Most domesticated horses have human interaction from the start. As foals, they are groomed, taught to lead, and learn early on that humans are their friends. But when bringing a Mustang from the wild home to be your new equine companion, the rules aren’t the same. These horses don’t know how to have their feet picked, wear a halter, or accept a pat.

Chelsea Gammon started her nonprofit, Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary, in Birdsboro, Pa., after adopting her first Mustang, Folly, and discovering how much the breed had to offer. She now provides a home for many permanent residents and holds programs to teach the public about the breed and their unique personalities and needs.

Gammon also facilitates in gentling Mustangs for potential adopters to help as many of the horses find homes as she can. When she isn’t busy with the herd, she fox hunts—on Mustangs, of course!

We sat down with her to learn more about how she got started with Mustangs and to get her tips if you are considering the breed for yourself.

What prompted you to start Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary?

CG: It was kind of an accident that I happened upon Mustangs. I previously worked with off-track Thoroughbreds, transitioning them from racehorses to sport horses. I sold some of my project horses and only had two living at my house, and they became very herd-bound, so I went looking for a little pony or something to keep them company.

I just happened to find the Bureau of Land Management’s adoption website, where they list a handful of Mustangs. I saw a little dappled palomino, who I named Folly—no video, just a handful of photos—and I instantly fell in love.

I then had less than two weeks to figure out how I was going to bring her home. You need 6-foot-tall fences to be able to adopt a Mustang (and for good reason—they do often try to jump out at first). I had experience with very green horses, but not untouched horses, so I found a Mustang trainer in Virginia and enlisted his help. He worked with Folly every Monday through Thursday, and then I went down every Friday through Sunday to learn what she was learning.

I was so impressed with how Folly came along that a couple years later, I started looking for a second Mustang. I found Luna on the same internet adoption that Folly came from. After winning Luna in the auction, a photographer sent me a photo of Luna in the wild, and I realized that a second buckskin in that photo was also at the same facility. She was emaciated and heavily pregnant. One of her legs was swollen and she was lame. I couldn’t leave her there, so I arranged hauling for her to ship home, too.

After working with another Mustang, Astra, who we trained to be a therapy horse for a friend, I realized this was something I was very passionate about. I loved it and I was fairly good at it. I began the process to start a charity—and adopted another Mustang during that process—and got our 501(c)(3) charity status.

Soon after, they rounded up Cedar Mountain horses again, and I came back with 14 of them. I kept four of them, and the rest went to other adopters.

It’s been a journey that I never really saw for myself, especially being from the East Coast, where Mustangs aren’t very common. But they are just so versatile with everything I’ve ever asked of them, and I want to promote the breed all over the United States and try to get more of them adopted.

There are more than 50,000 of them who are sitting in holding pens right now, and I want to do my part to provide permanent sanctuary for several and promote adoption and training of the breed.

Can you tell us a little about Folly, the namesake behind the organization?

CG: Folly was my first Mustang. She is from the Calico Mountains in Nevada, and is 14.1 on a tall day. For such a little horse, she has a bigger stride than anything I’ve ever ridden. She is sassy and gritty and the lead mare of our herd.

I named her Folly from a line in National Velvet: Velvet wants to enter the Grand National steeplechase race], and her mother gives her money that she won for being the first woman to swim the English Channel: “I too believe that everyone deserves one great piece of folly in their life.”

When I told my family and friends that I was going to be adopting an untouched wild Mustang, everyone thought I was crazy, and she was my one little bit of ‘folly.’ And it worked out.

I’ve done everything with her from trails and dressage to show jumping and eventing. She’s given lead-line rides to kids. But her favorite thing is fox hunting. I’m the field master of our first flight at our fox hunt with her now, and she loves that job. She can run and jump as much as any of the other horses out there, and she doesn’t stop. She’s the most incredible horse I’ve ever owned.

What attracted you to Mustangs as a breed?

CG: There’s a Mustang out there for pretty much anything you want to do. Each herd has different breeds that influence the horses, so you have larger ones in Oregon (15-16 hands). Horses who pulled on the Oregon Trail ended up there, as well as some cavalry horses, so they’re a lot bigger.

Then you have the more gritty Nevada and Utah horses. There’s a herd called Pine Nut, and some of those are 12 hands. Then the Kigers have more direct Spanish influence.

There are a lot that look more like sport horses and have proven that they are great for sport horse work. They are very versatile no matter how they are built, and seem to be able to do pretty much anything you ask of them.

They are extremely intelligent in a way I haven’t seen in domestic horses. I don’t know if that’s from their survival instincts, but it makes them try so hard once you gain their trust.

I also love working with them because they’re completely blank slates. You are installing every button on that horse yourself. I really like being able to do that myself, and they come along so quickly once you lay that foundation.

What should you do before bringing a Mustang home?

CG: You need at least 6-foot-tall fencing and a pen that is at least 20’x20’ with an attached 12’x12’ shelter. You can expect to not be able to touch them right away or have them haltered for a little bit.

When I bring them home, I let them go in and check everything out, get a bite to eat and drink, and then I’ll go in and start with an approach and release method. Sometimes just being in the pen sets them off, so as soon as they stop running around, I’ll back up or leave the pen.

Eventually I can take the pressure away when they turn to look at me. I start to build a language with them where they understand that when they give the right answer, the pressure goes away. It builds to them starting to reach out to sniff my hand.

Having this language that you can use for all their other training is very helpful. Once they understand treats, I can begin using positive reinforcement, too, by giving them treats as a reward.

Before you bring a horse home, make sure you are totally prepared. To get approved if you are adopting directly through the BLM, you have to make sure your facility requirements are up to par.

Have a plan for how you are going to gentle your Mustang and what methods you are most aligned with and want to use. The more tricks up your sleeve the better; they are all different and learn in their own ways.

Also, be honest about your capabilities. If you don’t want to dive right into the deep end and get a totally wild horse, you can get a TIP-trained horse (Trainer Incentive Program). If you want them to have a little more training than that, a lot of TIP trainers can be hired privately to start them under saddle, and there are lots of other Mustangs out there privately that are a little further along in their training.

The Mustang Makeovers are a good option for that; those horses have 90-100 days of training on them and are usually started under saddle, so you can have a green-broke horse.

What does it mean when a Mustang is “gentled”?

