I have several trips to the Onaqui that I have not yet posted, but finally got these done of a trip we did last week to the Onaqui. We found both the North and the South herds. I hope to get the other trips done and posted soon.
Sorry for all of the photo’s. It was a very nice trip with a lot of “keepers”.
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.
As usual, the Onaqui herd never disappoints. We located several family bands just below Davis Mountain. The antelope (pronghorns) must be migrating back from their winter range because we saw a couple of herds that had nearly 50 antelope in them. Then we set out to find the rest of the “North” herd. We found them herd several miles North of Davis Mountain at the top of the foothills. We have seen the herd in this area once before. We named the valley “Dead Eagle Valley” for a dead eagle that we found there last spring. As some of the bands came into the valley we were able to position ourselves above them, and Simpson Buttes and the valley East of there is in the background. What a view! Several photographs in this post are panorama’s where I shoot 12-15 separate overlapping photographs in portrait mode and then stitch them together to form a panorama in Lightroom. Then we were able to hike to the opposite side of the valley and had the snow-covered Onaqui Mountains in the background! Wish we had lawn chairs with us, we could have spent the entire day there! We photographed them for several hours in that valley and then proceeded South and West to find the former Cremello band. We found them again near the main watering hole South and West of Simpson Springs. It looks like the black mustang has taken over the band once Ghost and the Cremello were captured, neutered and sold at auction by the BLM. No sign of the colt with one blue and one brown eye, but his mother and her two younger foals were there. I fear he was rounded up with Ghost and the Cremello. A sad thought to have as we left the herd and headed home…
Wow! What a trip we had in late July to the Onaqui herd of wild horses in Utah’s West Desert. The herd was using the Simpson Springs watering hold on the Pony Express route. They had already left the water when we found them. After spending a couple of hours photographing them we left to find another herd to photograph at sunset. We did find the other herd, but they were nearly a mile form the road and we were quickly running out of light. There was a storm brewing, so we decided to “focus” (pun intended) on photographing the storm and hopefully some lightning. We were not disappointed! The lighting was once again remarkable. The panoramic photograph of the sunset was made by stitching 14 photographs into one. The panoramic photograph spanned over 180 degrees. The lightning was another rare opportunity. No rain and lots of lightning. What a fantastic trip…
We had a GREAT visit to the herd in July. It was so hot the herd didn’t graze much. Spent most of the day at the watering hole. That gave us some unusual opportunities to photograph them. Lots of fights (some real and some just “jousting”). It allowed us to have a lot of horses in the background that sometimes helps simplify any distractions.
There was a fierce fight near/in the watering hole. The brown stallion was fighting with the gray all day long. Both stallions were on their hind legs just seconds earlier. Then the brown stallion decided to run to get away from the gray. They were on the edge of the watering hole surrounded by other wild horses so that meant they ran through the water. Great opportunity that I was glad I was able to witness and get a few photographs of…
So many photographs to process but here are a few of what I have processed thus far…
Another great trip to Utah’s West desert to photograph this wonderful herd of wild horses. I worry every trip out that the herd has been rounded up. With so many foals this year they are really multiplying quickly. I have herd rumors that the BLM will be using PZP on this herd rather than rounding them up and taking them off to holding pens.
I am no expert on any of this, but PZP seems like a better alternative than simply rounding them up and shipping them to massive holding pens for the rest of their lives (or until they are slaughtered).
The main watering trough that this herd uses regularly was dry! I did find them nearby, but they were moving to an area that I have never seen them in throughout the 7 years I have been photographing them. I hope to get back to them in a few weeks to see what has happened. I will keep you posted.
Here are more color photography from our trip to the West Desert in late May. The herd looked great, a lot of new foals.
In this post of my wild horse photography you will see a series of photographs I shot a few weeks ago in Utah’s west desert. In this series a roan stallion spots a black stallion that is “courting” his mare. The chase is on. When the roan finally catches the black stallion he almost takes the black stallion to the ground. Then the black stallion gets his moment when he is able to pull off a solid kick to the throat of the roan. This herd of wild horses along the old Pony Express trail near Dugway, Utah is such a treasure. My biggest concern is how quickly they are growing in number. I don’t believe the BLM has had a roundup of this herd for several years. There must be near twenty new foals from this year! I hope they can find an alternative to rounding up many of the herd and carting them off to huge pens in the mid-west. I have seen the effects on those left behind and it is not a pretty thing. Stallions that lost their mares and family band are never the same. The BLM is certainly facing a difficult management task and I hope reasonable compromises can be found.
Herd of sheep grazing on BLM range in Utah’s west desert.
This is a photograph I took of a herd of sheep in April 2017. The Onaqui herd of wild horses are frequently seen in this spot and in the hills just above the sheep. I still did not capture all of the sheep that were in this valley. Two huge white sheepdogs were at my car door and I was unable to get out of the car to photograph all of the sheep. By comparison, I would guess the total number of horses in the Onaqui Herd Management Area (HMA) is less than 180 right now.
If you click on the photograph it will take you to a larger panoramic video to get a better appreciation of how many sheep are in the photograph.
Every time to get out to photograph this herd of wild horses I am inspired by them. I wish I had the time to photograph these magnificent creatures every day.
On this trip it was as cold as I have seen it in Utah’s West Desert. It was 13 degrees just after sunset. The lighting was amazing! We were lucky enough to spot the herd (it was HUGE) many miles from the main road. The lighting was good when we got there but became better and better the later it got. Another amazing opportunity to spend time with them….
