Water arrives, driving on some bumpy roads, and wild horses
Morning fun… before the water delivery
Water has become scarce in Sand Wash Basin. There are currently four natural and one man-made water sources. The Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin were able to get permissions to provide supplemental water. They decided to augment three existing waterholes that are spread out to reduce impact on the environment. This is the waterhole on 126E.
Van Gogh- son of Picasso at Lake Pond (67). He looks so much like his sire. Two bachelors at Oasis. The road less taken… definitely need to have really good tires!!!Anya hiding from the heat
The final light of day isn’t good for photography- even with a tripod, the images aren’t very clear. We have fun with our iPhone which work surprisingly well…
A Walkabout tradition: S’Mores. Mmmmmm
Our light is flashlights or luminAID. It is a solar powered inflatable lamp-we have only charged it once. It will also charge a USB device if needed. It’s soft light is perfect as we unwind from a long day of photography.
Tomorrow is our final day in the Basin. We thankfully were able to stay in Colorado the entire time and really immerse ourselves in the Sand Wash Basin Wild Horse experience. We’ve taken nearly 25K photos, and there is still tomorrow. It has been an amazing experience. We are already planning next year’s Walkabout 2021.
It was a busy one today- tons of horses, time with Cindy, new secret watering places, and some nice waterhole action. Also some art, cupcakes, and harp!
I have played my harp many times for wild horses. They like to listen!
Karen is a phenomenal artist. She paints en plein air- which means she paints live – paints wild horses… live and in the field. She paints phenomenally fast and accurately. it’s amazing to watch her set up her palette, and set up her field easel. Her paintings are internationally award winning.
Today was one of the best days so far in the Basin. We saw an astounding number of horses, and even watched a band change stallions. Eclipse’s band is now under the auspices of Bobbie -although Bobbie has his hands full with such a large band.
We started with a few horses right outside our camper
Sweet dun filly We either stand still, or move very slowly so as not to spook horses when they are close to the cat. She was very curious.
We headed over to the other side of the Basin and found horses bear Lake Draw. We also ran into a car full of people from New York- naturally I was excited to see fellow NYC-ers.
Laramie- daughter of Cheyenne and CoronaLaramie and her two foals- last year on the left and a mini-me on the right Karen and I both decided if Jason Momoa was a stallion, this lovely deep liver chestnut would be a likely candidate. We ate lunch on top of the Basin- 7,000 feet up
The afternoon was spent at the Oasis waterhole. We saw a stallion named Bobbie take over another stallion’s band. Eclipse lost his band today, it it is a big band and there were many horses watching the two stallions interact.
Bobbie’s new band – formerly Eclipse’s band. It is a large band and they don’t seem to like the new management Bobbie snaking (herding) the band. Stallions snake to show dominance. Bobbie is known for firm, aggressive band management. His track record of keeping band is not great. Snaking againInterested bachelors look onBobbie guarding his new band against Eclipse (horse and the end of the burm
It will be interesting to see how this turns out tomorrow. We’d love for horses to stay together as family bands forever, but Mother Nature decides in the end who it fittest to lead a band. Often it isn’t the strongest, sometimes it is the fastest, or the most clever. With such a large band, Bobbie has his work cut out this evening. Eclipse and other bachelors would love to run off with a mare from the large band.
Makeshift tripod to photograph the moon. Where will the two-track take us next?Goodnight from the Basin.
Grouse, coyotes, a fire, and of course, WILD HORSES
An interesting day- because it is so dry and there is limited water in the Basin, we travel a lot to find horses. There are only a few waterholes with water (Oasis, Avocet, 126E, and Lake Draw- a little remains at Outhouse). We travel from waterhole to waterhole and sometimes we get lucky… and sometimes we sit and wait and no horses show up.
We got lucky at Avocet this morning
After lunch we started out and noticed smoke on the hills at the southwestern border of Sand Wash after a thunderstorm. We called Cindy from Wild Horse Warriors and she called 911. They take fires in this dry climate very seriously. It was mostly contained by night and likely form lightning during summer storms.
We also saw a coyote and some Greater Sage Grouse today as well.
Today was our annual Mustang Walkabout Meet & Shoot. This is a totally free workshop where we take people around the Basin and photograph horses. This year we had some old friends for the Workshop. Carin and Rachel came for their fourth year, Michael, Debra, and Dawn also attended. We were blessed to have Cindy & Aletha from the Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin along as well. The Wild Horse Warriors and Sand Wash Advocate Team (SWAT) are the caretakers of the horses and the land they live upon. They monitor the herds, work on improving water sources, administer PZP (contraception), and work with the Bureau of Land Management – and a whole lot more. Please visit their respective Facebook pages to follow their wonderful work.
Additionally, Cindy runs tours of Sand Wash Basin, so if you’re looking to find horses at Sand Wash Basin for the first time, she is an amazing resource. The tours fall within the Wild Horse Warriors not-for-profit, so the tour fees go back to helping the horses. Cindy is the only tour guide permitted to run tours at Sand Wash Basin. Please check out her webpage.
Cindy not only runs amazing tours, she is very knowledgeable about geology and Sand Wash Basin. She found a partially knapped Native American Ute arrowhead, which we respectfully placed back where we found it. The stone is chert, other stones used for arrowheads are flint and obsidian.
An equine traffic jam on the way back to camp.
The girls had a wonderful day looking for wild horses. A fire was noted and reported. A concern with thunderstorms is lightning ,which can cause fires in this arid environment. Horses on the hillFeeling as though we are on top of the world at 7,000 feet elevation Some bachelors having fun. They were close to the road, so we stayed in our cars.
Karen and I always wanted to know what horses do at night. so we got a toy- night vision binoculars that allow photos to be taken. May I say how COOL they are??? Here are some photos -some taken near dusk and the others at night. We found out horses do exactly the same thing at night, as they do during the day. Eat. Sleep. Drink water. Though less movement. The clock in the night-vision photos is earlier by one hour.
Beats Wars at duskBears Ears at night Our camper at duskOut camper at night Meredith using the night vision binocsKaren amusing the night vision binocsSheep shed on 126 at nightThree horses in front of the Bears Ears at nightSmall herd- two dark horses, one grey with a small dark foalA real goodnight from the Basin!
