Living With Wild Horses - Spring 2009 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Living With Wild Horses

Photographs & Article by Judy Barnes

Bachelor Play – Photograph by Judy Barnes
From the time I was a child I was fascinated with wild horses. I wanted to run with them and feel their freedom. I wanted to feel the wind blowing through my hair, the way it blows through a horse’s mane as their hoofs thunder across the earth. Little did I know I would one day be living with the wild ones that I loved all my life. The horses have changed my life. They have become my teachers and have shared so many experiences with me.

It began five years ago when I started photographing the wild horses of Wild Horse Mesa in Southern Colorado. I would travel from Taos every weekend. In time, the horses came to recognize me and my vehicle. A couple of years later I happened upon a house for sale with 40 acres on top of the mesa and decided to move in amongst them. Having been a city girl all my life, “roughing it” in a house with solar power and trucked-in gas and water has been an experience to say the least.

Paco's Band – Photograph by Judy Barnes

The horses on Wild Horse Mesa behave differently than horses on public lands. Since the horses are on private land, they are never rounded up. The horses know they are welcome and not threatened by humans. In the beginning, when they didn’t run I was surprised. I would join them in their grazing, pull up a patch of dirt and grab a blade of grass and start chewing. Soon the horses would come over out of curiosity to check out the strange human. Since that time I have watched the babies grow up and move on to new families. And some, started their own bands.

The herd on the mesa has around 125 horses broken up into approximately nine individual bands, which I affectionately named as I observed the different personalities. A band has a stallion and a lead mare. The rest of the band would include additional mares and their offspring. At around two to three years old, the young horses are forced out by the stallion. Colts find their way to the bachelor bands to live for a few years and mature, and the fillies venture out to find a new band. This ensures they don’t inbreed.

The Gathering – Photograph by Judy Barnes

Two years ago I established a non-profit foundation for the freedom, preservation and protection of these wild horses. Spirit of the Wild Horse Foundation, along with my photography, has a line of merchandise it sells to raise money for the various projects the foundation has currently underway.

One of the foundations very successful programs is the Little Spirit Orphan Project. This year we are raising two orphaned wild foals and both are doing great. Little Ricky is six months old and Little Bit of Magic is three months old.

For information on how you can help, please call 719-206-2749 or go to www.spiritofthewildhorse.com.

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