Category Archives: Uncategorized

Rain in the West Desert

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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

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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 – Nov/Dec

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I have had several visits to the Onaqui but haven’t gotten around to posting. Here are photos from a couple of recent visits. Lighting was very different between trips, horses very hard to find.

Photo Exhibit in Sandy City Hall

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The Mayor of Sandy City was so kind to to a brief walk-through of my photo exhibit that is displayed at Sandy City Hall (3rd floor). It can be seen M-F 8am-5pm (closed holidays), the exhibit will be up through Christmas.

Here is a link to her video. https://fb.watch/gY0pK9EzuM/

I have been out to photograph the Onaqui several times this month, just haven’t had time to post the photos yet, but I am nearly ready. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Onaqui Stallion at Sunset

Prints On Display At Sandy City Hall

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Hello friends and family. I was lucky enough to be selected to display my work on the 3rd floor of Sandy City Hall. It will be up through December. The address is 10000 S Centennial Parkway, Sandy UT.  Hours are M-F 8am-5pm.  For those of you in the area stop by and have a look. Here is what the display looks like… 

Onaqui Wild Horses – Mid September

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We had a short visit to the Onaqui mustangs earlier this week. We didn’t find the North herd till just before sunset in the burn area. Found most of the South herd were South of Simpson Springs.  Great clouds and sunsets!

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!

Pryor Mountain Mustangs July Visit

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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 Herd’s Newest Foal – 1 June 2022

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As you can see by the blood on the mothers legs, this foal is a newborn. Probably delivered the day we photographer them, June 1, or possibly May 29. We didn’t want to get too close, but as we observed the foal it seemed to be exhausted. Thankfully mom was very protective and kept all horses away from her newborn.

Several hours later, we saw the foal with mom ON THE RUN through the thick dust! The foal looked GREAT! It might even have blue eyes! What a beautiful sight!