Hold your Horses!!

Hold your Horses!!

By Maggie Gray

Here I go again! I get these urges to “hit the road”, pack up the pups and off we go! I am a wildlife photographer and not that I mind photographing squirrels and birds, there JUST comes a time when my Nikon brain needs a little more.

There are thousands of wild horses around the US with herds still running wild. Unfortunately, the BLM (“Bureau of Land Management”) has been chasing down these wild Mustangs by helicopter and rounding them up. The result? Some are adopted, some are run down so hard they die, and some are shipped off to auction. Unfortunately, horse auctions are not for the faint of heart. I wrote an article years ago for a horse sanctuary in Arizona, who had reached out to me through word of mouth. I couldn’t understand horse slaughter unless I attended the auctions. I had never realized that horse meat was consumed in Europe. I had never heard of “meat buyers”. I had never seen a magnificent Arabian Stallion, once fetching thousands of dollars, now sold for $50.00 because of its body weight. I had never seen older horses, some racers, some feral, pushed into a weight room so that the European Meat Buyers could purchase them by the pound.

Luckily my article received huge reviews and attention for the Wild Horse Rescue Ranch in Arizona. The article was picked up by local news channels and a national equine magazine ran with it as well. The Ranch raised thousands. Through news coverage from my story, they rescued a few from slaughter, but I, the reporter, was haunted for years by the eyes of the horses being electrically prodded into chutes for transport to slaughterhouses. The auction house knew the owner of the Ranch and twice we were escorted out by big burly guys watching our every move. I had ventured into an ugly underworld often hidden from the public eye.

What never left me was that I had now become a witness to the sheer terror in the eyes of horses unsure of their impending doom.

Remembering my journey for the rescue ranch, I decided my next road trip must take on meaning for me. I have always donated artwork to charities and non-profits to raise money and awareness for their cause. I hadn’t photographed horses in years and felt myself drawn to an area in North Carolina where horses, descendants of Wild Spanish Mustangs, ran free.

Luckily, Corolla, North Carolina’s 4WD beach draws crowds not only for those who visit the Mustangs every year, but those who can only access this Carova beach area with 4WD ability.

For two weeks I stayed out on the 4WD beach area in a home embedded within the rugged sand dunes. I rode out Tropical Storm Ophelia when it shut down the area and all passable roads (sand dunes worn down to create a road) were buried in standing water from the storm.

No matter what day, you would have horses out on the beachfront, or walking along through the dunes headed back into the massive preserve. The Corolla Wild Horse Fund has been a massive influence in keeping these “critically” endangered Mustangs in that area. They are highly endangered through encroachment by man’s over-reach through tourism and over-building. There is conjecture that the day is coming these Mustangs will be removed from this massive preserve to keep them alive. They used to roam free all over the Corolla area but deaths by vehicle traffic and worse forced the decision to keep them in an area north of Corolla to keep them safe. Yet a couple years ago, a mare was killed in the 4WD beach area - a huge loss as she was a young breeding mare with a recent foal. 15MPH drive speeds and yet she was hit and killed. The stories are endless.

I wrote a book, “Wild and Free, the Magic of the Banker Mustangs” and was astonished that by this past Christmas, I had sold over 100 copies just through Facebook contacts in a group that loves the Mustangs. I plan to offer a soft cover version of the book for sale in our local Floral Shop so my loyal readers can share my adventure out there on that beach with the Mustangs.

I could go on and on here with my adventure, but I am true to my heart, that images can often tell the story better than my words. I also donated 10 percent of each book sale to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund for their future efforts to preserve these extraordinary Mustangs. If any of my readers purchase a book at the Florist Shop, I will continue to donate monies to the Wild Horse Fund until I run out of books. All for the love of these Mustangs and their survival. Once you’ve seen a wild Mustang running free against the ocean surf, you are never the same again.

I will leave you with this. I love wildlife. I love conservation. I love the idea that we are protecting our resources for our children. I love leaving no footprint when I travel to take photos. I love that I can tell their story to you and you are now part of their story as my reader.

“The greatest threat to our Planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” Robert Swan

Contact Maggie Gray to purchase book or for comments: maggie@grayheart.com