CG: We consider a horse “gentled” when you can halter, lead, brush them all over, pick up all four feet, and load them on a trailer. They are usually still a little wary of people at that point. You have to be aware of their body language and willing to put the work in to keep the horse progressing.

Once they are trained and love people, I find that my Mustangs are tamer than most domestic horses. People are shocked when they visit the sanctuary that the horses come up to them and want all the attention. They are just so sweet and puppy-like; I call them my Golden Retrievers.

Can you tell us a little about your facility?

CG: We have an old bank barn with a large run-in. We usually only stall the horses when they eat or if we need to keep them in for some reason. But for the most part, they just come and go as they please. There is a stream in their field and a heated water tank in the winter, so they have options. When we have new Mustangs coming in, we use the 6-foot-tall pens until they can be caught and we aren’t worried about them jumping out, then they join the rest of the herd.

Right now, we have 10 permanent residents. Occasionally we get other untamed Mustangs in for training. My goal is to get the funding to fence in the back of the property and then take in an additional eight Mustangs, whether they be permanent residents or to give space to bring more in for training.

We have visitors come to interact with the trained horses, and we also hold different programs. We’ve had veterans come out, special needs kids, people from a women’s center. I really like to promote Mustangs’ versatility as riding horses. I have five of them out fox hunting right now.

I’m also a Mustang Heritage TIP trainer, so people interested in adopting can contact me and we can find a horse from a satellite event or one of the recent round-ups out west and I’ll do the initial gentling, and then they can adopt them for $125. I also take in other Mustangs that are in need and find them homes.

I do most of the work myself. A woman rents my front field in exchange for helping with some of the feeding, but aside from that, it’s just me. We do have occasional volunteers, but it really is my labor of love. It’s a lot, but it’s also my greatest happiness. It’s certainly a lot to balance on top of a full-time corporate job, but it gives my life purpose and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

What’s the biggest challenge when working with Mustangs?

CG: The biggest challenge is that they are wild animals at first. They might try to charge you, kick and rear. They are scared. They don’t know to trust you, so winning that trust is the hardest part. But it’s also the greatest reward when you become the first person that the animal has ever trusted.

You can ask pretty much any Mustang trainer, and that first touch when they reach out and touch your hand with their nose is the most magical experience. There is nothing else like it, and having the trust of these animals is the greatest honor.

This article about Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Sometimes horses, like people, need a leg up in life. That’s where Joe Misner comes in. Growing up in Alaska for much of his boyhood, the creator and director of the Wild2Ride Academy is no stranger to wild country. These days, in Missoula, Mont., he is offering the only wild horsemanship certification program of its kind anywhere in America.

While appearing as a panelist at the EQUUS International Film Festival four years ago in Billings, Mont., he heard about a horse facing a dire plight. The owner of a green-broke BLM Mustang was leaving town, and with winter just around the corner, he threatened to abandon the hapless colt in the mountain wilderness if someone didn’t come up with a better solution.

For a horseman who likes to live by the motto, “Come on and let me show you,” solutions are easy.

Misner was just starting to work with Melinda Corso and Montana Reins of Hope (MROH) when Janet Rose came to them for help. Rose was organizing a benefit for a local rescue, Horse Haven Montana, and told them how a foster option for the colt, Dante, had proved temporary.

“At that time, Montana Reins of Hope was still early in its formation,” says Corso. “Taking Dante in really solidified MROH’s commitment to the American Mustang.”

Horsemanship That Creates Second Chances

Creating second chances for wild spirits—both horse and human—is what Misner has been doing for the last decade. That has included connecting horses with high-risk youth; working with Wounded Warrior veterans and Mustangs; and offering Rio Cosumnes Correctional inmates in Sacramento, Calif., a certifiable skill after their incarceration while giving wild horses a chance to earn release from their own federal pens.

Misner discovered during his West Coast horsemanship clinics that people wanted to learn what he had to teach. But unless they went to jail, they weren’t finding his unique curriculum.

That’s how the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center Wild Horse Program, developed with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department (one of only five such horse/inmate programs in the country), became the model for the curriculum now offered by Wild2Ride Academy at MROH.

Misner’s program in Sacramento County honed a successful wild horse gentling approach through retreat-pressure-release, which works with an untouched horse’s natural instincts. It also incorporates leadership horsemanship training for people, based on what he calls the five C’s: Calm, Confident, Caring, Clear and Consistent.

And Dante? As MROH’s first rescue horse and four-legged instructor, he has a forever home.

“Dante started it all,” says Corso, who has brought more than 25 years’ experience in children’s mental health and education to her role as Director at MROH. “We can make this world a better place for horses and humans through quality equine education programs that focus on building relationships with horses on a foundation of trust.”

That’s why Misner, considered one of the premier Mustang trainers in the country, is there.

Cross-Fit, Ranch-Style

A veteran of 16 Extreme Mustang Makeovers, with nine Top 10s, and 2014 NORCO Extreme Mustang Makeover champion (with Kenai), Misner has built a 90-day wild horsemanship certification course progressing through six levels.

After completion of a level, students earn a Wild2Ride Academy certificate. At the end of 90 days and all six levels, they are fully certified in the skills necessary to train wild horses.

The name, Wild2Ride, comes from Misner’s experiences in Mustang makeovers since the early days, and from firsthand experience.

“I’ve worked with ‘wild’ men and horses,” he says. “I’ve watched guys who have gone through lots of failures find something to feel passionate about in horses. Here, we teach from the ground up: with a pitchfork, cleaning stalls. I like to call it ‘ranch cross-fitness!’” All joking aside, the program has proven to be transformative for the living creatures that go through it.

“It’s life-changing for everyone,” says Misner. “You can get an organic transformation.”

Wild Horse to Rider Hours Ratio

It starts with his thought-provoking wild horse hours to rider hours ratio.

“Over a year, a horse runs wild for 8,760 hours,” says Misner. “In comparison, 90 days in training adds up to just 60 hours of human interaction.”

That’s 8,700 hours of wild left in an animal apt to behave more like a deer in horse clothing. Take for example a 14-hand, 3-year-old Mustang mare that Misner watched clear a 3-foot fence from a standstill as easily as any whitetail.

“Horsemanship with wild horses is a lot of oxymorons,” he says. “You learn to stay calm but are ready for chaos.”

