Stay Wild

Being with the magical wild horses of Onaqui Mountain, Utah is one of my favorite and most heartwarming adventures.

As we walked out onto the golden sunset valley, filled with over 100 wild horses peacefully grazing together, I wondered if this is a dream come true. We were standing in the Onaqui Mountain Herd Management Area 90 minutes southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. This herd management area (HMA) covers over 200,000 acres and at the time of our visit, was home to around 500 wild horses. The Onaqui Mountain wild horse herd has been roaming this land since the late 1800s and some of the horses are descendants of those who worked for the Pony Express.  Most of America’s last truly wild horses live on our western public lands. In 1971, Congress unanimously passed the “Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act,” declaring these iconic animals to be “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West” that “enrich the lives of the American people” and are “an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.”  In that Act, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was charged with protecting and managing these wild animals on public lands.

Once you spend time with these majestic beings, their imprint never leaves you. We witnessed that wild horses live in deeply bonded family bands within a complex society of intricate relationships. Until our journey to Utah, we did not realize that wild horses are in danger of being “managed” into extinction. 

Each year, the BLM uses low flying helicopters to brutally stampede, capture, and remove wild horses and burros by the thousands. Wild horses and burros who survive roundups are stockpiled in government holding facilities. Those who can’t be adopted or auctioned off are sentenced to a lifetime of being warehoused in long-term holding facilities. Approximately 80 million taxpayer dollars fund this mismanaged program, annually.

While the scope of this challenge is too vast to articulate in this gallery essay, I feel the need to give them a voice along with my images. I hope you are motivated to learn more. Two resources are the American Wild Horse Campaign and The Cloud Foundation. 

Keep Wild Horses Wild