Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

So-pretty Maia, lit on one side by the setting sun and framed on the other side by the glowing cascade of tail-hair of a bandmate. … A simple moment in time. Gorgeous.

And just like that, on a glorious fall evening, in Spring Creek Basin, a couple of gettin’-fuzzy wild ponies stole the show, minutes before the sun faded to shade, and I hit the shutter on possibly one of my favorite pix ever.

Juniper and Storm. Sweetest of wild hearts.

Pretty, windblown Seneca looks back over her shoulder almost to check that I see the approaching band.

Hers had just left water, and another band was coming in.

I’m glad I didn’t miss either band of beautiful ponies.

Chipeta has a disdain for paparazzi, which is too bad because she’s such a lovely subject. 🙂 She just makes the photographer work for her glamour shots!

Elegant Alegre in the golden autumn evening light.

Piedra was probably a 2-year-old and Kestrel was a weanling when I met them 16 years ago and documented them in the same large band. These girls have been in separate bands, both far apart and traveling together, then in the same band together for the last few years (I’ve lost track).

There are others with them, and the lead stallions have changed, but they’re – still – almost always together. When the band moves on and one is still grazing out of sight on a bench between an arroyo and the hilltop, the other one will wait for her friend until she comes into view, so they can follow together.

They’ve been through the roundups of 2007 and 2011 and come out free the other side. They’ve had babies, and those babies have had babies. They’re just two lifelong friends who rely on and depend upon each other, and enjoy the freedom of the mustang life. Together.

Who *doesn’t* adore backlighting?!

The afternoon after the morning eclipse … the Shadow appeared. 🙂