His 90-day wild horsemanship certification program is also unique in its freedom from traditional semester formats. Applicants do not have to commit 90 days all at once. Like the training approach they hope to learn and apply to horses, students go through the program pressure-free, learning at their own pace.

“One of the most important things about this program is its flexibility,” Misner explains. “You can start any time. You can stop at any point and then come back for more. You can come for a week at a time.” For students learning how to relax a wild horse, it helps to show them they’re not under pressure either.

Riding Forward

Misner is excited to see more students scheduled to enter Wild2Ride Academy through the rest of this year. Two Academy graduates, Hayden Sunshine Kunhardt and John Sullivan (who left a job with the U.S. Forest Service to learn wild horsemanship), have come on board as full-time, paid assistants.

Misner estimates that since 2019, Wild2Ride Academy has seen two dozen burgeoning trainers enter the program and eight complete the full Academy, despite the pandemic.

“I know it sounds crazy, but COVID really got us going,” he says. “It’s been fantastic. People’s lives changed and more of them than ever want new and better connections.”

That’s on top of the hundreds of horses and inmates he estimates he has helped over his five years working with Sacramento County.

“My dad had a saying, ‘Aspire to inspire before you expire,’” he says.

It’s not something the quiet horseman brings up in casual conversation, but the courage and tenacity his own father displayed in life made an indelible imprint.

While born in Minnesota, 57-year-old Misner recalls how his father chose to take his family home to his own roots in Alaska. Misner was still a boy when his father, a heavy equipment operator, sustained a grievous spinal cord injury in an accident.

“My dad is my inspiration,” says Misner. “He was a veteran, and I saw what he went through as doctors held his spine together, as he went into rehabilitation to learn to walk again, and to hold his body upright. He showed me how you can do anything. To keep moving forward.”

A Horse Named Mohican

Another lesson about tenacity came from a “plain brown wrapper” of a Mustang, one of the last to go down the chute and into a BLM pen, who Joe nicknamed Mohican.

Reno, Nev., was where Misner was headed in 2009 to find his second Extreme Mustang Makeover project. He’d finished reserve champion with a horse named Laredo in the previous year’s Western States Mustang Challenge, and 16th nationally. Misner was feeling pretty good about his “formula” for training wild horses within limited timeframes as he stood along the pen watching a new herd of candidates emerge from a trailer.

But it got off to a horrific start. The horse he intended as his makeover candidate “ran right into the fence and broke its neck.”

Next to go was a 5-year-old gelding, taken from the wild a year previously and kept in a holding pen ever since, who was Misner’s resentful replacement. The horse was Mohican.

“He charged and grabbed my chest and front of my shirt as if to say, ‘I have four legs and teeth, and I’m not afraid to use them,’” recalls Misner. “‘Don’t tell me anything. Ask.’”

He had exactly 90 days to ask Mohican for a makeover and to travel from California to Texas to compete together.

For 59 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes, Mohican didn’t offer much progress. On Day 60, Misner mounted up and started riding in the round pen, but couldn’t get the horse that had once galloped free across the prairie to break into a trot.

“I tried one little spank,” he recalls. “He blew up, rolled over on me, and this time, told me if I ever tried that again he’d squash me like a bug.”

With not much progress to show for those last 30 days, Misner resolutely loaded Mohican and began the 1,200-mile trek to Fort Worth. If he was lucky, he imagined the recalcitrant Mustang would only humiliate and not hurt him in front of all those spectators in the Will Rogers Equestrian Center.

“I purposely entered the Intermediate division,” he says. “I wasn’t expecting much.”

Misner certainly wasn’t expecting what came next. If Mohican saw him as one terrible, two-legged predator, the Mustang’s eyes pretty much popped out of its head when he realized there were thousands of such predators outnumbering them in Fort Worth.

“He stayed glued to me,” Misner recalls.

Maybe it was Mohican’s “come to Jesus moment,” but it worked. Man and Mustang finished 8th nationally, while also performing a freestyle Misner could never have predicted with this horse: “It included jumping over a barrel while holding a flag in one hand!”

In the happiest of all endings, Mohican was purchased at the auction following the competition, raising money for the Mustang Heritage Foundation and finding a forever home.

“I told the woman who bought him that he was very … particular,” he says.

Roses From a Devil’s Garden

Horse Illustrated caught up with Misner the same day he was preparing to welcome five new U.S. Forest Service Devil’s Garden Mustang mares—with foals—to MROH.

Named for a 500-square-mile patch of dense brush and jagged stone so inhospitable only “the devil himself” would plant a garden there, the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory lies within Modoc National Forest outside of Alturas, Calif. According to the USDA and U.S. Forest Service, Devil’s Garden is the largest wild horse territory managed by the U.S. Forest Service in size and wild horse population.

“Devil’s Garden Mustangs have proven their adaptability, trainability and versatility since our first adoptions in 2018,” says Misner. “None of this would be possible without Reins of Hope and its 400 acres that house the facility and program. It couldn’t be done without them.”

It allows Misner and Wild2Ride to keep dreaming bigger and better, including filing for nonprofit 501(c)3 status and launching a fundraising campaign, because “we sure need a covered arena during these Montana winters.”

Mustangs need help, too.

“I know I can make a difference,” says Misner. “Mustangs gave me a master’s degree in empathy for horses, and for trying to do better, every day, with what I have to give.”

This September, Misner and his wife of 30 years, Missy, plan to compete a pair of 3-year-old BLM fillies in the Extreme Mustang Makeover in Fort Worth. A teacher for over 20 years, Missy is also curriculum co-creator of the Wild2Ride program.

“She’s been a huge inspiration in my evolution as a natural horseman,” says Misner. “Without her, I’d be a broken-up old bronc rider, for sure.”

Follow Joe and Missy, Wild2Ride, and the Devil’s Garden Mustangs at Montana Reins of Hope (available to forever homes after 90 days training) at www.montanareinsofhope.com and on Facebook @Wild2Ride and @MontanaReinsofHope.

This article about Joe Misner and his wild horsemanship certification program appeared in the October 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Mustang Horse History

Mustang is a derivative of the Spanish word mesteña, which means wild or stray. Horses roamed America 10,000 years ago but vanished from the landscape until the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century with their horses of Barb decent.

Many Native American tribes “liberated” horses and brought them further into North America. As America evolved, horses from Europe were imported, and offspring accompanied the settlers moving west. Wild horse bands formed from escaped or abandoned horses.

