Wild Horse Photography – Fight

In this post of my wild horse photography you will see a series of photographs I shot a few weeks ago in Utah’s west desert.  In this series a roan stallion spots a black stallion that is “courting” his mare.  The chase is on.  When the roan finally catches the black stallion he almost takes the black stallion to the ground.  Then the black stallion gets his moment when he is able to pull off a solid kick to the throat of the roan.  This herd of wild horses along the old Pony Express trail near Dugway, Utah is such a treasure.  My biggest concern is how quickly they are growing in number.  I don’t believe the BLM has had a roundup of this herd for several years.  There must be near twenty new foals from this year!  I hope they can find an alternative to rounding up many of the herd and carting them off to huge pens in the mid-west.  I have seen the effects on those left behind and it is not a pretty thing.  Stallions that lost their mares and family band are never the same.  The BLM is certainly facing a difficult management task and I hope reasonable compromises can be found.

 

 

 

Onaqui Herd – Wild Horses – December

Every time to get out to photograph this herd of wild horses I am inspired by them.  I wish I had the time to photograph these magnificent creatures every day.

On this trip it was as cold as I have seen it in Utah’s West Desert.  It was 13 degrees just after sunset.  The lighting was amazing!  We were lucky enough to spot the herd (it was HUGE) many miles from the main road.  The lighting was good when we got there but became better and better the later it got.  Another amazing opportunity to spend time with them….

Colorful Utah Desert – Onaqui Herd – Wild Horses of Utah

Here are some photographs I took this spring when the Utah Desert was as colorful as I have ever seen it.  The Onaqui herd seemed to be in great shape, with foals just starting to be born.  To see the desert now, you would never believe it was this colorful.  The plant that is such a brilliant orange is called Globe Mallow or desert mallow.  It is native to Utah.