Tag Archives: photographs of wild horses

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.

Pryor Mountain Horses – 2nd Batch

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Finally getting around to processing and posting this second batch of images from my Pryor Mountain trip.  I have never taken so many photographs, but I’m glad I did.  It just takes so long to sort through many thousands images.

I know there are too many photographs, but I use this site to document the horses I photograph, so I apologize in advance for all of the pictures. As you can see, the Pryor Wild horses live in a magnificent area. The surrounding terrain is nothing short of breath-taking. Enjoy!

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 wild mustang after roundup

Onaqui Wild Horses – Post Roundup

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I have been out to the Onaqui mustangs several times since the roundup but haven’t felt like posting images. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we have some horses to photograph but not being able to photograph some of my favorite families has been heart-breaking…  Many of the released horses are pairing up in very small groups and remaining in the mountains.  They feel safe from helicopters there.  Over the years when Blackhawk helicopters from Dugway were flying low over the herd they would head straight to the mountains.

The good news is that there are horses to photograph. The bad news is that very few of the “families” that were together pre-roundup were released back. I am hoping that new family bonds will start to evolve, but the horses are so spread out that it might be hard for that to occur. It is difficult to try and rationalize how/why the BLM would to this to our magnificent wild horses. The BLM continues with their “emergency roundups” throughout the West. The wild horse populations will never be the same.

Anyway, here are some images of the remaining herd. I hope to post more in the future…..

Onaqui Wild Horses – March 24, 2021

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It seems like it has been a long time since I have visited the Onaqui Herd. Finally made it out a few weeks ago. These mustangs must spend the entire winter eating in order to keep their weight up, and that is seen in these pictures! They ALWAYS have their heads down feeding! As you can see, the good news is that they all look GREAT! None of the horses look stressed at all, and the only one that seems a bit “skinny” is the Old Man. We were so happy to have found him! He was nowhere near either the North or the South herd. Roaming near Davis mountain by himself…

There is a red mare that has a new foal that had a syringe in her right rear leg.  She was in pain, but was eating fine.  I photographer her about 10 days later and the syringe was gone and she was just fine!

As you have probably heard, the Onaqui herd is scheduled for a “gathering” (another word for “unnecessary brutal roundup”) in late July. They are planning to round up approximately 350 of the 500 wild horses in the Onaqui herd. Few, if any will be adopted so they will be processed and sent on to pens in the midwest to live out the remainder of their lives in captivity. The Bureau of Land Management will then have to use the bulk of their budget to feed these horses. Makes great sense, right?

More images coming soon, as I have since visited the herd once since this posting.

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.

Photography of Swasey Wild Horse Herd – Near Delta, UT

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I was asked if I had any photographs of the Swasey Herd of Wild Horses near Delta, UT. Just the excuse I needed to make the two hour drive from Salt Lake. Rumor has it that the BLM will be rounding most of them up soon. Glad we were able to find them! They certainly are a different herd the Onaqui. Very spooky. They would not let us get anywhere near them, very different than the Onaqui. They also did not come together in a large herd. Only bands of 3-8 horses. Glad we had longer lenses!

Timing was also perfect to photograph the Snow Geese migration. Every spring between 10 and 20 thousand snow geese make a stop in Delta, UT on their annual migration to Canada. I have photographed them nearly every year for 5 or 6 years. This year did not disappoint.

Onaqui Wild Horse Herd – February

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As usual, the Onaqui herd never disappoints. We located several family bands just below Davis Mountain. The antelope (pronghorns) must be migrating back from their winter range because we saw a couple of herds that had nearly 50 antelope in them. Then we set out to find the rest of the “North” herd. We found them herd several miles North of Davis Mountain at the top of the foothills. We have seen the herd in this area once before. We named the valley “Dead Eagle Valley” for a dead eagle that we found there last spring. As some of the bands came into the valley we were able to position ourselves above them, and Simpson Buttes and the valley East of there is in the background. What a view! Several photographs in this post are panorama’s where I shoot 12-15 separate overlapping photographs in portrait mode and then stitch them together to form a panorama in Lightroom. Then we were able to hike to the opposite side of the valley and had the snow-covered Onaqui Mountains in the background! Wish we had lawn chairs with us, we could have spent the entire day there! We photographed them for several hours in that valley and then proceeded South and West to find the former Cremello band. We found them again near the main watering hole South and West of Simpson Springs. It looks like the black mustang has taken over the band once Ghost and the Cremello were captured, neutered and sold at auction by the BLM. No sign of the colt with one blue and one brown eye, but his mother and her two younger foals were there. I fear he was rounded up with Ghost and the Cremello. A sad thought to have as we left the herd and headed home…

Photos of Onaqui Wild Horses – Late January

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Wow, what an interesting day photographing the Onaqui herd. Started the day with light snow, clouds and frozen roads. Ended the day with mud and blue then pink skies! You have to love Utah’s West desert and this magnificent herd of wild horses. We found what appeared to be most of the North and South herds near Davis mountain. One or two miles of driving on the frozen 4 wheel drive roads and the photo shoot of this magnificent herd was on! Ended the day South if Simpson Springs and found what was the Cremello’s and Ghost’s band. The 3 year old colt with one blue and one brown eye was nowhere to be seen. I hope and pray he was not rounded up with his father the Cremello and Ghost.

Just too many photo’s. It was really hard to cull these down to a reasonable number of “keepers”.

Photography of Onaqui Wild Mustangs

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Finally found the time to get back out and photograph the Onaqui wild horse herd in winter. Finding them in winter is much more difficult than in summer. During the heat of summer, the herd needs to use the watering holes at least daily. In winter they get their water from eating snow, or drinking from small puddles. They frequently use the valley North of Davis mountain. We headed down that muddy and slick 4 wheel drive road. We finally located them on the West of Davis mountain. It was really nice to photograph them up in the steeper, rocky areas, not on the flats.

After photographing this “North” or Davis herd, we drove South to attempt to locate the South herd. I was anxious to see if I could locate the Blue-eyed family band, the band that the BLM has rounded up the Cremello stallion and The Ghost from. We did locate that small family band just at sunset. They were too far away and it was too dark to photograph them but I was grateful to see the pinto mare and her and at least see two of her three offspring.