In 1971, the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act was passed protecting Mustangs from slaughter. Congress established Herd Management Areas, and the Bureau of Land Management gathers and offers the excess animals for adoption.

Mustang Characteristics

Mustangs have no overall characteristics because different breeds of horses have contributed to the development of wild horses in various areas. Draft horses were popular in certain areas among settlers, and hot-blooded horses were more popular in others.

Some are large and full-bodied, while others are smaller and daintier in appearance. The abundance of or lack of forage also helps determine size.

Horses range from 13 to 16 hands high and are all colors, including black, bay, dun, palomino, gray and spotted.

For More Information

• Mustang Heritage Foundation
• Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program
• BLM Wild Horse online auctions

Further Reading:

• Out of the Wild Part One: Mustang Matchmaker
• Do You Have What It Takes to Train a Mustang?
• The Mustang Mind
• Training Mustangs is a Family Affair
• Training Mustangs for English Sports

This article was originally published in 2006 with Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Adoptable Horse: Atlas, a 20-year-old 14.2hh Mustang gelding
Organization: Humane Society of North Texas, Fort Worth, Texas

Get to Know Atlas

Don’t let his rough and tumble looks fool you—this BLM mustang has a heart of pure gold. Atlas came to HSNT in need of patience, love and lots of groceries. He also needed his left eye removed. Now healthy, he’s ready to find his perfect person who will treat him right for the rest of his days. Atlas is young at heart and loves to run, buck and play in the pasture. He needs a herd mate who can keep up!

Atlas requires an intermediate handler but is super willing once he trusts you and has bonded closely with several staff members at the ranch. HSNT can’t say enough good things about this ruggedly handsome guy!

This adoptable horse is up-to-date on shots, Coggins, dental care, and is microchipped. Age is an estimate. Adoption fee is subject to change as skills advance.

Please fill out an interest in adoption form on HSNT’s website to learn more and schedule an appointment. When you adopt, you are not just giving a second chance to an animal in need; you are becoming a part of HSNT’s critical rescue work. Adoption fees help HSNT continue to assist more animals – and the people – that need a helping hand.

Atlas is located in Joshua, Texas, near Fort Worth.

Could this be your Right Horse? Click here for more information about Atlas, the ASPCA Right Horse Adoptable Horse of the Week.

My Right Horse

My Right Horse is the online adoption platform of The Right Horse Initiative, a collection of equine industry and welfare professionals and advocates working together to improve the lives of horses in transition. A program of the ASPCA, their goal is to massively increase horse adoption in the United States. To find more adoptable horses and foster horses, visit www.myrighthorse.org. To learn more about The Right Horse, a program of the ASPCA, visit www.aspcarighthorse.org.

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But when images and videos appear in the media showing herds being rounded up via helicopter, emotions run high. These are called “gathers,” and they occur when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) brings herds of wild horses into a smaller area so they can implement their fertility control treatment plan, which can consist of a vaccination that essentially renders the mare’s heat cycles unproductive.

No Room to Expand

The big issue between passionate supporters of the wild horses and supporters of the BLM is what seems to be dwindling acreage making it difficult for the wild horses to find enough to eat and drink. However, according to the BLM, the acreage isn’t shrinking—the population is outgrowing the land they have.

The difficult position for the wild horses is that the size of their habitat has not grown with time. The 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act says that the BLM can only manage wild horses and burros where they are found when that act was passed. This means that the land inhabited by wild horses in 1971 is the same range they can inhabit 52 years later.

Jason Lutterman, public affairs specialist with the BLM, says that because of this act, the BLM is not able to move horses to areas where they were not originally found back in 1971, and the BLM can’t use government funds to purchase more land.

“There are some public lands where the horses can be found, but those are not federally protected,” says Lutterman. “We have a large diversity of situations that we manage with our wild horses and burros.”

Wild Horse Population Spike

Currently, the BLM manages wild horses and burros in 177 herd management areas that cover 26.9 million acres of public lands across 10 Western states. As of March 1, 2021, the BLM estimates there were approximately 71,735 wild horses and 14,454 wild burros on these lands. This is in addition to the 59,007 (as of December 1, 2021) wild horses and burros receiving care on BLM off-range facilities.

In recent years, the wild horse and burro population has experienced a rather significant population spike. This has prompted more action in regard to gathers and fertility control treatments. If there is no oversight by the BLM, the agency believes that the herds could have a 15-20 percent growth rate, and based on numerous studies, the population numbers are susceptible to doubling every four or five years.

“The population spike is mostly due to the fact that [the BLM] has not been removing as many wild horses or burros, or doing as much population control to help slow that growth,” says Lutterman. “However, if the BLM had not been doing any management at all, this growth rate would be much quicker, thus getting unmanageable.”

Wild Horse Fertility Population Control Methods

Because of the nature of a wild horse, the majority of any vaccination protocol is done much differently than your standard domestic horse’s health care. Fertility control is handled mostly in one of two different ways: darting or catch and release. The BLM explains that each method is chosen based on a local level, because no two herds are alike.

“Whether a herd can be darted depends on different factors,” explains Lutterman. “Some main factors being if there are enough trained volunteers or BLM staff available to do the darting, or if you can actually get close enough to the horses or burros to dart them.”

Lutterman says that the herds that are close to major populations, such as in Reno, Nev., are already used to seeing people, so volunteers can get a little close to dart them. More remote herds can be harder to find, attract and dart, so they must plan for catch and release.

Once a herd is gathered, the horses are herded into corrals, much like cattle on a ranch, where they are given their immunocontraceptive vaccination and marked with a freeze brand that states the year the horse was vaccinated and the type of vaccine. This way the BLM can follow up with the correct booster at the correct time.

The BLM has mainly been using one of two different fertility control methods: immunocontraceptive vaccination or implant. The choice as to which method is used on which mares follows a line of factors, including what has been the current method of treatment.

◆ Oocyte Growth Factor (OGF): An immunocontraceptive vaccine; the BLM is seeking a one-dose vaccine that can cause long-term infertility for multiple years.

◆ Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP): An immunocontraceptive vaccine that requires a booster 4-6 weeks after the initial inoculation and annual booster thereafter to maintain infertility.

◆ GonaCon: Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antigen vaccine called GonaCon-Equine. It is injected first with a primer vaccination, then followed up with a booster 30 days after the primer. This particular vaccine can cause four to six years of infertility; however, research is very limited on this treatment.

