These photos were taken the day after the rainbow photos. What a difference a day makes! Under all that glorious snow is a lot of mud. It’s good moisture for the soil, but the slop makes it difficult to get around.

Here at the sanctuary, our mustangs are in a few different bands. The horses featured in these photos are members of Gideon’s band – he’s the bay in the photo above. We also have the big mare band, Cisco’s band, Kreacher’s band (all of which mostly stay fairly close together) and BMMR – Bruiser, Mesa, Moonlight and Rambo – our boy (bachelor) band. 🙂 That big group of horses stays well to the north, accessible only by a road that is inaccessible when sloppy wet.

So now we wait until the temps get cold enough to freeze the mud under the snow so it can support the weight of the hay wagon (aka, the dependable ranch truck, ZEB).

Mustangs are pretty hardy, and the horses “next door” in Spring Creek Basin don’t have the luxury of hay in the winter. But we do what we can for our ponies, and that means keeping them well fed, especially when Ma Nature shows us her winter cloak. 🙂