Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Apologies for the lack of a post this morning. Life is busy-ness.

In good news, Terra looks lovely any time of day (or night). I so love her beautiful dark, expressive eyes.

Chipeta, just down a little hill from her band, stood in banded sunshine and shadow. It gives her a bit of a dramatic presentation.

Love those moody blues, modeled so well by Flash. The day had been really smoky/hazy/dusty (?), and the clouds were skimmed high over the sky, so the light had a really interesting quality – not cloudy but definitely not sunny. By the time I took this pic of Flash, against Filly Peak, way in the distance, the sun had set into a low-to-the-horizon cloud bank, and the light was just … bluey. Not grey. Kind of cool. Filly Peak usually is very orangey/taupey/beigey um, tan. The far blue ridge is outside/beyond Spring Creek Basin, and that *blue* is dense pinon-juniper forest.

Houdini was not interested in interacting with the band that had Flash’s attention; she was over the ridge, minding her own business.

Fuzzy pony with a complicated, fairy-knotted, burr-decorated autumn mane.

To all those who serve or have served in any branch of the U.S. military, thank you for your service to these United States and the goal of protecting the freedoms of those who don’t, who haven’t, who cannot understand the sacrifice.

From a very low perspective in the arroyo below Rowan and Buckeye, the sun creates a halo behind these wild angels.

But seeing THIS light rimming the horses truly made my heart go pitter-pat.

All I did with these photos was resize them, nudge the contrast, clean up the dust spots (from my camera’s poor, abused sensor), sharpen them and put my name on ’em (which is about all I do for most of my photos).

Mustangs + light + shadow = magic.

It is a great goal of mine to share not only the mustangs and scenery of Spring Creek Basin but hopefully a little sliver – pulled through that screen – of the amazing and transforming peace and joy I feel every time I’m out there, with them and their neighbors in the wild world.

I thought he’d get up when Rowan approached from her standing nap several yards behind him.

Any second now, thought I, he’ll rise. … Usually, they do when another horse approaches them while they’re lying down, especially the adults.

But he didn’t, and Rowan settled in to continue her nap, watching over her stallion.

I wasn’t feeling the peace so much at this moment … being terrified that I’d mess up the focus or fall over and the resulting crash really WOULD wake them up.

But no. They just kept on snoozing, as peaceful between themselves as any mustangs ever.

I should take this moment to mention that Dundee was down in the bottom of the drainage with me (the arroyo is between us and Buckeye and Rowan), Aiyanna and Bia were still up the hill a bit behind Buckeye and Rowan, a band of three also were on that side of the arroyo, farther to the right behind Aiyanna and Bia, and a band of several more were behind Dundee and me on the farther side of the drainage. It’s not like there were no other horses – or even other bands – around. It *could* have been tumultuous.

It was one of the most peaceful, zen, wish-I-could-stop-time and please-let-me-bottle-this-memory-for-all-time moments ever. And you believe me when I say that, right? Because you’ve shared some of these unbelievably peaceful moments with me – on this blog if not beside me in the basin.

These moments brought to you from several evenings ago in Spring Creek Basin because I just couldn’t bring myself to process any of the photos right away. I needed time to process them in my heart and mind first. And even now, as I’m drafting this post, I couldn’t pick a favorite image from this favorite of moments.

Do you have a favorite? Let me know.

And it’s not quite over. … I still have at least one more image to feature from their continued nap – Buckeye standing then – at the edge of the arroyo, in the most beautiful, peaceful, wonderful wild place I know. (OK, really, it’s going to be a few more images. It was THAT gorgeous, and they were THAT peaceful.)

Buckeye was napping not far away from Tenaz the same evening, above the arroyo (the bank is visible in the very near foreground, along the bottom of the photo). The butte is behind him; the ridge is behind me.

He appears to be watching something, but I don’t think it was the floating strand of spider silk drifting through the air. … Or maybe it was. It certainly caught my attention on that beautiful, peaceful evening.

A few days ago, Tenaz’s band was napping low in a drainage between a butte and a ridge. As I walked out to them, I could see Temple napping lying down with a couple of her band mates standing over her. A few were grazing, including a couple down in the shallow arroyo through the drainage. I didn’t see Tenaz until I crossed the arroyo slightly “downstream” of him, and then I waited for one of the young mares to mosey out of the arroyo so I could see him lying in what must have been the very comfortable, relatively flat and definitely-not-prickly bottom of the little arroyo. (The vegetation is dry and prickly currently, as opposed to the cool, relatively smooth, dirt bottom of the arroyo bed.)

He wasn’t too bothered by presence. I think it was his little mare walking away that roused him.

He heaved over into a mighty, wriggly, hopefully satisfying roll but couldn’t go all the way over because of the short bank of the arroyo nearby.

Then over again …

And up into the light of the still-lit side of the drainage, split by his arroyo nap-spot!