◆ Intrauterine Device (IUD): Much like a human intrauterine device, the IUD that the BLM uses is a Y-shaped, silicone insert, but it’s specially designed for horses. An advantage to its use is that it provides effective contraception, so long as the IUD stays in the uterus. So far, it appears that it can work for several years. A disadvantage is that IUDs can interfere with an ongoing pregnancy, so they can only be used in non-pregnant mares. According to the BLM, more than 65 percent of wild mares are typically pregnant on any given day—and in some herds, the rate is over 90 percent—so the sheer number of mares that would be candidates for an IUD is a limitation.

The BLM works in partnerships with universities and the United States Geological Survey for research and development projects. The BLM has issued solicitations for research projects — including fertility control treatment — for the wild horses and burros in the past (most recently in 2021). Project proponents may submit unsolicited research proposals to BLM at any time, which are reviewed by a panel and recommended for approval based on funding and agency priorities.

Pros and Cons

The use of different immunocontraceptive vaccinations are controversial. As of press time, Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC), says her group has given 5,185 PZP treatments to wild horses in the past three years.

“We use the PZP vaccine because it creates an immune response in mares that prevents fertilization, but it doesn’t mess with their hormonal balance,” she says. “The reason we advocate for it is because it’s reversible and it maintains the natural reproductive hormones that drive wild horse behavior.

“Think of it this way: With domestic horses, we geld the stallions because we want to impact that behavior, right?” Roy continues. “But in the wild, we want the horses to maintain as much of that natural behavior as possible.”

Both Lutterman and Roy say that the fertility control treatments have not shown to have any effect on the natural state of the herd or in the livelihood of the treated mare.

“The mares are still cycling,” says Roy. “So there is no change in their behavior, and there’s always some change every breeding season, but nothing like the mares being mistreated or shunned.”

However, Roy states that in one study that was done on a very small population on an island, it was found that treated mares had less fidelity to their bands, so they would leave and join other bands.

“But here’s the thing: Is that because of the vaccine? Or the absence of the foal?” she asks. “Because as most moms know, if you don’t have a baby, you have more flexibility. It was one small study, but we’re seeing so many horses, and we know these bands, and we don’t see anything out of the ordinary in terms of their behavior.”

Ultimately, population growth or decline results from birth rates, survival rates, and movements in and out of a population. Wild horses are the descendants of domestic horses, and they have remarkably high birth rates for an herbivore of their size.

A recent study out of Oregon by Grant and colleagues showed a remarkably high pregnancy rate, even among 2-year-old female wild horses, with some herds shown to have over 90 percent pregnancy rates. Survival rates also tend to be extremely high; it is not uncommon for wild mares to live into their 20s.

“One of the ironic effects of fertility control is that it tends to increase mare longevity,” says Lutterman. “So even in places where nearly every mare has been treated, it does not lead to as rapid of population size declines as one might expect, which is why the BLM must still gather and remove excess horses to reduce overpopulation.”

The Adoption Option for Wild Horse Population Control

As part of the population control, the BLM conducts gathers where wild horses are herded together and taken to an off-range facility. There, each horse is freeze-branded with an identifying brand, given regular vaccinations (much like domestic horses are), checked by a veterinarian, and prepared for a transition to the domestic life.

“We try to find homes for every animal that we bring off the range, but unfortunately that’s not always the case,” says Lutterman. “Those horses are transferred to off-range pastures, which are large pasture facilities where the horses are turned out and cared for.”

These off-range pastures are mostly located in the Midwest and Upper Great Plains (Oklahoma, Kansas, et cetera), where the land is generally more productive and horses can graze the grassland. The BLM has a subset of these types of facilities, called Public Off-Range Pastures, with a dual mission of providing long-term care for the animals while also being open to the public to show how the wild horses live on the pastures as an educational component.

What’s Ahead

The management of the wild horse herds may always be a controversial topic between animal welfare groups and the U.S. government. It’s important to note that both parties understand the importance of the animal, but also the fragility of the environment, the importance of history, and the welfare of the horse.

“It’s important to manage appropriately, because there may be too much control,” says Roy. “It depends on the population. In a population where you’re trying to stabilize the growth, one thing you do is let every mare contribute to the gene pool before treating them. Some programs will dart young horses for two years to keep them from foaling for their health, then let them foal, and then start treating them again. Then each horse has the ability to contribute to the gene pool.”

This article about population control of wild horses appeared in the May 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Run by the Mustang Heritage Foundation, the “makeover challenge,” as it’s known by many, launched in 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas. Since then, more than 16,000 Mustangs have been trained, adopted, and auctioned off to individuals across the country.

In 2019, Courtney Jo Wexler, a 28-year-old horse trainer and North Carolina native, won the Extreme Mustang Makeover in Lexington, Ky., and found a whole new life in the process.

Also Read: Norco Extreme Mustang Trail Challenge Raises the Bar

Ready for a New Challenge

Wexler has been on the back of a horse since she was 3 years old. A certified riding instructor through the American Riding Instructors Association, she’s also been training horses for the last 15 years and has done numerous equestrian disciplines.

For the past five years, she has managed a small barn in Williamston, a town near Raleigh, N.C., where she grew up. There, she led a riding lesson program for kids. Despite the satisfying work, Wexler was burned out and felt lost.

When her best friend, Carey Stewart, first said she was participating in the 2019 EMM and suggested they do it together, Wexler refused. But after careful research, she submitted her application to compete—just one hour before the deadline.

Her assigned mount was one of the youngest horses in the competition. Kayah seemed gentle and easygoing, although territorial. After picking her up, Wexler convinced herself that she wouldn’t get attached to Kayah. She’d compete in the makeover, her Mustang would be auctioned off, and they’d say goodbye.

The next morning, Wexler groomed Kayah’s mane and described how they would compete in the makeover in June. As she told Kayah about the auction at the end of the event, Kayah exhaled deeply and nuzzled Wexler. She started to cry.

100 Days of Training

“Some trainers felt comfortable enough to put first rides on their Mustangs early,” says Wexler. “I wanted to develop a deeper connection and understanding between Kayah and myself before I got on her back.”

On the fourth day, Kayah got a bath. As Wexler washed the mud from her body, Kayah nickered toward her and nuzzled her nose into Wexler’s neck. Wexler helped relax Kayah’s muscles using pulsed electromagnetic field therapy.

