Baby Dragon

Sand Wash Basin is where my heart lives.  I didn’t know that until we got there for the first time two years ago.  I’ve loved horses all my life and had dreamed about Mustangs in the wild since I first read Marguerite Henry’s “Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West”.  After I moved to Denver, CO, I discovered that there were wild Mustangs within driving distance and I was ecstatic!  Our first visit was for my birthday and it was so difficult to leave.  Our next visit a few weeks later made us feel whole again and we knew that this was a place that we had to do everything we could to preserve this place and the horses who lived there.

On the trip this year (2012), we’d already been out for one afternoon and had discovered that one of the current popular spots for the horses was a particular water hole.  We’d never seen horses there in the past but this trip we’d run into Corona, Picasso, Snow Man, and a few other favorites so we went there first thing in the morning on my birthday.  Prince, Cosmo, and Benson were a few of the stallions who had their families at the water hole when we arrived.  We hadn’t been there very long when the horses all looked up.  Another band was on the way!  As they made their way over the hill, I spotted a baby with them!

They went straight to the water and the baby dove straight in.  I was impressed that it went in because it was obviously very young.  It didn’t stay in long before another mare told it that it shouldn’t be out there.  When the foal came out of the water, the other bands really took notice of the baby and it they started over to check it out.  This was when I realized that this baby was brand new because the other horses hadn’t met it yet!  Exciting!!!!  At that point, I started really watching and trying to get photos for documentation.  With some of the new foals it’s difficult to tell what gender they are but this little guy was pretty easy to identify as a little colt!

I told my boyfriend that we’d probably be able to name this one if we really were the first ones to see him.  He started coming up with names and decided that he wanted to name it a name that a boy would like.  A name that a 6 year old boy would be excited about!  DRAGON!  If you were a 6 year old boy, wouldn’t you be excited about going to see a horse named Dragon?

We spent a little over an hour watching the little guy.  After his water hole antics, it was obvious that he was a really brave, although he did stick closer to his mother after that incident.  He spent a lot of time eating and looking around and even slipped a couple naps in during that hour!  We’ve been the first to see a couple of foals at Sand Wash Basin and we did capture another on film on my birthday two years ago, although her family was running for the hills!  I think this was the first time that we’ve had such a leisurely time to spend with a new baby and also at such close range.  Sand Wash Basin has never failed to give us a good experience with the horses and this day was no exception.  It gave me a brand new baby colt.  A colt that we named Dragon!