Ed and Reub: Mustangs

The day we look for wild horses on Steens Mountain is clear and cool, a perfect morning for a hike, even if we never find anything more than hoof prints in the hard, volcanic, high desert dirt.

When scanning the hills, it initially looks like a herd of cattle out there: small dots of slowly moving paint in the distance.

Some of them are cattle, but most of them are wild horses. We leave our dusty car on the edge of the gravel road and slowly walk towards the group.

We pass a mare with a very young foal. I doubt this baby is more than a day or two old.

The protective father makes sure we don't get closer. At the same time, he remains very alert to the movement of the herd on the slope. It is likely that he is an exiled young stallion who will start his own family and take care of everyone. Since nobody can comb and bathe it, it still glows like copper.

They move close to each other, hide their baby in the sage brush and decide that we are not a threat.

In the meantime, the herd on the slope is paying attention to us, banding together and setting off. It is the recently branded cattle that seem to be the most afraid. The horses put the cows between us.

This mustang gang is named after the lead stallion Atlas. This is Atlas on the far left with a map-shaped white patch on the side. The other horse in a leadership position is the pinto on the far right, maybe a mare. She probably has a name, but I couldn't find it on the Facebook pages dedicated to the 200+ horses on Steens Mountain.

They pour over the ridge, Atlas the last to disappear into the 127,000 acre highlands in which they move. They were like a vivid dream that evaporated with time and distance ... I won't see them again, but I can't forget what they were like.