have you ever looked straight up and had rain falling into your eyeballs, looking silver against turquoise? There was a big cloud, but it wasn’t directly above me … and I learned something new a little later: It’s hard to plan for rain coming when you can’t see it coming. I found a seat under a juniper to hang out with the ponies for a bit.

Hollywood and girls and boy

The theme of “do you think you could stand just so” kinda started with Piedra acting shy behind this little bush. This was taken from one of their trails on the side of a hill looking across a sharp drainage. The spring is basically downhill and to my left. Poco and Roach were in the trees not too far up their hill.

Photos of the babies with their mamas are lovely and aww-inspiring, but I love to see the daddies interacting with their offspring.

073109sageholls1

Sage walked over and stopped at a respectful distance. Piedra did comply with my photo direction here; she had just walked out of the frame to the left.

073109sageholls2

Then Sage made his approach. At first, Hollywood acted a little annoyed and flattened his ears.

073109sageholls3

Now look at his ears. He thinks there might be something interesting about the little mister.

073109sageholls4

Then Hollywood decided Sage was quite sturdy enough to use him as a rubbing post!

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Sniffing him again. Check out the ears.

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Synchronicity of tails.

Do you love those misters?? 🙂

Edge of the world

Piedra, Sage and Baylee. You can see part of the road in the distance and part of Filly Peak at far back right.

All together

Including Hollywood in the shot, and you can see more of Filly Peak in the background … which should maybe more appropriately be called Humpback Hill?

Hollywood and Baylee

This is looking almost west … like west-west-southwest-west … and the other end of Filly Peak.

Elder mister

He’s not very good at hide-n-seek. But he’s awfully cute. 🙂

It did rain then a bit later – heavier – but it was also still sort of sunny in most places. I could see the “haze” against the western hills outside the herd area that said rain, but it was weird. But the road was also starting to get gummy already by the time I got to the catchment! When I first got there, I saw Kreacher’s band and Cinch and Bruiser (as not-good as the water is, it’s better in the north than in the south, apparently), then Grey/Traveler’s out on the corral hill. Wouldn’t you know it, by the time I got to the flats below the catchment on my way out – in the rain – and did I mention the road was getting gummy and a hit to the brakes meant a bit of a slide in the wet before actual stoppage – they were right off the road? Confirmed that it was Chrome with them – and so Twister still away (and he’s with Hook, at least) – and no foal for le petite dun Jif. OK, OK, I’m leaving already. I went down the county road to see if I could catch enough of a glimpse of the pintos to see Chipeta and/or walk in to them – nada. A couple of hours later, it was sunny and warm and breezy enough, I decided to try the road into the basin again – no problem-o.

Horses and hills and sunshine and shadows

Left to right: Cuatro, Two Boots, Iya, Grey/Traveler, Jif. Houdini and Terra (still OK) were to the right. Chrome was to the left … and now for a wider view …

Love that after-rain light

I know the horses are small, the land large, but can you make out who’s there? I love the graphic quality of these photos, by the way. This is looking sort of east-east-northeast-east. I don’t think there’s ever an easy single direction anywhere out there! They’re up in the area by the catchment – I think I took this from some point alongside Filly Peak – but although I have confirmed Kreacher and the mares drinking from the catchment troughs, I haven’t yet seen Grey’s band drinking there (and to go slightly off-topic for a minute, I did see Cinch and Bruiser very close to the troughs Sunday). Chrome was (mostly) dogging them pretty hard – he’s the grey at far left in these seemingly quiet moments – so they kept moving and moving – they went down off the “edge” south of the catchment to the flats, then ended up moving toward Spring Creek – north-northeastish. And in the foreground? Left to right: Kootenai, Kreacher and Mona. Just “above” Kootenai are Terra and Jif, and then Houdini out to the right. Horses to the left of Jif same as in the picture above this one.

From here I also spotted Steeldust’s band up in the north hills above the northwest road. Those ponies think they’re mountain goats lately. Driving out to see them, I found Duke, Raven and Corona! Now that was a hoped-for treat, having just seen Raven’s former band stallion and Corona’s likely daddy in Sand Wash Basin!

I hate to leave ya’ll hanging, but as of now, I have just one tweaked photo. Time … it’s all a matter of time. A full-time job, a taking-its-sweet-time computer. I’ll put up more soon; I promise.

Duke

This might be one of my favorite pix of the boy. Isn’t he handsome? They were watching Steeldust’s band in the trees up on the hill, so I walked way out around them to get better light.

