Pretty much anyone who has ventured to the southern part of the Onaqui HMA either to camp, explore or visit the Onaqui wild horses is familiar with atleast one of these stunning stallions. Jasper, a five year old bay pinto with an eye as blue as the sky, was always easy to spot.  He started out as a darling colt and the apple of his mother Dotty’s eye and has grown into an absolutely magnificent stallion.  Jasper, his sister The Blue Eyed Filly and their mother Dotty were the only three horses to escape during the 2021 roundup as the rest of their large band lead by the Cremello sta ..read more

Life on the range can be so beautiful, but definitely is not always easy. Meet little Serendipity, a tiny new member of the South Onaqui Herd. She was born on the morning of June 21st, 2022 around 7:30am in a field of sage to her first time 3 year old momma Maia who travels in the stunning black stallions known as 300’s band. (The name Maia means mother in Greek and brave or confident in Maori) I showed up with tour guests who were supposed to come out on Monday evening, but missed their flight to Utah so I rescheduled to very early Wednesday morning instead. Thank goodness it did! We drove t ..read more

I haven’t taken the time out to document this year all the things that have transpired personally and through my business and non-profit, but this year behind the scenes has been quite the ride. Wild Horse Photo Safaris and Red Birds Trust 501(c)(3): On the work side of things, I’m incredibly grateful that I took the chance to start over here in Utah and create a niche business called Wild Horse Photo Safaris that’s both incredibly rewarding and hopefully of long term help to the Onaqui wild horses.  I’ve had the pleasure of guiding visitors from 8 different countries and 31 stat ..read more

I think as a wildlife or landscape photographer most of us get asked this all the time.  Clients see the price of an image displayed in an art gallery, or on a website pricelist and may wonder how and why the prices are set.  If it seems “too low” then typically it’s deemed not to be of good quality or value.  If it’s “too high” then various misunderstandings may occur on why so much.  I’m the first to admit I’ve seen my fair share of images that I think are underpriced and also those that, even knowing what I do, seem to be exorbitantly priced to an unreasonable level eve ..read more

With much speculation and anticipation of new images to emerge of the beloved Onaqui Old Man Gandalf, I wanted to put out some documented facts that give details as to his whereabouts and life over the past year.  The good news is that there is zero evidence to prove that he is deceased.  Although folks have explored during the winter, spring and summer months various areas of the range he has not been found.  That includes no evidence of his passing.  The winter of 2020/2021 was extremely mild.  There were very small patches of snow on Davis Mountain which allowed the ..read more

Red Bird trying to get baby Dreamcatcher to play April 25, 2021 For the last few weeks I’ve gotten quite a lot of communication from lovely folks who have made the big commitment to adopt one of our Onaqui wild horses from the 2021 roundup.  For some horses the transition from the range to captivity is remarkably easy and others are struggling which is to be expected. In less than a year they were removed from their home.  Separated from their families.  Placed in numerous trailers and in most cases hauled around the country to a new BLM facility before being loaded again and t ..read more

In Loving Memory of Raja This is one of those stories that I would have never foreseen, and one that has taken longer than most to get to an emotional place where I could tell it without falling apart. It is a tribute to a short, but very special life out on the Onaqui range of a small black mustang affectionately known as Raja. Raja was born late in the fall of 2020 to a beautiful black mare with delicate white facial markings which made her appear as though she had been painted with care. She also sported a pure white pastern on her back right leg, but otherwise she was pitch black like a s ..read more

Dreamcatcher at 1 year old This past year has been on crazy whirlwind of unexpected twists and turns. First trying to garner support to stop the helicopter roundup and removal of over 300 of our beloved wild Onaqui horses which unfortunately still took place in July of 2021. Then switching gears to spending months on end in the BLM corrals in an effort to identify what horses were held in captivity and find adopters willing to offer safe, long-term placement. Several sanctuaries stepped up as well as enough private adopters that all 303 horses were eventually adopted. In the last blog segment ..read more

Red Bird’s band July 2021 before the roundup. Red Bird is laying on the left, Dreamcatcher is laying on the right and Teton is standing directly above Dreamcatcher. The Reunion These last 9 months have been filled with so many emotions it’s simply impossible to start to try to recap them all. Since March 2nd when the roundup of over 400 Onaqui wild horses was announced it’s been all hands on deck trying first to stop the roundup and then trying to find appropriate homes for the 300 mustangs awaiting adoption at our local Delta short term holding facility. Ever since the corrals opened to the p ..read more

Red Bird standing proud looking out over the south range July 5, 2021 For months I tried to chronical stories from the range to tell of the horses that remained, the horses who were removed and the horses who sat in limbo somewhere in between.  Then in September those stories about the aftermath abruptly stopped.  At the time I didn’t see the correlation, but looking back at how things unfolded it’s more clear to me that sometimes in life there simply are no more words to share.  On September 9th I made my first of many long drives to the Delta short term holding facility where ..read more