Another day at work.
North America -09Posted by Ove Sun, September 06, 2009 12:56:44This time of the year the Mustangs usually seeks higher elevation (and Burning Man down in the basin makes that even more interesting) so I headed for Sheldon some 100 miles north of Winnemucca 
and did I hit the Jack Pot. An hour into Sheldon I saw the first band of horses and there were more than10 of them.
The horses were moving fairly fast so I suspected they were headed for a water hole. I found the natural spring they were headed for but it was dry.
I went back to the Van and started searching for somewhere to park for the night before it got completely dark (8pm). Just before it got dark I saw a large band (10 or so) of mustangs not that far away. When I woke up at 6am the horses were still there, almost at the same spot. I packed my back pack with water, some things to eat and my cameras and headed for the horses. I did not want to disturb them or anything, just see what they were doing and my plan was to follow them for the day. When I came closer I saw that it was three bands. One family band with 1 stallion + 6 mares + 2 foals, one band of 3 old stallions and one band of 5 young stallions. All together 17 horses within 600 feet. All minding their own business and respecting the sovereignty of the Alfa stallion. Hiding where nothing stick up more than 2 feet is not a option so I figured it to be better standing up and be visible so of course they saw me right away. I stopped about 900 feet away to not disturb them and after half an hour I sat down on the desert floor and just watched. After about an hour two of the mares (the two with foals) came to check me out. You can see these two and their foals at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDilHYqF1Dg.
On their first visit they came about 75 feet from me, the second time 60 feet and the third time they stopped about 45 feet away.
The Alfa stallion did not care about me at all. After about 2 hours they moved away a little and parked to sleep. During the three hours I watched these horses they did not move more than some 5-600 feet and they did not graze for more than maybe half an hour. Since this is completely unnatural I decided to leave the horses and see if I could find a reason to why all these horses came this way. As soon as I started moving away from the horses they started grazing and slowly moving further away. I back tracked the horses and found the natural spring that attracted the horses. I have decided to go back to this spring tomorrow to film more of the visitors between 7am and 7pm.
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