And it’s late again …

I must have been happy to see my ponies – I took lots and lots of photos – I was on my second memory card before I left. Always great to visit other horses, but it’s great to be home. 🙂

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Baylee, Chrome, Cuatro, Grey, Hollywood, Houdini, Iya, Jif, Kootenai, Kreacher, Mona, New girls, Piedra, Sage, Terra, Two Boots

Long time no see

4 08 2009

And a not-so-surprising (for the last couple of months, anyway) delivery.

The time just gets away from me trying to keep up with these ponies. There were a couple of highlights that came Sunday. Seven’s band made an appearance! They were at a distance, so I hiked in to them. It was so great to see Ze and Liberty – and their mamas and daddy, of course.

Liberty and Molly, Roja and Ze

Look how tall Ze is. He’s almost as big as Roja. He’s almost 4 months old.

Seven

They drank from a wet spot in the arroyo between Lizard Mesa and Knife Edge, and then they were headed over the south-ish end of the east-west hill.

Ze, Raja and Seven

Ze looked a little “light” to me, and I wonder if he’s going to end up grey like daddy. He’s looking back at Molly and Liberty.

Molly and Liberty

Old Molly doesn’t look too bad for an old gal, and Liberty looks just fine.

Are you wondering how our mamas-to-be are getting along? I’ll end your suspense; we’re waiting only for Jif now.

Chipeta and colt

He’s a colt and pinto and cute as a button! Can’t be unhappy about a new life when you see all the long-legged cuteness right in front of you, but I’m pretty disappointed by whatever happened with the PZP in our “trial.”

Hey, little you

As far as I know, this is Chipeta’s first foal.

Guardians

Mesa, looking very scarred these days, Ty and the new mama and baby.

Kiowa and colt

Here’s a look at Kiowa and her little mister – yep, confirmed as a colt. That’s Corazon at right and Copper in front of him. Speaking of scars, the boy with the heart on his side had some fresh wounds on his neck and inside his right hock. When I saw them, they were all peaceful under the trees. Spook and Reya stayed mostly out of sight.

I got to them by hiking out around the east side of Round Top, then out to the hill southish of the dry pond. They must be drinking from some little seep somewhere. There hasn’t been water in that pond since early last spring.

This was a great weekend for seeing horses; Sunday, I saw all but Chrome and David and Shadow. Chrome was with Traveler’s band Friday, but Aspen (alone Friday) was with them Sunday, and Chrome was nowhere to be found. Not great for water, of course. Still waiting on some ponds to get dug out in the hopes that they’ll actually hold water when it rains, but it might happen before the end of the month.

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Chipeta, Copper, Corazon, Kiowa, Mesa, Molly, pintos, PZP, Roja, Seven, Ty

Rebuttal

1 08 2009

Deanne Stillman’s response to LA Times editorial against the ROAM act: http://www.laobserved.com/intell/2009/07/end_of_the_line_for_wild_horse.php

Deanne Stillman is the author of Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, a must-read. http://www.deannestillman.com/

Here’s more on this topic: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-boyles31-2009jul31,0,2957337.story

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy

Sand Wash, part 2

31 07 2009

Here’s another round of photos from my visit to Sand Wash Basin. I took a lot of photos Saturday, July 25, but although we saw quite a few horses Sunday, I didn’t take a single picture. It was enough to drive through the area with Amanda, talking, spotting and enjoying wild horses.

We saw Picasso’s, Corona’s and Cosmo’s bands again, Cyclone and his mare again, and a few of the bachelors we photographed Saturday. We also saw a couple different bands: a black and white pinto stallion named Domino and his band, and a bay stallion named Koda/Coda/Kota (?) and his band. Each band had foals.

The whole experience was just wonderful!

Here are a few more pictures from Saturday.

Bachelors

Three of the six bachelors we photographed. The stallion at right is Cayenne – perfect!

Boy chat

There were two very light (“white”) bachelors, two darker/medium grey boys, Cayenne and the sorrel with flaxen mane and tail from the first photo. One of the darker greys stayed up on the hill and never came down to mingle with the others while we watched.

Sentry

This is the bachelor boy who never came down to join the party.

Easy to spot

The two light greys together.

Cyclone

Cyclone and his mare were just off the road in about the same place both Saturday and Sunday.

Cyclones mare

Like Amanda said, Cyclone’s mare is readily identifiable by her frost-bit ear and “blood mark” on her left shoulder. These two were very calm and not bothered by us at all while we took pictures of them from the road.

Corona

Loved the contrast of his beautiful palomino coat against the coming storm.

Coronas grey mare

This colt is the one that reminds me so much of Storm! This seemed to be the mare that wasn’t too sure of us. I think Amanda said (??) the pinto mare and the sorrel mare were with him before the gather … very cool that they reunited!

