“I am a very grateful, award-winning photographer who strives to bring a heightened awareness to the plight of our shrinking wilderness through imagery. I am passionately dedicated to my work and have donated several images to various non-profit organizations in an attempt to help preserve what is left of our natural world. With an avid love of horses since childhood, I feel a deep connection to this enchanting subject. Through my photography, I am able to capture the soul of the equine spirit as well as the innocence of children, the beauty of nature, and the magic of our quirky and interesting world.”

Website: Ghost Dance Photography

Some of the horses end up in the Wild Horse Inmate Program, through which inmates at the East Canon Correctional Complex (East Canon, CO) learn the non-coercive methods of horse whisperers to tame and train the horses for adoption. THE WILD HORSE REDEMPTION traces the incredible stories of both the horses and the inmates, masterfully intertwining their parallel fates and their mutual struggle towards rehabilitation. The inmates’ progress with their horses depends upon their ability to cultivate patience, fortitude, and empathy; interestingly, too, it is through the recognition of themselves in these wild animals that they better understand their own lives. The most stirring moments of this film capture the intimacy forged between beast and man in the dramatic space of the training ring, where both undergo extraordinary transformations.

Beautifully shot in the rugged foothills and big skies of southern Colorado, THE WILD HORSE REDEMPTION takes viewers on an intimate and uplifting journey of freedom, discipline, and redemption.

# Directors: John Zaritsky
# Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
# Rating: NR (Not Rated)
# Studio: NEW VIDEO GROUP
# DVD Release Date: November 18, 2008
# Run Time: 91 minutes

“These mustangs, you pressure them too much and they can’t handle it. They are either going to be trying to jump out of the pen or they are going to turn and try and fight, trying to save their life,” says staff trainer Guy McEnulty

Can a wild creature be rehabilitated, and socialized for safe interaction with humans? Can two wild creatures – prisoner and mustang – help each other to a better life?

Website: New Video: Wild Horse Redemption
Website: Point Grey Pictures: The Wild Horse Redemption

The tough ponies of the Pryor Mountains are celebrated in the lore of the Crow Tribe.

“The reason the Crow used them is they could run all day and go for a week without food,” said Elias Goes Ahead, a Crow historian who teaches at Pryor. “The Crow respect these ponies because they were tough.”

Goes Ahead, 49, has been sought out recently for his knowledge of the Pryor mustangs in the controversy over the Bureau of Land Management’s roundup of the herd of about 190 horses. Fifty-seven of those rounded up will be on the auction block today at the BLM’s Britton Springs corrals, just north of Lovell, Wyo. The auction begins at noon.

“I’m surprised there’s a lot of sympathy behind these mustangs,” Goes Ahead said.

The BLM’s roundup is part of a management plan designed to lessen impacts to the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, 38,000 acres set aside for the horses. Recent studies have shown the range’s ecosystem is being harmed by overgrazing. Most of the horses that took up residence off the range, on Custer National Forest land, will be auctioned, including a 21-year-old mare and a 19-year-old stallion.

The BLM has denied horse advocates’ requests to expand the range to include adjacent forest lands to allow more horses to live in the mountains, in part saying that there’s no evidence the horses ever occupied the lands. But according to Goes Ahead, the horses have been in the Pryor Mountains going back before Chief Plenty Coups’ time. He was born in 1848, and the stories were handed down to him, Goes Ahead said.

“Even before the white man was there, the ponies were there,” Goes Ahead said.

Hidatsa records date the arrival of horses in the Northern Plains to around 1728, Goes Ahead said. And it wasn’t long after that the Crow stole horses from the Hidatsa, he added.

“After that, there was a fusion of horses from all over, they began to multiply,” he said.

Goes Ahead recounts a story about a prized gray mustang kept in a Shoshone lodge while the Indians were camped at Bad Pass, near the base of the Pryor Mountains and Bighorn Canyon. A Crow warrior stole the horse and was chased by the horse’s angry owner. In a vision, the Crow warrior had learned that if he sang four songs, the horse would be able to fly. So he sang the songs and rode the mustang off the southern rim of Dryhead Canyon. To the pursuers’ amazement, the gray mustang and its rider sailed across the canyon and landed on the other side. Rock cairns now mark the spot where the horse jumped and landed.

Goes Ahead calls the story one of the tribe’s four most phenomenal and supernatural stories.

“There’s quite a history behind these mustangs,” Goes Ahead said. “These horses are a special breed.”

Most of the Crow Tribe’s horses were slaughtered by the federal government in the 1940s to make room for cattle, Goes Ahead said. That meant the loss of some Pryor mustang bloodlines.

“But they couldn’t take away the stories,” he said.

Link: Billings Gazette: Mustangs big part of Crow lore

In the tug of war between Pryor Mountain wild horse advocates and federal managers, Gus Cothran’s name gets tossed around frequently.

Cothran, a professor at Texas A&M University who specializes in horse genetics, said his views are sometimes distorted to suit the needs of special interests.

“I understand that people are looking for expertise,” he said. “But it would be nice to talk to people in person so things don’t get taken out of context.”

