Very excited to finally be able to share some photos from a story for High Country News, my first for the magazine, out now in print and online.
Last summer I spent a few days following Marjie Hicks and Loriann Warner as they adopted, trained, and then showed wild mustangs in the Mustang Yearlings Washington Yough Mustang Madness competition in western Washington state. The horses come from the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program. Marjie's tattoo (image 2) features the markings used by the BLM to cold brand all wild mustangs they collect with vital information including US government registration, year of birth, and a unique identification number. In this case, it's the brand from her first mustang, Samba, a chestnut mare. "In the horse world, the worst horse you can get is a Chestnut mare," she said, "You may not get the horse you want, but you get the horse you need." This year she adopted two mustangs. Loriann Warner (image 1 and 6) won the Mounted Division portion of the competition with her mustang, Glory, and received the largest prize in the competition, $2500 prize and a belt buckle. These are the images in print and online. I'll share a few more at some point.
Story by Elizabeth Whitman.
#photography #photojournalism #pacificnorthwest #horses #horse #mustang #journalism #animal