Corona with sorrel mare

Sand Wash view

Looking westish-northwestish toward the storm. Only the palomino pinto mare is missing from this image. All three foals are in a little bunch at right.

Picasso and band

There’s Picasso – center – with both his mares and foals. I kept seeing similarities between the Sand Wash horses and other wild horses I know. The pinto mare at right reminds me of Chrome of the Little Book Cliffs, once Phantom’s mare, and the bay mare at left reminds me of Grey’s mare that was mistakenly sorted into the stallion pen during our roundup.

Picassos mares

I know from Amanda that Picasso was gathered and released, but I don’t know about his mares. The pinto foal’s markings look like a jigsaw puzzle, don’t they? On this left shoulder, where you can’t see because of the bay mare, there’s a little speckling of “freckles.”

Picasso

It’s hard to take your eyes off of him … especially in person!

It was just a darn nice visit. 🙂

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Sand Wash Basin

Sand Wash Basin

29 07 2009

Picasso of Sand Wash Basin

This past weekend, I finally had the opportunity I’ve been anticipating since last October: a visit to Sand Wash Basin, home range of current Spring Creek Basin mares Luna (2001), Raven, Mona and Kootenai (2008). What an unforgettable experience!

Many sincere thanks to Amanda Conner who was so generous with her time, taking me out to see the horses Saturday with photographer Pam Nickoles and her husband, Tom, and Sunday morning before I had to head for home. Fantastic company all the way around, and I was thrilled to be with these particular mustang advocates during my first visit to this amazing area!

You might recognize Amanda’s name from the pictures she sent awhile back of Raven and Kootenai with their bands in Sand Wash before they were gathered last October and traveled to Spring Creek to boost our herd’s genetic diversity. She visited Spring Creek Basin in 2007 and 2008 (I think) as part of the alternative spring break program from the University of Missouri. She was already a horse girl, but seeing the mustangs inspired her to find a way to work with them. She’s about to start graduate school studying equine reproduction (yeah?!), but meanwhile, she’s an intern for the Humane Society of the United States, working on their PZP study in Sand Wash. She knows those horses like family! Lucky for us and the horses, next summer will be her third summer in *that* basin! Amanda, thank you so, so much for all you do for our wild horses!

Sand Wash Basin is amazingly familiar, sharing a lot of the same type of topography and vegetation that fills Spring Creek Basin. Some main differences I noticed: they have more sage to our saltbush, and they have a lot of, well, washes. I couldn’t give you a technical definition to differentiate the two, but Sand Wash’s washes seem broader, gentler, while Spring Creek’s arroyos seem … “sharper” somehow.

And it’s big. Huge. Ginormous. Almost 158,000 acres to our almost 22,000. And they have more than 200 horses … down from probably a little more than 400 before the October 2008 (please correct me, Amanda, if I remembered those figures incorrectly). I’m just comparing that to our 50+ horses. It’s roughly an hour from Craig compared with my two-hour drive to Spring Creek Basin, but I used at least the same amount of gas getting there – and around – and back. The same warning about rain-on-the-roads applies. Among our group, I held the dubious first-timer distinction of being the only one never stuck in Sand Wash Basin … but let’s not talk about Spring Creek Basin!

The horses look fabulous! We kept using the word “chunky.” Amanda has been keeping an eye on a handsome little perlino colt with a hock injury … keep him in your prayers. The wild ones do so much for us; it’s a little thing to try to pass some of that wild magic back to them.

Lots of color in the Sand Wash herd! Pintos of all colors and patterns, bays, greys, sorrels, palominos, duns, grullas, oh my! Picasso, the beautiful pinto stallion pictured above is an interesting color – bay and white pinto at first glance. His forelock is black, his mane black and white, but his tail is dark red; his legs are not black. Is he dark chestnut or is he bay? But let’s get down to brass tacks – he’s beautiful, and I could have spent all day photographing him! Incidentally, handsome Picasso graces the cover of Claude Steelman’s Colorado’s Wild Horses.

Speaking of Claude’s book, our black and bit-o-white girl Raven also is in Claude’s book, photographed when she was on her home range of Sand Wash Basin. Is it odd that her picture appears opposite a mare and foal Claude photographed in Spring Creek Basin? Raven came with dun mares Mona and Kootenai to Spring Creek Basin after last fall’s roundup in Sand Wash. Buckskin butterball Luna came with two other mares (grulla Slate and an unknown-to-me dun mare) as a 2-year-old in 2001. All our new mares got the PZP-22 – like all the mares released back to Sand Wash Basin after the gather – and none were thought to be pregnant. But Raven delivered a surprise on or about April 26, and with Amanda’s help, we know that a beautiful palomino stallion named Corona (with the amazingly appropriate nickname Fabio!) is the likely sire of Raven’s filly, named, in his honor, Corona.

