Shades of Autumn

November 3, 2024
The sun's last rays fled in front of mountain shadows, and the wind blew, strong and cold.

The girls had never found the wildies from the comfort of the Pavement Queen. But it was worth a try.

"Stop, stop!"
Skye could have sworn she saw something move. But perhaps it was just the wind, playing tricks on her eyes.

They stopped on the flat where just a few days ago they'd seen Petrichor and Highlander's bands, together, and with the new mare joining Petrichor's harem. But today, there were no horses. Only silence, and then wind, and then silence again.

November 4
The wind kept the girls indoors.  Skye looked at images that she's saved on the iPad, and tried to piece together the ever-changing dynamic of the wild horses.

"Grace, how many wild horses are there now?"

Grace paused. "More than I have fingers. Maybe more than I have fingers and toes."

"Let's count them. Petrichor had...the bay mare, Thorn, two foals. That's four. Five horses total for Petrichor. Highlander is now two mares, one foal...that's four counting him."

"Nine. Keep going, I'll keep count" Grace said.

"Ugh. Storm and Rain Man. The Newcomer. And the black or grulla mare and foal."

"Fourteen" Grace counted.

"Okay, now the new horses" Sky continued. "Lumpy and her filly."

"Sixteen."

"And that pinto..."

"What pinto? Oh that pinto! The tovero...or whatever he is. We only saw him once huh?"

"Yup."

"Shoot. Where were we. Seventeen."

"The roan mare with Storm."

"I wonder how that ever shook out" Grace said.

"Eighteen. Is that it?"

"No! There's the new mare that showed up with Petrichor."

"Nineteen" Grace said. "And we totally forgot Crazy and his band. Two mares, three foals, including him that's twenty five."

"And one more mare. That big bay mare that gave him the slip out on the cut. Remember that?"

"Twenty six. Wow. Okay, ready for a slightly different topic?"

Skye smiled. "Sure."

"NaMoPaiMo" Grace said. She set the pewter foal in front of Skye and picked up the rather heavy pewter mare.

"I don't know" Skye said. "I think I'd rather do something life-size."

"Well, we've got a couple of months to think about it."

November 10
The winds had blown the sand from the outdoor arenas, exposing bare mineral soil and gravel. They would need to be completely refilled with sand.

Grace and Skye, armed with shovels and a wheelbarrow, surveyed the damage.

"I don't have it" Grace said.

"What?"

"I can't do this tonight. We need a tractor. A back hoe. Something. I don't have it in me to do this kind of shoveling. And then the wind comes up again and blows it all away. Forget it."

Grace was right. November was notoriously windy. Maybe waiting would be better.  So in the day's last light they followed the gaze of the domestic horses to the southeast instead.

Tendrils of light retreated before them as the sun set.  The girls climbed up on a smooth outcropping across from Mustang Rock, immersed in evening shadows.

"I shoulda brought the camera" Skye lamented.

In the very last rays of daylight, Rain Man and Storm argued on a ridge. Their bodies were well apart. Clearly they were postering, not going to war.

The moon was already high in the sky.  The mountains to the east captured the last glowing rays of sunlight, making the scene even more dramatic.  Birds of all kinds were settling down for the night.  California Quail flew past the girls with a burst of sound, then settled on the ground and ran into the thick cover of the forest.

The roan mare was still with Storm. It appeared that Storm and Rain Man had established a suitable hierarchy, at least for now.  Returning to his harem, Storm's colors blended into the granite and the landscape as the light faded.  Rain Man rode shotgun on the mares.  Soon the horses slipped away into the shadows of nightfall.

November 16
Real clouds. Few things without hooves were more pleasing to Grace.  She left the comfort of the Pavement Queen to take a look around, pulling on her coat against the cold wind. The change in seasons was rarely slow and subtle. Today was late autumn through and through.

Skye hopped out, felt the wind, changed her mind.  "Those clouds are gorgeous" Skye said, "and I can see 'em pretty good from inside the truck, so that's where I'm gonna stay."

In the indoor arena, Owadan used the whole of the indoor arena to stretch his considerable legs.  It was chilly in the arena, but at least there was shelter for the wind.

"I have questions" Skye said.

"Okay..."

"Show horses. The serious show horses, you see them in winter and they're all slick, no winter coat...how is that possible?"

"By blanketing" Grace said. "And I think maybe keeping them in covered stalls, out of the elements. And you want to know what's wild about that?"

"Sure..."

"I was reading up on horses growing winter coats, and what breeds get robust coats and which ones don't. And the article talked about how it's not climate that determines a horse's winter coat, it's the length of daylight hours. As the days get shorter, animals get the cue to start growing whatever winter protection they need. But the fact that you can lock a horse in a stall without sunlight and keep it warm to prevent it from growing a winter coat proves that the daylight hours theory isn't absolutely right."

