Tag Archives: wild mustangs

Winter Wonderland – Onaqui Wild Horses

Posted on by

The Onaqui Herd never disappoints (assuming you can find them)! Last winter the herd stayed in an area that was inaccessible (too much deep snow to even hike the five miles to reach them). Several trips this winter it was too foggy to even find the herd. Other times they were too far away to get to. But sometimes the conditions are just right and you have a trip of a lifetime! These images are from a couple of different trips and this is only half of the “keepers”.

Let’s hope we can continue to get to them this winter….

North & South Onaqui At Watering Holes – Late September

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.

Rain in the West Desert

Posted on by

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.

A Special Place In Hell

Posted on by

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.

Onaqui Wild Horses – July

Posted on by

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!

Pryor Mountain Mustangs July Visit

Posted on by

If you have watched the documentary “Cloud – Wild Stallion of the Rockies” on PBS/Nature (by Ginger Kathrens), this is her herd.  Cloud’s offspring and siblings are in this herd today.  The horses are also the reason Ginger started “The Cloud Foundation“, one of the most important and successful wild horse advocacy groups ever.

It took two attempts but I eventually made it back up to photograph the Pryor Mustangs. What an experience! The wildflowers were ridiculously beautiful. The weather was great. It was around 68 degrees in the day and cooler at night. These wild horses are indeed beautiful and easy to fall in love with! If you decide to go, be sure to check in with The Pryor Mountain Mustang Center in Lovell, WY. These folks are great. They will tell you exactly where the horses are and the best way to get there! PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT THE ROADS WITHOUR REALLY GOOD TIRES! The roads are absolutely brutal. The Pryor Mountain Mustang Center does tours for a fee and it will sure save you a lot of grief unless your vehicle is up to the task of getting to the top of the mountain.

I have never taken so many photographs in a trip, and these are the result of going through less than half of my photographs.  The horses are magnificent and in great health.  As you can see, there is a bit of snow left, and the horses enjoy standing in the snow to cool off and perhaps get some relief from the bugs.  I hope to get up to visit this herd once more before winter.

It has been a couple of weeks since I was there and I hope to finish processing my photographs later this week, then I will post the balance of my images…

Onaqui stallion, Onaqui mustang running

Trip To Onaqui In February

Posted on by

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.

Sulphur & Onaqui Wild Horses

Posted on by

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….

Onaqui wild mustang after roundup

Onaqui Wild Horses – Post Roundup

Posted on by

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…..