On a beautiful early fall morning, I was driving around Little Washoe Lake in Nevada and suddenly horses started emerging out of the bushes surrounding the lake. It was a magnificent group of bachelor stallions hanging out together and spending the morning drinking in the lake, grazing to their hearts content on the lush landscape, and doing a bit of good-natured sparring.
After about an hour of grazing, they all stopped eating, came back together in a group, and suddenly galloped off full force down to the lake to take a nap. It was a spectacular sight to see them suddenly gallop off together. Below is a series of about 13 photos that I turned into a video that shows them taking off together.
And here they are napping in a group on the beach by the lake.
And doing a little good natured sparring…
Such an amazing morning hanging out with these guys!
These amazing wild horses deserve to live free and not be rounded up to be kept in tiny pens, sold for a dollar, or even worse, sold for slaughter in Canada and Mexico. The Nevada horses are not being rounded up now (but were as recently as last year), but the beautiful mustangs in Wyoming are currently being decimated by roundups. To learn more about the plight of the historic American Mustang, and how you can help, the American Wild Horse Campaign is a great place to start: https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/
(All photos taken with Sony A7rII, 400mm lens, and lightly edited in Lightroom.)
Paige O'Neill Photography 