Ten days into training, a saddle was placed on Kayah for her first ride. A week later, on Kayah’s fourth ride, the pair participated in their first horse show, put on by the Inter-County Saddle Club in Edenton, N.C. When they were named champions of the ranch division, Wexler thought they might have something special.

“At this point, I became dead set on putting everything I had into this horse,” Wexler recalls. “For the next three months, Kayah and I participated in every event I could find. We were together every weekend for horse shows, trail rides, or clinics.”

She and Jesse Chase, an accomplished reining trainer who has worked with Mustangs before, helped them fine-tune Kayah’s circles, spins and steering.

“As Kayah became more gentled, I let kids touch her at training camps,” says Wexler. “We also visited barns to discuss the Mustang breed and the makeover challenge with the public.”

Competing in the Makeover

After hundreds of hours of training, Wexler, Stewart, and 33 out of the original 70 trainers arrived in Lexington, Ky., for the EMM. After two days of competing, Wexler had won 9th in ground handling and conditioning, 2nd in maneuvers, and 1st in trail.

She had the most points of any competitor in their first Mustang event, so she also won Rookie of the Year. Stewart placed 12th and joined Wexler’s friends in the stands to watch the freestyle routines.

When Wexler made it to the top 10, she realized that she hadn’t prepared a freestyle performance. She had no props, song or outfit. Competitors rushed in to help. One of the volunteers was named Justin. He had come to watch the competition with his father, who owned and trained Mustangs.

“Justin and his dad were so kind,” says Wexler. “Justin held himself so well and that drew me in. He also had one of the best smiles, and every time he looked at me, it caught my breath.”

Impromptu Freestyle

Wexler choreographed her freestyle routine only two hours before the performance. Her routine had none of the tricks that other riders had built into their routines.

To start the routine, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” blared through the speakers.
Wexler and Kayah, who was wearing a large tarp, walked toward the center of the arena. Wexler stripped off the tarp and mounted Kayah as the crowd cheered. Kayah traversed a bridge and then sidepassed poles.

Wexler used a pole to pick up another tarp and dragged it behind Kayah. Then the pair maneuvered around a 3-foot inflatable ball, followed by a 5-foot ball, which Kayah then pushed around with her nose. They trotted over a final jump and sprinted to the center as the song ended. It was enough to secure the win.

But Kayah was scheduled to be the first horse auctioned off.

“Not even five minutes after I had won the makeover, I was holding a paddle in the air and bidding on Kayah,” says Wexler, who used the $4,000 she’d won as the makeover champion to buy her horse back.

Finding Two Loves

A few weeks later, she and Justin began dating. In 2020, Wexler moved to central North Carolina to be closer to her family before moving to Louisiana to live with Justin.

She completed her bachelor’s in business administration—the first in her family to earn a college degree—and now runs her business, Absolute Pulse Therapy, which offers PEMF to speed recovery in injured horses and people.

Kayah and Wexler have been giving lessons and offering demos to promote the American Mustang, which Wexler calls “America’s horse.”

“Competing in the Makeover Challenge was my destiny,” says Wexler. “I was supposed to take part in it. I was supposed to find Kayah. To meet Justin. The real star in this story is Kayah, though. I wish she could tell everyone her side of the story.”

This article about one Extreme Mustang Makeover trainer’s experience originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Adoptable Horse: Monterey, a 14hh 16-year-old mustang mare
Organization: Colorado Horse Rescue, Longmont, CO

Get to Know Monterey

This week’s Adoptable Horse, Monterey, is truly something special. This gorgeous girl excels at liberty and loves to play with people on the ground. She is a born-in-captivity mustang and is currently a companion horse who has not been started under saddle. Monterey is becoming more friendly and engaging every day as she waits to find her new home. This very smart and willing mare will make someone a wonderful partner on the ground.

Could Monterey be your Right Horse? Click here for more information about Monterey, the Right Horse Adoptable Horse of the Week.

My Right Horse

My Right Horse is the online adoption platform of The Right Horse Initiative, a collection of equine industry and welfare professionals and advocates working together to improve the lives of horses in transition. A program of the ASPCA, their goal is to massively increase horse adoption in the United States. To find more adoptable horses and foster horses, visit www.myrighthorse.org. To learn more about The Right Horse, a program of the ASPCA, visit www.therighthorse.org.

The post ASPCA’s Right Horse Adoptable Horse: Monterey appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

On October 1, 2017, Amélie Bellefille was standing in front of the stage at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nev., when the largest mass shooting in American history occurred. Fifty-nine people were killed and more than 500 wounded. Luckily, she is a survivor of the Las Vegas shooting.

“I was under fire the whole time of the shooting, witnessing what I call a door opened to hell,” says Bellefille. “Unlike my friends, I froze the whole time.”

She thought she would die that night. Scores of people around her—just a few inches away—were seriously wounded, some fatally. Bellefille escaped the horror physically, except for bruises from panicked concertgoers trampling over her as they fled. Although her body was relatively unscathed, Bellefille was mentally devastated.

Volunteer therapists who work with military veterans offered counseling to the survivors of the Las Vegas shooting, and Bellefille began intense, full-time therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. She is still in therapy today but is now navigating a healing path with the help of a gentle Mustang who selected her from across an adoption facility corral fence.

Horses and Healing

“During the therapy, I was not inclined to talk to anyone,” says Bellefille. “My trust in humans was ruined. How could someone do this to innocents?”

However, one of the therapists, Johnny Urrutia, a cowboy from Idaho who is an Eagala-certified equine therapist (a therapist trained to use horses for psychotherapy), guided Bellefille to share her feelings with a special mare.

“We had to go away with the horse and talk to it,” says Bellefille. “Say whatever was on our heart. I had this big gray mare, Eva. She was kind and sweet, like a tall angel. I started shaking, and tears poured out of my eyes. I told her everything that happened and how I felt: guilt, anger, fear, pain, disappointment in people. Johnny immediately saw that I opened up at this moment.”

Confiding in a horse came naturally to Bellefille, as horses figure prominently in her culture and personal history. She grew up in the Loire Valley of France, home to castles, vineyards, Renaissance gardens and Cadre Noir de Saumur, the traditional riding school of France.