Here are Cothran’s thoughts on the Pryor Mountain wild horse roundup and the resulting reduction of the herd.

Genetics

How many animals does it take to keep a wild horse herd genetically viable?

“One-hundred and twenty breeding animals was kind of the agreed upon number several years ago,” Cothran said.

In the short term, the Pryor mustang herd won’t be hurt by a reduction from 188 animals to around 130, he said. The Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency in charge of the herd, had originally proposed removing about 70 animals. But the roundup ended Wednesday before the agency reached its target. In its new management plan, BLM is proposing a maximum herd of 120 animals, excluding the current year’s foals.

“There’s always a greater risk when you reduce the herd, but you have to balance that with the environmental issues,” Cothran said.

BLM has justified its reduction of the herd based on a study of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range that found the mountain and high desert area in ecological decline from overgrazing. The agency has proposed installation of water guzzlers to spread horses out on the mountain in hopes of easing the pressure on higher meadows, in addition to conducting prescribed burns to remove conifers.

The concern in keeping only 120 horses on the range, Cothran said, is the threat of a potential die-off that could reduce the herd even further, reducing the herd’s genetic diversity.

In the Pryor horses’ favor if such an event should occur, though, is that the horses that have been adopted out could be used to recharge the herd in such a dire situation.

Contraception

The BLM also has experimented with using the contraceptive PZP to reduce the growth of the herd.

Cothran said the contraceptive has been used successfully. But he said there’s a danger in applying the drug to a small population of animals because it can control which genetics are passed on.

On the plus side, Cothran said, delaying reproduction – or what he called extending the genetic interval – is good for a herd. The genetic interval is the time between when an individual animal reproduces and when its offspring breeds. The longer the interval, to a point, the better for slowing the rate of genetic change.

“The roundups aren’t real popular things, either,” he said. “In the long term, PZP may be less disruptive for the horses.”

Wild family tree

The Pryor Mountain wild mustangs have been shown to be descendants of old Spanish breeds, Cothran said. These are the horses first brought to the Americas by the Spanish.

These genes aren’t pure, however. The Pryor horses probably bred with ranch stock and horses from other wild horse ranges were introduced out of concern over inbreeding in the Pryor horses, he said.

“There are a number of different strains of the colonial Spanish horse, each of them are different genetically now because they were isolated from each other,” Cothran said.

He did say, however, that the breed brought over by the Conquistadors to Central America no longer exists.

Despite any direct ties to a specific breed, Cothran said the Pryor mustangs are special horses.

“There are not many herds out there now that have the old colonial Spanish-type horse,” he said.

Because the Pryor herd contains this unusual genetic component, Cothran said they are unique.

“I do agree that we need to try and preserve this herd.”

Changing times

Cothran recognizes that management of the Pryor horses can be controversial, with people on all sides of the issue concerned about the horses but with different ideas on how to best take care of them. The situation is further complicated by variables such as changes in the environment and within BLM’s management.

There is one point maybe all can agree on.

“They are one of the most significant, if not the most significant, wild horse herds in the United States,” Cothran said.

Link: Billings Gazette: Noted geneticist gives his two bits on significance of Pryor Mountain mustangs

Publisher’s Weekly: In this intense, polished account, the Austin, Tex., parents of an autistic boy trek to the Mongolian steppes to consult shamans in a last-ditch effort to alter his unraveling behavior. Author Isaacson (The Healing Land) and his wife, Kristin, a psychology professor, were told that the developmental delays of their young son, Rowan, were caused by autism. Floored, the parents scrambled to find therapy, which was costly and seemed punitive, when Isaacson, an experienced rider and trainer of horses from his youth in England, hoisted Rowan up in the saddle with him and took therapeutic rides on Betsy, the neighbor’s horse. The repetitive rocking and balance stimulation boosted Rowan’s language ability; inspired by the results, as well as encouraged by such experts as Temple Grandin and Isaacson’s own experience working with African shamans, Isaacson hit on the self-described crazy idea of taking Rowan to the original horse people, the Mongolians, and find shamans who could help heal their son. The family went in July, accompanied conveniently by a film crew and van, which five-year-old Rowan often refused to leave, and over several rugged weeks rode up mountains, forded rivers and camped, while enduring strange shamanic ceremonies. Isaacson records heartening improvement in Rowan’s firestormlike tantrums and incontinence, as he taps into an ancient, valuable form of spirit healing.

# Hardcover: 368 pages
# Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (April 14, 2009)
# ISBN-10: 0316008230
# ISBN-13: 978-0316008235

The Horse Boy is part travel adventure, part insight into shamanic tradition and part intimate look at the autistic mind. In telling one family’s extraordinary story, the film gives voice to the thousands who display amazing courage and creativity every day in the battle against the mysterious and heartbreaking epidemic. The film companion to Isaacson’s best-selling book of the same name and a festival favorite, the ravishing documentary odyssey gives insight into how, in life’s darkest moments, a gateway to joy and wonder can be found.

