Couldn't Drag Me Away

 

Wild horses are a favorite photo subject. I used to make an annual pilgrimage to Assateague State Park in Maryland to photograph horses like this one I call Kurt Comane. They have shaggy coats to help them contend with the worst of the Midatlantic winters. Wild horses are part of our natural heritage in the United States. May they roam for a thousand more years.

A curious wild stallion approaches a photographer in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. The clever Argentinian photographer made himself very small and non-threatening on the ground. The horse approached almost close enough to touch! 

A pretty horse with a white blaze on its forehead poses for a portrait in Tierra del Fuego. I got to see the herd take an afternoon dip in the bay, but I was too far away to get keeper pics.

A mare bolts away from a young stallion that is pushing his luck. She made two laps around the meadow with her black mane and tail flowing in the wind. Wowza!

The mare was shedding some nervous energy, kicking and bucking as she galloped around the meadow. A wild horse in a wild place. What an experience.

Horses keep watch on a lake in Belize. It was 100 degrees that day. You can see the heat shimmer in the photo.

Assateague State Park is one of my favorite destinations. It offers a mix of beaches and maritime forest. And horses! This pretty red stallion posed for me in the dunes.

I was paying close attention to a website that kept tabs on the pregnant mares in Assateague, hoping I might get some pics of a little foal. And on Earth Day, I made a trip to Maryland just six days after this mare dropped her little one. It's incredible how big they are at birth!

Finding the herd on the large island wasn't easy. But I had a suspicion they might be hanging out in the quiet of the campground, which hadn't opened for the season. And I was right! Can you believe this little baby is just six days old? 

Assateague shares the island with Chincoteague in Virginia. But unlike Virginia's horses, which get rounded up and sold at auction once a year, Assateague's horses remain wild. I never get tired of watching them.

Wild horses forage in the dunes. They subsist largely on salt hay that gives them their barrel chests.

A mare naps in the soft pine needles of a maritime forest.

Wild horses in Maryland grow thick, shaggy coats to help them endure the cold Maryland winters. So fuzzy!