Chipeta lagged behind the band as they grazed in a direction, and eventually, she was “left behind” a little hump of a hill/ridge. It didn’t take her stallion long to realize she was missing, and he came from the left (my left). She’s giving a bit of a coy look before she turned in that direction (my right) and followed the slope to where it opened up where I was standing. Her wise stallion didn’t follow her but returned to the band, confident that Miss Chipeta had received his message.
Maia makes her way down a dusty trail to Spring Creek to drink from surprisingly still-trickling rivulets and pools of water in the arroyo. We finally have some rain in the forecast for Friday. We’re crossing all collective fingers, toes and braided manes.
Kestrel, leaving.
Looking at a bachelor intruder; looking back to the safety of his band.
Lovely, very muddy Seneca was intent on her grazing, but I couldn’t let that gorgeous view go undocumented, so I hit the shutter anyway. And viewers do get a dynamic tail swish in lieu of anything else exciting on this very gorgeous autumn evening. 🙂
Sundance and his daughter graze and watch a nearby band under the soft light of clouds (finally!) at sunset.
For weeks and weeks (it feels that way if maybe not quite accurate?), we’ve had nothing but blue skies. Like, solid blue. Even when we don’t get rain (we haven’t had any of that for a while, either … prayers to those devastated by the hurricane past and the one about to hit), we like to have clouds.
We finally got clouds today, and I was so happy to see their return, I’m doing a whole post about how great are clouds. 🙂
Maia at her ease. Just nappin’ on a warm autumn (Indian summer, anyone?) evening.
A recent color (aspen) drive brought me back to Disappointment Valley from the top.
There’s not a lot of color at the top – pictured is Gambel oak – but the views are extraordinary.
Lots (relatively) of ponderosa pines.
That butte is not Temple Butte, by the way. Temple Butte is quite a bit farther down-valley.
Sunset layers. Its own style of autumn color.
Part of a lieutenant stallion’s duties are to watch for danger, complementary to the band stallion’s duties of the same. Corazon is the band stallion, Maiku the lieutenant, and they’ve together so long that their mutual reliance is obvious.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 