Tag Archives: equine photographers

Wild Mustang taking a dirt bath

Capturing Wild Horses: A Photographer’s Adventure

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Early last week I had a last minute appointment cancel, so I decided to make a quick trip out to photograph the wild ones.  Boy I’m glad I did!  It took me several days to finally process all of the photographs I took.  I have more “keepers” in this photo shoot than ever before.  It was very difficult to narrow them down to the 64 images I have included!  Early in the afternoon there was a lot of fighting and chasing.  Then the afternoon clouds were fantastic.  Then toward evening the horses were headed to water.  I usually get there in advance and photograph them coming in to water.  There was already a large crowd of photographers (a large tour group) at the watering hole and there was no way I was going to add mores stress to the horses.  I found a nice hill that some of the bands were coming over.  The images with spectacular light on Davis Mountain were great!  Then, near sunset I drove to where the horses were returning to the range to feed and got some amazing photographs of the horses dustin off in the golden sun!  Best shoot in a very long time.  Thank you Onaqui!!!

Onaqui Wild Horse Photography – 6 Feb

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IF YOU DON’T SEE IMAGES ON YOUR CELL PHONE CLICK ON THE TITLE.

Although I have photographed the Onaqui wild horses several times this winter, I just don’t seem to find the time to post images. Last week I spent the afternoon photographing the herd. Never did find the majority of the North herd but did find a splintered group South of Davis Mountain. Then we set out to try and find the South herd. Finally found them very late, just as the sun was setting. We stayed late and photographed till well after dark. Thank you Lightroom for your amazing “Denoise” capability. Many are shot as ISO 16,000 and they really have a unique look about them because the contrast is so low. I really like that look!

By the way, the young horse with the AMAZING markings is a recent addition to the Onaqui. (I think she is a filly).  The mom and her showed up a few weeks ago.  The thought is that they came up from the Swasey herd West of Delta.  I hope that they stay with the Onaqui!!!

Winter Photographs of Onaqui Wild Horses

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Some of the recent photographs of the Onaqui and the West Desert of Utah in the winter. The horses seem to be doing just fine in spite of the fact that the BLM wasn’t able to keep water in the sheep-trough all fall! This herd is amazing!

Onaqui Wild Horses – 27 June

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Wow! What a trip to photograph the Onaqui herd. The skies were fantastic all day long, lighting was just perfect. Even ran into an old friend (human, not horse). One of the best trips of the year. Apologies in advance for all of the images, just couldn’t thin them out any more.

The HUGE bitemark image is a photograph of Genesis.  He is part of Moondrinkers band.  In fact, Genesis is the son of Moondrinker and it was Moondrinker that bit all the way through his hide.  Moondrinker had Genesis by the hide and pushed his son for nearly 30 yards running at full steam through a small ravine!  I wish I had better images of the actual fight, but those images didn’t make the cut.  Both of them drew blood!

If you don’t see images on your cellphone, click on title.

Onaqui 18 June

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I have several trips to the Onaqui that I have not yet posted, but finally got these done of a trip we did last week to the Onaqui. We found both the North and the South herds. I hope to get the other trips done and posted soon.

Sorry for all of the photo’s. It was a very nice trip with a lot of “keepers”.

The Year For Sunflowers

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A friend just reminded me that I said in a prior post I had more images of the Onaqui in sunflowers. I must say that in the thirteen years I have been photographing the Onaqui horses I have never seen this many sunflowers. It must have been due to the winter and spring weather we had.

Hope you enjoy them….

North & South Onaqui At Watering Holes – Late September

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Another glorious trip to see the Onaqui. Luckily we were able to be there when each herd came to the watering holes.

Great Blue Heron Visits Onaqui Wild Horses

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We had an OUTSTANDING visit to the Onaqui herd last week. As usual, the desert is once again different than I have ever seen it before. There have always been sunflowers this time of year, especially along the roads. This year the sunflowers were more prolific than ever. It just so happened that the North Herd was right in the middle of a huge patch of sunflowers. We spent several hours photographing them. I have not yet processed all of them so I will only post one photo of the herd in sunflowers as a teaser. The remainder of the photographs in this post are of the Onaqui Horses and a Great Blue Heron. We have seen many different birds that you normally would not expect to see in the desert (geese, ducks and Bald Eagles), but this Great Blue Heron was a first for us.

It seemed like this might have been the first time the herd had seen a heron as well. I first noticed the heron when several of the herd had their ears perked up and were all looking at something. Then the herd would get too close and the heron would fly…scaring the herd. It would fly off a bit, land, and the would process would repeat. Here are a few of the dozens of photographs I took of this unique encounter. More sunflowers with the Onaqui to be posted soon.

Unfortunately I have to “downsize”  every photograph I post here so the quality is not great.  If I post full-sized images the page will take forever to load and Google will not be happy.

If you don’t see images click on my website title.

Onaqui Wild Horses – July

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I just got tired of processing all of my Pryor Mustang photo’s and I was missing the Onaqui. Headed out a few days ago and photographed both the South and North Herd. I haven’t photographed the Onaqui for nearly a month! Not a lot of fantastic photographs but it was nice to see all of my favorite horses!

Onaqui Herd – Early Winter

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Headed out to photograph the Onaqui Herd hoping to get some nice storm clouds and forecasted lightning. No go for thunderstorms and lightning. I believe the North herd was in the valley North of Davis mountain. We decided to try and find the South herd. It took a lot of looking to finally find a portion of the South herd. We drove an drove, noticing a lot of stud piles but few horses. Finally, just before turning around we saw a small group miles in the distance. I had not seen the herd in this area before so it was new territory for me. We finally caught up to them about a mile due East of Slow Elk Wash. It was a remnant of the Cremello and Ghost’s family band. The Cremello’s son with one blue and one brown eye was in this band as was his younger sister with two blue eyes. We photographed them for nearly an hour perched on the hillside. There was a “watering hole” in the distance and when they started towards it we quickly drove to meet them there. Unfortunately the water was turned off. I have been told that it is the ranchers that control which watering holes get water not the BLM. The herd appeared to be waiting for us to turn the faucet on, which we could not do. We’re hoping that this weeks storms get them enough water where they are currently grazing. The closest water we saw was the watering hole South and East of Simpson Springs…

We drove back to the closest water and photographed a small family band kicking up a huge dust cloud on the way to water.