Travels in July

Images: Farm Call with the Andalusians and Wild Horses drink at a water source in the Steens Mtn Wilderness area.

This time of year is always busy. Either photographing a show, a farm call, off doing freelance work or chained to the computer dealing with all the images that I created. Sometimes, I barely have time to look at them for weeks as I am off creating more while the sun shines.

Just before Dressage at Devonwood I took the opportunity to drive down to show Sharon Fibelkorn the wild horse herds and all that is SE Oregon. One of my most favorite areas, so any excuse to head in that direction and I am there!
And find the herds, we did. Maybe I have given Sharon just a wee bit of "the bug". The more I visit the various wild horse bands, the more I want to delve in a bit deeper into what they are about.
I am attracted by the wildness, the true nature of what the horse was meant to be, but I have also found that with some degree of "horse sense" one can relate to them as what they are... just horses. I was able to play with them a bit, from a respectful distance, of course. And spend time witnessing some of the herd dynamics. Sparring as "practice herd stallions", see the lead mare decide when its time to move off, notice how many of the stallions of various bands always seemed to be reluctant to move on, lingering a bit in the back, eating, watching us, watching the herd head off into the distance and finally seemingly reluctantly, they follow after them.
Some of the youngsters would whinny a greeting, others, depending on how antsy the herd was, remaining within the safety of the band circled tight and staring at us with big eyes.
We hope to head back down right after the ODS Championship show, looking for some harder to find herds. Its nice to find them where I know to look, but the "hunt" is just as intriguing. There are some serious threats to America's wild horses. Its a complicated issue and I continue to read and research this issue. The herds of Nevada are slated to be zeroed out. That means all removed, all gone. Why would this be? Do some googling on wild horses and BLM lands in the west and join me in researching this issue. There are things in the works that may or may not stand the light of day. History tells me its the latter.

Prior to heading down to the wild horses, Sharon and I were able to photograph some beautiful Andalusians over in Washington State. Recently gelded, classic in looks with still that bit of stallion macho attitude, they seemed to know just what we wanted and they performed accordingly. I hope to get time to work with some of those images soon!

Back from the Wilds

I am back (albeit reluctantly) from SE Oregon and the wild horse herds. I absolutely love the Steens area and have made sure to revisit the area periodically ever since I "discovered" it when in my twenties.
The aromatic spring sagebrush this trip was intense. Especially when you drive over it. oops... okay, we did A LOT of that but how else are you to get to the wild herds I ask. High desert wild flowers of several varieties everywhere. Just beautiful
The skies were amazing as thunderheads and electrical storms were often all around us on the broad landscape. I took as much advantage of photographing the skies and the landscape as I did the horses. I learned that wild horses are .....where you find them. Sometimes right beside a BLM gravel road, other times way off in the distant horizon or just visible as tiny dots on a rim top. Learning to spot them in a landscape of sagebrush, boulders and juniper trees became a learned art. What doesn't look like it belongs? Was that something that just moved? A swishing tail under that tree? Was it a cow or a horse or an antelope... or a rock or a tree stump or some palomino or light dun colored patch of sand?
A high clearance 4 wheel drive and binocular vision serves us well. Having forgotten binoculars, my 300 mm lens with 1.4 extender helped greatly on questionable identification.
I leave having gained an addiction for the hunt and gathering of images of horses being able to live their true natures.

I will be putting up galleries as I get the time to process the images. Soon I must pack my cameras back up and head for Bend and the Central Oregon Dressage Classic at Brasada Ranch this weekend.

Color in the Steens

As I sit in a motel in Burns with Cyndie Planck waiting for repairs to be done on her vehicle,  I decided to entertain myself by going through some of the images I was able to capture yesterday.  Here are a few of the beautiful colors we found in a herd just a few miles up the road out of Frenchglen before having to ride the tow truck back to Burns. (maybe I'll get time for that story later!)   Looking through my images, I am feeling frustrated knowing that those horses are up there and we are stuck here in Burns until the truck is able to be repaired, so we are going to take our wide angle lenses out for a walking tour of Burns in hopes of finding some old buildings of character to photograph.  So until we return... enjoy the first glimpse of that which we seek.    p.s. the sagebrush is lush and aromatic this time of year.  Awesome!

Next Adventure - Steens Mtns

I will be out of town May 30 - June 7 to the Steens Mtns wilderness area.

The Steens area has long been one of my favorite mystical places. It really gives a good feeling of quiet and wide open spaces and once up in the elevations, panoramic views.
I try to visit there every so many years although it seems to have averaged once each decade.  I love getting out into a sparsely populated area and the Steens fits the bill in spades.   Down in the farthest reaches of SE Oregon, the Steens is only open to motorized vehicles in the summer months.  The mountain range is a fault block.  I can still remember my confusion the first time we drove there, gaining elevation, the map saying we were very close, the road dropping to a primitive dirt and boulders, but yet to see any mountain. Until we got to the top, the highest place that you can drive to in Oregon at 9700'. I got out of the truck, walked over to what was an edge of the world with a mile drop to the Alvord desert below. The suction of vertigo that over came me was tremendous. I had to stop and practically crawl to the edge to look down. Oh my! Amazing! I've read that on a clear day one can see...not forever, but almost as good, five states.  A sunrise is spectacular.  
There still remains vestiges of the old west in the Steens area and a rich history of turn of the nineteenth century ranches. It is open range, primitive and wild. There is a large wildlife refuge down at the northern end towards Burns. An old wooden round barn built by rancher Peter French is a favorite side attraction to be found seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The area is so remote that bands of wild horses thrive along with a variety of birds of prey, antelope, mountain bluebirds and I hear tell Mountain Goats, though I have not seen those personally. Nor have I seen the rattle snakes purported to be in the area and I would like to keep it that way.
Of course I will be taking my cameras and we will be doing our best to find those ponies.

The image above was taken in April 2009 on my way back from the FEI World Cup in Vegas.  A round about tour of Nevada's less traveled highways yielded this small band of wild burros spotted from the road, up near the Oregon border.  They allowed us quite close..to a point.  Once I walked to the side and behind the band, they moved away from us and gave me this image with the dust illuminated by a setting sun.