The Horse Boy does more than chronicle Rowan and his parents’ journey across the vast, wild landscape of Mongolia. It delves into the strange world of autism itself, the relationship between humans and animals and between different cultures and different ways of being (autistic vs. normal, or “neuro-typical”), and the nature of healing. Audiences hear the varied theories on autism from the experts in the field, well-known researchers of autism such as Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University; Dr. Temple Grandin, recovered autist and professor of animal behavior at Colorado State University; and anthropologist and researcher Roy Richard Grinker of George Washington University. But above all, The Horse Boy tells the story of a couple that goes to the end of the earth to find a way into their son’s life.

Link: The Horse Boy: Official Movie Website

The Hollywood dream is what moved Kimerlee here from Minnesota in 1992. But she remembers telling her mother at a young age she would live surrounded by horses and mountains. Finally in 2004 a little girl’s dream came true and everything quickly shifted focus. Pounding the hollywood pavement gaveway to the pounding of hooves through Griffith Park mountains with a camera at her side most of the time. Shortly after the arrival of her first horse, she visited a place called Return to Freedom, The American Wild Horse Sanctuary.

With a dedicated passion to helping save America’s Wild Horses, Kimerlee’s hope is to inspire others, not only to appreciate the horse’s natural beauty, but to also take an interest in helping preserve their place on this land… the same land that without them we would never have traveled across.

Kimerlee has been teaching wild horse workshops with a strong focus on waiting and “feeling” the shot. She believes every horse has a story to tell, as well as every human who has ever loved a horse. She is ridiculously passionate about all horses, their beauty, their essence their grace and loves to share her experiences with others. In Los Angeles she has photographed all breeds, all disciplines, celebrities and their horses, famous stallions and ranches and the one common thread that keeps her always wanting and coming bak for more is the absolute love we all share with the horse.

Link: Kimerlee Curyl: Premier EQUINE Photography

Vision Statement
The Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center is a public, not-for-profit 501c3 educational institution whose purpose is to:

* Inform visitors of the historic significance of the local mustang herd and of the other wild horses across the West.

* Provide visitors with an unforgettable aesthetic experience, viewing live mustangs in a magnificent setting.

* Enable visitors to learn about the dynamics of a mustang herd, the social interactions within individual bands, and the mustang’s place alongside other wild species.

* Preserve and promote a genetically viable herd of Colonial Spanish American horses in the Pryor Mountains.

About the Horses

The Pryor Mountain Wild Horses are unique.

Cortez once said “…Next to God, we owed the victory to the horses…” in discussing his conquest of the New World. The Pryor Mountain Wild Horses are the descendents of these important horses. They are truly horses with a heritage.

Early on, locals realized that there was something special about the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses due to their interesting characteristics. It wasn’t long until it was realized that the wild horses looked like Spanish horses. Since then, the herd has been extensively studied; and it has been confirmed that they are descended from Spanish horses. There are three main reasons this confirmation is based on: History, genetics, and phenotype.

The history of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses is not well known. There are accounts of the wild horses being present in the late 1800’s, and many people believe that there were wild horses in the Pryor Mountains in the early to mid-1700’s. At the Center, we believe the herd is descended from Spanish horses brought to the area by different Native American tribes, especially the Crow. Many other share this belief, though some other plausible explanations have also been proposed. Starting in the mid-1990’s, studies were done on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses to determine genetic traits of the herd, such as their level of inbreeding and what type of horse the herd was most genetically related to. From these studies, it was determined that the herd has high genetic diversity, meaning they have low levels of inbreeding. It was also determined that the herd has genetic traits consistent with Spanish horses and that the herd lacks genetic traits that would have originated in draft or thoroughbred ancestors. Around this same time, there were also studies on the phenotype of the herd. That is, these studies were concerned with determining if the wild horses looked like Spanish horses. These studies confirmed that the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses indeed had colors and conformation consistent with Spanish horses.

Because of the above reasons, we and many others believe that the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses really are descendents of Spanish horses. They are a type of horse today known as the Colonial Spanish Horse or the Spanish Mustang, which is considered a rare and endangered breed.

Link: http://www.pryormustangs.org/

The Cloud Foundation, a Colorado non-profit corporation, grew out of Ginger Kathrens’ knowledge and fear for not only Cloud’s herd but other wild horses in the West. “I began to realize that we were losing America’s wild horses,” Ginger says. “They are rounded up by the thousand, losing in an instant what they value most–freedom and family. I realized that even Cloud and his family were in danger.”

“In Cloud’s remote mountain wilderness we have a perfect opportunity to step back and watch nature call the shots. Predators and daunting weather are limiting the herd size—naturally,” she states. “Yet, human over management is jeopardizing their future survival. We could lose Cloud and his herd forever, unless we’re willing to stand up for them now.”

The non-profit Cloud Foundation is dedicated to preventing the extinction of Cloud’s herd through education, media events and programming, and public involvement. The Foundation is also determined to protect other wild horse herds on public lands, especially isolated herds with unique characteristics and historical significance.

Link: The Cloud Foundation