As a child, Bellefille started riding ponies and grew as an equestrian under the instruction of a four-star endurance trainer as well as classical instruction from a Saumur Cadre Noir trainer who has remained a close friend.

She bought her first horse—an “opinionated” black off-track mare—followed by an Arabian/Boulonnais cross, a breeding combination favored by the French cavalry. When Bellefille left France to study at the University of California, Los Angeles, her black mare was retired to green pastures at her mother’s home, and Bellefille’s second horse was sold to a dressage riding school. Saying goodbye to her horses broke her heart, but she didn’t have the necessary funds to ship a horse (or two) to Los Angeles.

Mustang Motivation

During her second therapy session, Johnny suggested that owning a horse again could be a good thing—a reason to keep moving and build trust. Bellefille took his words to heart. An intriguing horse from the therapy program had captured her interest.

“In the barn, there was a chestnut mare with a weird freeze brand on her neck,” she says. “She was a Mustang. I had no idea we could adopt these horses. In Europe, Mustangs are wild animals. Legends. The unreachable horses. The ones that cannot be gentled.”

So she began researching Mustangs. In April 2018, a special Mustang became Bellefille’s “guardian angel and savior.” She would eventually name the mare Kara after one of the Valkyries, a female creature from Norse mythology who would walk over battlefields and determine who would live and who would die.

“I figured this name fits her well,” says Bellefille. “After my traumatic experience, I was given the gift to have a second chance in life.”

She says that she didn’t pick Kara, Kara picked her.

“She was untouched in a pipe corral at a Mustang TIP [Trainer Incentive Program] training center, waiting for her turn to be gentled.”

According to Kara’s records, the mare was born in a facility after the Calico roundup in Fallon, Nev., and moved around from facility to facility until she was 7 years old.

Approach and Retreat

When Bellefille arrived at Wild Horse Ranch Los Angeles, run by Mustang TIP trainer Kate LaCroix, a little bay mare quietly stared at her as soon as she got out of her car. The horse had never had human contact except from the tight chute where she received medical care and hoof trims.

“That’s the one I was thinking about for you; I named her Noël,” LaCroix told Bellefille.

LaCroix showed Bellefille how to approach a wild Mustang with the approach-and-retreat method.

“I went in the corral and the mare was in a corner,” says Bellefille. “I made her move a bit and started to get closer and closer. Kate told me to try to give her hay from my hand, avoiding eye contact and turning my body slightly so I didn’t threaten her. Little by little, the mare came and grabbed a few pieces of hay from my hand. It was magical.”

Next, LaCroix moved Noël to the round pen to see how she would react in a larger environment. She asked her to trot and canter so Bellefille could see her move.

“She then asked me if I wanted to give her the carrots I brought,” says Bellefille. “After a few tries, the mare settled and stopped running away from me. Without looking at her, I placed a carrot in my hand and waited. A couple seconds later, she took a step toward me, elongated her neck from far away, grabbed a piece of the carrot and ran away. It was magical.

She trusted me a bit. I tried again minutes later. This time, the mare took two steps toward me, grabbed the carrot and stayed while eating it, looking at me. I broke into tears.”

LaCroix cried, too.

“Little by little, I touched her nose,” Bellefille says. “The mare stayed close for a while, and I went away, taking a break from all these emotions. While I was walking away, she watched me the whole time. I think she knew. We both knew. I was a broken mess at the time. I didn’t trust anyone. I went through a difficult traumatic event. That’s what led me to get a horse. In this case, that’s what led me to get this Mustang. I knew at that moment she was the one. She picked me.”

This survivor of the Las Vegas shooting credits her horse as the reason she is alive today.

“She didn’t have much trust in people and neither did I,” says Bellefille. “So we both bonded as a team immediately and worked together in trusting each other. It was hard. It was not as easy as a domestic horse. Any mistake from me, and she was throwing it in my face right away. A small tension. A small insecurity. A fear. Nervousness. Depression. She would let me know in a fraction of a second. She reads right through me and sees people for what we are. [Horses] feel the energies more than us. They are aware of every little thing around them. That is how they survive in the wild.”

A Head for Business

In addition to finding light in her relationship with Kara, Bellefille launched her own equestrian-related small business, My Horse’s Closet (www.myhorsescloset.com), in the fall of 2018 as an outlet to express her artistic side and fill her own need for unique, yet affordable, riding accessories. Glittery saddle pads, brightcolored stirrup irons with inlaid crystals, and boots for the horse are some of the products from Bellefille’s side hustle.

She hopes to one day merge her creative passion and horse love into full-time work.

In the meantime, Bellefille is content to strengthen her relationship with Kara and bring fashionable equestrian products to market during the off hours from her design job at a luxury jewelry brand.

Bellefille is looking to the future and believes Kara is going to love trail riding and be wonderful at dressage. However, she remains open to learning more and doing what her mare likes. Another future plan Bellefille possesses, which Kara will undoubtedly approve of: adopting a second Mustang.

“My Mustang really changed my life,” she says. “Kara has taught me so much about
myself. She knows exactly what is going on inside me that I am not even aware of. She has forced me to be real and heal myself.”

This article about a Las Vegas shooting survivor appeared in the June 2020 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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The scrawny foal huddled miserably in the corner of the straw-filled pen, and I moved as slowly as I could so as not to scare her more. My heart sank as I took in her protruding ribs and scraggly coat. The Mustang foal was only seven days old and had been orphaned for two of them, and she was wild.

The Mustang herd lived in the high mountain desert on thousands of acres of public land, and the foal’s mother was young and inexperienced. A new stallion had stolen the mom away from her band, and she’d been forced to abandon her baby. The filly had wandered helplessly around the desolate area until being captured by some BLM volunteers almost two days later. She was starving and dehydrated, and she’d had to endure a long, solo trailer ride to the farm.

First Things First with the Orphaned Mustang Foal

Foals get their immunity from the mare when they nurse the first milk, called colostrum, so my first order of business was to learn how successful the colostrum transfer had been. If this orphaned Mustang foal had not received enough good colostrum, she would be in grave danger from infection.

The filly shivered unhappily, hating my touch as I took her temperature, slid my stethoscope over her heaving rib cage and gently palpated her joints and umbilicus. Her gums were pale with a network of purple blood vessels. When I pressed a fingertip against them, they confirmed dehydration. She pinned her ears flat as I checked her eyes and mouth, then weakly tried to kick and bite, and the foster owners chuckled.

