Answering the Call of the Mustang
An observer documenting mustangs in the wild, advocating for those still wild, and those taken from their wild homes.
What began as curiosity and a simple joy of being near something wild and untouched has become a passion without end.... the first days of photographing mustangs were innocent and easy as I was unaware of the political controversy surrounding them, and in the first years I told myself roundups were not as brutal as reported by some, that the government was of course doing its due diligence in its treatment of mustangs, and that everything else was an exaggeration. But I am that girl... I ask questions, I listen to my gut, I do my own research, and as I observed the wild ones in their wild lands, and roundups in WY starting in 2014, the pieces of the puzzle did not fit together the way some had told me they should.
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And one particular stallion made me stop and examine these things more than any others... Romeo made me examine everything, he required of me to learn and love his mares as much as I loved him. He required of me to understand the places he lived, and to know other wild horses in other places, that I may speak for them when the time came.
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It was at the 2018 roundup and removal of wild mustangs from Green Mountain HMA that changed all of it for me... I watched band after family band be run in by helicopters in 90+ degree weather, the horses hot, lathered, and exhausted. And then that moment - the moment the world stopped moving. A young foal so exhausted it could not keep up with its family band, barely walking as it trailed in behind its family, its mother torn between running from the helicopter and protecting her baby - that day changed everything I thought I knew, that day I became an unapologetic advocate for the wild mustangs who do not have nearly enough voices of reason speaking for them! Mustangs that have been betrayed by man time after time, mustangs that are willing to bond with man even after all of these things, mustangs need their own voice, and although I cannot tell you their most intimate thoughts or feelings, I can share with you what they allow me to witness in their presence, in their wild places, where the wild winds whisper secrets in the sacred places of mustang land.
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