It took a while to get ready to hit the trail today; the young horse is learning to be a pack horse, and how he learns, is so important. He needs to be able to head out with confidence and unafraid of the newness of it. This horse is a youngster but already very tall and filled out. He is teasingly nicknamed "dumptruck".

The rider, is on a primitive dun, and the pack horse is a red dun.The coloring of Kigers is lovely and nuanced, with pale peachy dun and light dove grulla grey, all the way to coffee dun and black dun. I admire it very much. I have explained my own Kiger's variations of colors and hair patterns so many times I feel redundant doing so again.

Most of all though I miss the silver underside of his mane. Breath-taking.

Both of these horses are Kiger mustangs, a breed I know well. For a long stretch, they were all I painted. I spent every day, basking in the sight of all the pale babies born at Rancho Bayo. It was like seeing soft colored baby birds transform into bolder colored dazzling beings, often drastically changing their colors as they matured.

In my dreams I have a herd of horses that come running to see me, of all the horses  I have admired and loved. Every horse color there is, and some precious donkeys too.