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| Sunset over Spring Creek Basin |
We scooted across Texas, stopping the first night at our
favorite Caprock Canyon State Park near Amarillo, then on to Heron Lake in New
Mexico… both familiar places.
Our first
wild horse herd destination is near Dolores, Colorado.
A wrong turn took us up an unexpected BLM road, replete with
hunters. We found ourselves on a rutted
and muddied road. With darkness
approaching and dark clouds gathering, we receded to a spot just inside the BLM
boundaries, surrounded by open range.
Late that night, we awoke to the camper rocking. Both of us sat up, more than just a little
surprised and trying to determine the cause.
We both laughed once we discovered it was a young, free-ranging calf
that had found the truck as a perfect scratching post!
While looking for the Spring Creek wild horses, we met T.J.,
sitting in her truck along the sanctuary road.
What an amazing young woman!
She
has dedicated her life to the preservation of wild horses.
She introduced us to several sanctuary band
horses and offered information about the adjacent BLM Spring Basin herd and its
roads.
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| T.J.. gentles Spring Creek Basin wild horse sanctuary horses |
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| David and the Spring Creek Basin sanctuary horses |
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The Spring Creek Basin herd consists of 35-60 wild
horses. Legend has it that these horses
are descendants of stolen Morgan and thoroughbred horses captured by a renegade
who raised and sold the horses to the cavalry and local ranchers in the early 1900's. Once law enforcement began to close in, the
renegade abandoned his enterprise and the Spring Creek Basin herd began.
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As T.J. predicted, we met the stallion Chrome and his band
soon after entering the HMA. While
accustomed to humans, the band startles easily.
David knelt to take a photo. When
he adjusted too suddenly, the horses startled and fled about a hundred
yards. We decided to let the band settle
and see if we could find other bands.
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| The stallion Chrome |
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| Chrome and his band |
The roads into Spring Creek Basin are deeply rutted and become terribly mucky and slick during rain.
We recommend a high-clearance vehicle when traveling this HMA.
Roads are definitely impassible when wet and
muddied.
Much of the terrain in this HMA is
riddled with arroyos and dry rivulets.
This photo shows the depth of the arroyos near the back of the HMA.
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| Spring Creek Basin Arroyo |
After we crossed this arroyo, we found the stallion Sundance confronting
two bachelor stallions, keeping them far from his mare and her filly.
Although we were many hundreds of yards from
him, he was noticeably not happy with our being in the area.
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| Sundance confronts two bachelor stallions |
We criss-crossed several other roads and arroyos during our day's tour of the Spring Creek basin.
As evening approached, the wind became a formidable presence, probably topping
40-50 miles per hour.
With few trees in the area, we decided to look for
a protected area outside the HMA, but found none.
We returned to the HMA and finally set up
camp at an old hunter’s camp.
We tucked our chairs close to the truck,
using it as a shield against the fierce winds.
Thankfully, as the sun began to set, the winds died down.
We watched a magnificent sunset with Chrome's band grazing in the meadow below us.
Suddenly, Chrome began to gallop across the
terrain. We watched him cover an
enormous amount of territory in a short amount of time. The two bachelor stallions that Sundance had
encountered earlier in the day, evidently had crossed into Chrome’s territory.
We watched as he confronted them… not with an attack but
with diplomacy. Within a few minutes of
Chrome's arrival, the two bachelors retreated over the hillside. Chrome quickly rejoined his band.
It was an amazing night.
As we crawled into bed, Chrome’s herd grazed ever closer to our
rig.
David patted me awake so that I,
too, could watch the band graze within a foot of our camper.
We sat up in bed and watched as the full moon
shown so brightly that the horses cast long shadows.
They sniffed our water bag and grazed within
inches of our rig.
We could hear the
clumps of their hooves on the ground and their soft blows and snorts as they munched grass around
us.
When we awoke, the band grazed below our camp. It was a beautiful start to a beautiful day.
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| Chrome and his band |
We left the Spring Creek Basin herd the next morning and encountered
T.J. again as we crossed into the sanctuary.
She invited us to the Sand Wash Basin Rendezvous that would be held
Saturday.
Intrigued, we told her that we
would try to join her.
With three wild
horse herds between us and Saturday, however, we wondered if we could make the
date.
Still, T.J. and her love of wild
horses had captivated us.
We knew she
had a key we were missing and we wanted to learn more about the plight of these
magnificent animals.
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