“There’s definitely life in her, Doc,” said Janice. “She put up quite a fight when we unloaded her, but she was glad to see a bottle! Phil already got her to drink about 6 ounces.

I regarded the angry little foal thoughtfully. Pathetic as she was, there was absolutely a spark there that I didn’t usually see in sick foals, and I dared to hope just a little. Maybe, just maybe, we could save this one, but foals could die so easily.

I drew blood for testing, passed a stomach tube and delivered a little more formula and medicine, then injected a mixture of antibiotics. I counted out tablets and tubes of paste to try to treat the stomach ulcers that I knew were probably there.

Her vitals were fairly normal, and I held my breath as I dripped some blood onto a snap test that would give us a baseline level for the immunity factors. The timer hadn’t even reached the halfway mark before her results blazed bright on the test screen, showing normal levels. Hopefully she’d be able to fight off the battery of bacteria that were surely attacking her little system after her ordeal in the desert.

I ran more tests later that evening, and her complete blood count was totally normal. My hopes soared and confidently I set up the next tests. When the machine spat out the results on a long strip of paper, my gut clenched tightly as I saw two frighteningly high sets of numbers, a combination that was generally predictive of pending massive infection. I’d known this was a likely outcome and most certainly a deadly one, but this just wasn’t fair to the poor foal.

Reason To Hope

But I’d drastically underestimated the scrawny dun filly’s constitution, and she didn’t seem to care that her bloodwork was semi-catastrophic. She proceeded to fight for her life, and fight with a ferocity of will that was humbling in such a tiny specimen.

Over the next week, the orphaned Mustang foal effortlessly defied every grim prediction that I made. She sucked down her bottles with ease, then graduated to a bucket at my recommendation, soon guzzling almost a quart or more at a time.

I saw her every day and injected antibiotics, adjusting and adding every treatment that I could think of. Phil and Janice heroically covered feeding and medication shifts around the clock. My awesome colleague covered a shift too, and provided excellent care.

The filly would terrify us with limp and feverish episodes, then come roaring back to life. Her caregivers finally named her Bellona, a Roman name that means “to fight.”

Bellona got stronger and brighter every day, but she wasn’t gaining weight like she should.

She made endless chewing motions and ground her tiny teeth fretfully, tolerating her medical treatments but moving away from us as soon as she could.

She didn’t need formula. She needed a mother, and it was time to start looking for a nurse mare.

Surrogate Mama

I put some requests out on social media and within 12 hours, a kind woman responded. She had a fancy warmblood mare named Skye who’d just lost her foal, and they were eight hours away. We arranged for Phil to retrieve the mare.

Skye wanted absolutely nothing to do with Bellona, who was frantic, calling and lip smacking and sticking her little yellow head through the temporary safety panels, trying tor each the full udder.

We’d made sure Bellona was good and hungry, and I injected a drug into Skye that would hopefully trick her into thinking that she’d just delivered the little dun filly. It was an anxious 45 minutes, but the orphaned Mustang foal finally nursed. We all teared up watching Skye fall in love with the delighted little filly, nuzzling the shaggy little body and giving her a good cleaning.

Bellona finally sank to the straw in a milk coma, and Skye munched from a nearby hay-bag, hind feet planted carefully so as not to step on her sleeping baby. Skye was on duty now, and we could rest.

The bonding was complete, and Bellona had a mom again. I had to laugh at the sight of the big expensive mare with her feral little baby, but all was bliss with the two. Bellona stopped the endless chewing motions and started gaining weight quickly, living up to her name.

This article about a sick orphaned Mustang foal originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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As I looked out over a golden valley at sunset, filled with over 100 wild horses peacefully grazing together, I wondered if this might be what heaven itself will look like. This wasn’t heaven, but it was close. I was standing in the Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area 90 minutes southwest of Salt Lake City near Dugway, Utah.

This herd management area (HMA) covers over 200,000 acres and is currently home to around 450 wild horses. The Onaqui Mountain wild horse herd has been roaming this land since the late 1800s and is a favorite destination for photographers and horse lovers wanting to witness the beauty and excitement of wild horses.

Because water sources in the area are limited, smaller bands of horses come together to form several large herds with over 100 horses each. The Onaqui HMA is one of the only places where you can see this many horses traveling together and living in relative harmony.

The Onaqui Mountain wild horses are not as shy as most wild horse herds and you can get relatively close to them, which makes for exceptional photography opportunities.

Wild Horse Etiquette You can enjoy time with the Onaqui Mountain Wild Horses—living legends and symbols of our western heritage firsthand on our public lands. Think of yourself as a special guest of these horses and burros, and do your part not to intrude on them or their habitat by being mindful of these guidelines. ◆ When making plans to visit a herd management area (HMA), check with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field office for rules, maps and information on where herds have been seen recently. ◆ Stay at least 100 feet from any wild horse. ◆ Don’t harass the horses or alter their behaviors by, for example, chasing them to make them run or clucking to get their heads up for a photo. ◆ Never feed or try to pet the horses. ◆ Stay on designated roads and trails. ◆ Turn off your vehicle when you stop to watch the horses. Engines can spark grassland fire and emissions can be harmful to the horses. ◆ Practice waterhole etiquette. Sometimes wild horses and burros have only one chance a day to drink, and you don’t want to interfere with that. ◆ Horses and burros always have the right of way. If they come close to you, move away. ◆ Young horses and burros can be very curious. No matter how cute, don’t encourage them to approach you. If they begin to come near you, walk away and don’t engage with them. ◆ Photographers: Never leave tripods, chairs, or other equipment unattended. Foals can easily get tangled up in them. ◆ Keep dogs leashed. Better yet, don’t bring them. ◆ Please don’t fly drones on HMAs, like the Onaqui Mountain wild horse area. They can frighten the horses and cause them to stampede, perhaps causing foals to get trampled. ◆ Leave no trace of yourself. Carry out any food, papers, and other trash. — Adapted from American Wild

In addition to drinking, there was also plenty of drama with stallion battles and posturing. A brief storm rolled in just before sunset, making for a dramatic backdrop for photographing the herd. The rest of the afternoon was spent observing and photographing the beauty of these animals, along with herd dynamics, both tender and comical. Photos by Shelley Paulson

This article about the Onaqui Mountain Wild Horses originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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