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….
Another glorious trip to see the Onaqui. Luckily we were able to be there when each herd came to the watering holes.
Although I have made several trips to the Onaqui wild horses this summer, this is the first one I have taken the time to post. I hope to post more in the upcoming weeks. Been so busy working in the yard and helping a friend with his racecar.
We were hoping for rain and lightning, but got light rain and a lot of overcast. It took a while to find and get to the horses, so a lot of landscapes as a result. Horses were high on the mountain and after a long hike we still didn’t get very close to the North herd. With all of the recent rain, they haven’t needed to use the watering holes as much as usual. Lots of overcast, virga and dark skies.
The South herd was high on the mountain in their area, but we could get much closer to them before it got too dark. Happy to say both herds are in great shape!
P.S.: Thanks for all of your recent kind comments. I don’t see comments until I get on my site to send images, so I apologize that it has taken me so long to approve and post those comments.
I have been sick to my stomach ever since I read about this in a post by a remarkable photographer, Jen Rogers.
Last week two wild horses were brutally shot and killed near Simpsons Springs. Many of you will know one of them, the once colt, and now stallion, Jasper. He was the beautiful mustang with one blue and one brown eye. Ever since Ghost was rounded up, and the blonde, red-headed mare was rounded up by the BLM, (then she was returned to the range with an infection so bad that it resulted in her being euphonized by the BLM within hours of her release…) ever since that time Jasper became the horse I looked for every time I photographed the Onaqui. Years ago, he was in the Cremello’s band that Ghost was “shadowing”. You remember the Cremello, the stallion that was rounded up, and castrated by the BLM at the same time they rounded up Ghost… Anyway, as you can see from these few pictures of Jasper he was a kind an loving colt that grew into a magnificent, valiant stallion. He spent years watching over his little sister, the beautiful filly with two blue eyes seen in several of these pictures.
I can’t even begin to do justice in describing the lives of these two stallions. For a remarkably beautiful tribute and story of these two Onaqui stallions written by Jen Rogers you can click here
Jen is one of the most remarkable people you will ever meet. She fell in love with the Onaqui years ago, and moved to Utah just to photograph them. She knows more about the Onaqui wild horses than any other person, period. She also offers photography tours of the Onaqui. You will learn more about the Onaqui in one afternoon with Jen than I have learned in 12 years of photographing them. She personally and singlehandedly found homes for dozens and dozens of the Onaqui that were rounded up and put up for auction a few years ago. She started her own non-profit (Red Birds Trust), adopted several Onaqui horses herself, and has offer a reward of $5,000 (in addition to others) for the arrest and conviction of those responsible for these two deaths. For more information about the reward and additional information click here: reward
I HOPE THERE IS A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL FOR THE PERSON OR PERSONS THAT SHOT AND KILLED JASPER AND ARSHAN.
May they rest in peace.
Finally made time to get back to photograph the Onaqui. I had been below freezing all week, so I was able to navigate the frozen roads unlike weeks ago in the mud. We found the herd that was usually on the South side of Davis mountain on the East of Davis. There were 100 horses in this group. After photographing for a couple of hours, we decided to try and find another group for the evening shoot. We spotted them North of the trough watering hole on the other side of the ravine. Luckily everything was frozen so we were able to cross. Great lighting! So many opportunities. Weather was 20degrees and windy but worth every frozen minute. The herd was in good health and great spirits. Lots of activity. As usual, a remarkable day with the Onaqui.
I have always wanted to photograph the Sulphur Wild Horses Northwest of Milford, UT because many of these wild horses draw their bloodlines from the Colonial Spanish horse. (the first horses brought to America by Spanish explorers in the 1500’s according to the BLM website). These characteristics are the very characteristics that “the Ghost” had which are zebra stripes on the rear of the legs and a dark dorsal stripe down their back. I have always felt that Ghost was originally part of this herd and migrated up every few years to have his way with the Onaqui mares.
Well, just like many other herds, I found the Sulphur herd to be nearly impossible to photograph because they are so afraid of humans. I spotted about 25-30 horses from route 21 near the Pots-Sum-Pa turnoff. I took the turnoff and before I could even come to a stop the herd was on the run. (see the third photograph in this gallery)
Had a great sunset that evening and got up early the next day to try and find some less spooky horses. Basically the same result. Even with my 500mm lens I couldn’t get any decent photographs, (fourth and fifth photograph in this gallery). Given the fact that the winds that night must have been near 35mph and not very pleasant in my little tent trailer, I packed up and moved to spend a few days with the Onaqui.
Between very warm temps, drifted snow, melting snow and a lot of mud, getting within 4 or 5 miles of the Onaqui didn’t seem likely. I found the majority of the herd very high on Davis Mountain again, but it was impossible to get across the gully to get to the roads that were still miles from the horses.
I did find a small group of Onaqui on the East of Davis Mountain that was within a mile or two of the the main road. I spent the morning with them and returned that afternoon.
On two separate occasions the herd became very frightened and stampeded for the mountains. One, when a large, loud military airplane suddenly appeared over Davis Mountain, and that afternoon when a large cattle trailer drove down the Pony Express Road. It was the same type of trailer that the Onaqui were put into when they were rounded up and driven to Delta, UT. I have seen this happen when Blackhawk helicopters fly close by, but never with a large transport jet and never with a cattle trailer. I wonder if/when the herd will ever get back to normal….
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.
Finally getting around to posting photographs of our latest trip to the Onaqui herd of wild horses in Utah’s West Desert. The ranchers have shut off access to all watering holes on the Davis Mountain side (North herd). The North herd is sometimes feeding in the area North of Davis Mountain but they have to travel all the way to the trough watering hole to water. Not sure if they are watering both morning and evening, we have only been out there in the evening. On this trip the “North” herd was feeding just South of the trough, but after their evening drink the RAN all the way back to the area between Dugway and Davis Mountain. What a sight! It was right at sunset but the dust lingered in the valleys seemingly forever. Look closely at the panoramic images at sunset. The “white” sliver of light is the dust left as the entire herd (near 300 horses) ran through the valley on the way to where they would rest and feed the next day. It’s too bad the image size has to be significantly downsized. The full-resolution panorama (about 12 images stitched together) is amazing. THE ONAQUI HERD NEVER DISAPPOINTS!!!!
The west desert never disappoints. Although we had spent a couple of hours with the herd in the Davis Mountain area, we decided to go South before the North herd went to water. That was a mistake. The North herd traveled all the way to the trough watering hole to water and we missed the stampede. Luckily, there were many bands behind the main herd so we were able to capture them coming through the pass! The dust was incredibly thick. Another fantastic trip to this magnificent national treasure (that the BLM wants to eliminate).
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It has taken me weeks to get these photographs processed. The lighting was so perfect and varied, I had a hard time getting through all of the photographs I liked. I couldn’t get the ones I wanted to post to any fewer than these. I know there are too many, but I tried…
We were about a mile South of the watering hole photographing HUNDREDS of these magnificent wild horses. I had the sense that they were going to return to the watering trough. We got in the car and drove to the water. It was just before sunset and luckily, they did as I had predicted! Hundreds of horses on a run to the water! What a sight! Unfortunately the photographs don’t do justice to the experience, but I will remember that moment for the rest of my life…
Once the sun had set we were in a perfect setting to shoot some long exposures. Some were more like “abstract art,” but I was happy with a few.
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