True Wild
The true wild exists at Sand Wash Basin, not far from the Wild Horse Refuge, where the life of the mustangs can be one of gentle summers or months of endless drought. Winter can be cruel.
Foals arrive in the spring. They run in small bands, protected by their elders, aunts, uncles, and not necessarily their dam and sire. Bonds that form in the herd are created by circumstance, opportunity and survival. Lead mare, stallion, bachelors and maidens, the extemporaneous family units.
Sand Wash Basin is vast, 157,000 acres with nearly 500 horses. Yet you are lucky to see them. You might come across a loner. Dirt roads stretch on forever. You ask where so many horses can be. At a watering hole late in the day we were lucky to see one small band. They drank briefly and then disappeared into the hills above.
Stallion battles continue. On our first day we came across Legend, perished from his injuries, perhaps only a week before. His emaciated body lay decaying in the sand, somehow beautiful, still free, returning to the earth. Dust to dust.
We camped out on top of Look Out Mountain at the northern end of the Basin. Not a soul for miles around. Only the hidden presence of the herd.