Corona with mares

That’s him in the center of two of his three mares and foals. (Doesn’t the sorrel foal at right remind you of Storm?)

Below Bears Ears

The handsome boy with his other mare and foal … and that’s the little boy with the injury. Who does he remind you of? His half-sister Corona, perhaps??

Pretty perlino and dam

Striking, yes? Remember him in your prayers.

Corona and his band – with Raven – were gathered. Raven, of course, was removed from Sand Wash Basin but released to freedom in Spring Creek Basin. I think at least two of his current mares also were released – and reunited with him.

We saw a couple different groups of bachelors – and photographed one band – and a few family bands. The first band we saw appeared unexpectedly fairly close to the entrance turnoff from the highway. We thought it might have been another band that caused them to come toward us to cross the road right in front of where we stopped, but we didn’t see any other horses.

Elegant grey

This lovely girl – and the grulla and dun beside her – are Cosmo’s mares.

Her handsome colt

Love his still-red mane and tail! Amanda said the greys there “go grey” pretty quickly.

Cosmos band

Cosmo closest. They disappeared behind some nearby hills, and we saw them farther out in that open space on our way out Saturday and again Sunday.

Threatening rain ended our visit with Corona’s band later.

Amanda and her mustangs

There’s our wonderful guide watching Corona’s band through her spotting scope.

We also saw groups of bachelors near there before we continued on around the loop. Approaching the main road again, we spotted horses that Amanda identified as Picasso’s. But that rain … All of us have a healthy respect for wet roads in faraway, back-of-beyond places, so we headed toward the highway. We stopped where a grey stallion named Cyclone was grazing with his mare (distinctive with her frost-bit half-ear and “blood mark” high on her left shoulder. We were out of the rain, and we could see the distinct column passing across the northern part of the basin … “What do you think about trying to go back?” Ha! We were respectful of the sprinkles that fell on our windshields as we stopped on the road across from Picasso’s band, but the rain soon stopped, and the three amigas set off through the sage.

“Tttttttt”

I stopped, Pam a few feet away to my right, Amanda just on the other side of a bush to my left. “Did you hear that?”

Amanda stopped, and I looked under her feet because the sound came from my left. Pam came over to see what had caught our attention. “It’s too cold for snakes.” Indeed, we were all wearing lightweight rain jackets.

“There it is” – looped up at the base of the bush that had separated me from Amanda. Not coiled. Not a few moments after we saw it did it come slithering out toward us. Not to panic; there was a hole in the ground right in front of it … which apparently was not the home entrance, so it kept coming. We all backed up a step or three – and kept “shooting,” of course! What are we, photographers or scairdy-gals?!

Rattler

Check out his crazy orange eye! His other eye was brown.

He eventually found the front door, and, undaunted, we continued toward the horses, and I can’t speak for my brave compadres, but I was checking around and under every bush and sidestepping each little hidey-hole! Our bravery won us a wonderful visit with Mr. Picasso (again, check my numbers), aged at 20+ by the contractor when he was gathered?!

The old mans still got it!

Bless these wise elders who still protect their families.

Handsome mister

See what I mean about his color? Tell me what you think!

Family man

He also has a solid bay mare and her seal brown foal. I’ll take this opportunity to say this is just the first round of photos until I can get more tweaked, as well as to encourage everyone to keep an eye on Pam’s blog (http://nickolesphotography.wordpress.com/) for her narrative of our visit, which, for her and Tom, included a visit to Wyoming’s Adobe Town herd!

Another one

Seriously, I could take pictures of this guy all day!

With a rapidly setting sun and clouds still filling most of the sky, we headed out. Pam recognized the birds flying past us at one point and got out to identify burrowing owls! Cool! The next day, Amanda and I saw a doe with twins just outside Maybell, then a golden eagle and a coyote inside the herd area! As if the wild horses weren’t enough, it was such a treat to see other wildlife during our visit.

I have to mention the event that took me north in the first place. A few posts ago, I mentioned the fundraising and book-signing event at Zuma’s Rescue Ranch near Denver. Michael Blake – you know him as the author and screenplay writer of “Dances with Wolves,” book and movie – was there almost immediately after completing a recent whirlwind book tour. He not only offered his new book, Twelve the King, and other books including Dances With Wolves and its sequel, The Holy Road, and Indian Yell, he talked about the importance of protecting our American mustangs in the wild. Twelve is about the mustang stallion he rescued from Palomino Valley in Nevada in 1991. An amazing horse; an amazing story. Read Pam’s blog for another amazing story.

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Categories : Sand Wash Basin