Next in the arena was Mateo, the Spanish Riding Horse stallion.  After a long and arduous spell of trying to figure out how to present him, the boss decided to go with the common "breed" name rather than call out the bloodlines used in the recreation of the historical breed.  Whether or not that would help him garner respect in a halter class wasn't yet clear.  Mateo was always a little unsettling. Skye and Grace had to call their dogs to their side.

"I'm surprised this one is still here" Skye said.

"Me too" Grace answered. "I thought the boss would have sold him by now. He's kind of a hand full, and she's not crazy about having difficult horses."

"He's sure pretty though."

The next horse in the arena was also lovely, and a bit easier to handle.
"So show horses...the real nice ones... are they always in their stalls or do they get exercised?"

"They have to get out...I'm not sure how you keep them all perfect all the time, but they'd have to get out. Otherwise they'd have no condition."

The last two horses of the day made their way around the arena. The petite Fjord mare was determined to keep up with the much larger Welsh cob gelding.

Skye laughed as she watched them lap the arena. "She's gonna get frustrated and bite him in the butt!"

The girls braved the cooling air as they put the cob and the Fjord back in their stalls. The last moments of light bathed the mountain in a deep crimson glow.

November 23, dawn
At first light the eastern sky was clear, but to the west thin tendrils of clouds sped over the landscape. Skye watched them, fascinated.

The sunrise was glorious on the shades of autumn all around.  To the west the sky had quickly darkened.  And then in moments the sun was folded into the mass of clouds.  An hour or so later, a soft drizzle began to fall; a mist, barely enough to be called rain.

The girls sat in the Pavement Queen, watching the landscape take on the gentle moisture.

"This is gonna be perfect for the boss's thing tomorrow huh?"

"Yup" Grace answered. "Just enough."

The boss's "thing" was a holiday gathering and work party.  There would be some experimental planting of deer grass plugs.  Deer grass is a very hardy native grass, but also slow growing and not an aggressive propagator from seed.  The boss was interested in seeing if it could be successfully transplanted "in the wild", as it was common to do when the grass was used in garden applications.  In theory, at least, the locally harvested plugs of grass would survive transplanting, and begin growing anew in the spring.

Then it was tine to get about the business of turning out horses.  Anoush, Lousin and Anahit joined Grace and Skye in the arena as they turned out the big pinto sport horse with the odd name of "Lefty."

"He is beautiful" Anoush commented. "But what we really want to know, have you seen Rain Man, the mustang we freed?"

"We have!" Skye answered enthusiastically. "We saw him....about a week ago. He's back with Storm, and Storm has a little harem of mares, although they don't look terribly happy to be with him, and Rain Man was with them!"

Grace listened, watching the big pinto, making sure he kept a safe distance from everyone.

"That's fantastic news" Anoush said. "I am wondering...I think the girls may have mentioned to you that I work with special needs and disadvantaged children."

"They did in fact" Grace said.

"I'm wondering if we can set up a visit with them. Not riding or anything like that. And perhaps not even until after the holidays. But a sort of...special vacation."

The next horse to turn out was the gelding with the roached mane that came home from evacuation with the rest of the horses. More Grace and Skye's kind of horse. His arrival was no accident. The boss bought him, a distress sale, from someone whose property had not been unscathed by the fire.

Grace was distracted, watching the calm and rather effortless movement of the chestnut. She wasn't sure if the boss intended to keep him, but he was nice. Balanced.

"What kinds of activities were you thinking of for your kids?" Grace asked Anoush.

"I'd like to give them a sort of special play day. Maybe find a space where they could really run around and let their imaginations be free and not feel restricted. Perhaps a space that we could use for an afternoon, and bring toys and activities for them."

The tack room was Grace's thought. It would be easy enough to clear it out and make it into a play space for an afternoon.  Anahit, Lousin, Anoush, Grace and Skye visited the tack room to view the space in that light.

"Didn't you have a lot more saddle stands?" Anoush asked.

"We did. I mean we do" Skye explained. They aren't back yet. When we evacuated the horses, the boss took a bunch of stuff and put it in storage. It's not all back yet. It's kind of a mess, really. We're missing five saddle stands and...who knows what else. It'll all come back. It's just...things still aren't all the way back to normal yet."

November 26
The rain came softly as the girls came up the mountain in the Pavement Queen. Grace liked to let the tiny beads of water cover the windshield entirely before she used the wipers. Skye delighted in her antics and always stretched for a few more seconds.

Four sections of pipe stall, two blankets, four saddle stands.  Skye had used linseed oil on the wooden stands, so the water was no cause for concern.  It was a relief to be bringing home the last few items that had left in the evacuation.

"I still think we're missing a saddle stand" Skye said. "And I have no idea where the other four blankets are, but I know we have at least six blankets."

"Maybe the other four never left" Grace responded. "And maybe the other saddle stand is around here somewhere. I'm pretty sure this is the last load."

"I can't believe everything is still on the truck!"

"I told you girl. I got this. It ain't my first rodeo."

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