Carol Walker wild horse photographer, one of the world's top ten fine art equine photographers, discusses her unrelenting advocacy for wild horses.
EquuStyle: Photographer and magazine publisher of Top Teny, Alex Mitchell’s article “Hoofbeats in Focus: Celebrating the 10 Best Equine Photographers” includes you in the top ten. How does it make you feel to be recognized as one of the top fine art equine photographers in the world?
Walker: It’s nice to be recognized, and if it helps get the word out about wild horses that is great.
EquuStyle: What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?
Walker: When I was young I always wanted to be a writer. I was passionate about reading and writing, and I also loved photographing animals. I wished I had known that there was a way a marry those two loves and that I would someday in my books and blogs.
EquuStyle: At what point in your career did you decide to begin taking photographs of wild horses?
Walker: I started my business photographing horses and their people in 2000. I had been photographing wildlife all over the world, but decided to focus on horses since I knew them so well, owning horses since I was 12 years old, and running a horse boarding stable for 3 years before starting my photography business.
I had a friend ask me in 2004 why I wasn't photographing wild horses, and I said wild horses? I don't know anything about them. A week later I received an invitation to photograph wild horses in Adobe Town, Wyoming. I had no idea what to expect.
As we drove out through the dry high desert lands with dramatic landscapes, we suddenly began to see horses at a distance. And we spotted ears in the sagebrush. An entire family of wild horses lying down for a mid morning nap. When I got out of the pickup truck, the stallion, a battle scarred grey started running toward me. I barely breathed. He stopped, and one of his fillies came up next to him and it looked as though she was grinning at me. I was in love.
I kept going out to visit that area of the Adobe Town Herd Management area every month for over a year. I started to learn about the herd and their habits, and several families whom I encountered on just about every visit. Then I found out the Bureau of Land Management was going to roundup
and remove most of these horses I had come to know. I went to the roundup and was horrified to watch helicopters driving them into traps, separating the families, and trucking them away from their homes forever.
I could not even look at the photos until 4 months later, and I decided that I wanted to show people that these horses were not starving but incredibly well suited to these lands, that they were beautiful and proud and free, that they had relationships, and deserved to live out their entire lives in their
homes with their families. That was why I published my first book, Wild Hoofbeats: America's Vanishing Wild Horses in 2008. I honestly thought that those of us working as wild horses advocates would save our wild horses in a few years. And now it is 2024 and they are more in jeopardy of extinction than ever.
EquuStyle: How do you tell a story through your photographs?
Walker: A still photograph has to tell a story in one frame. when I select the images that I want to show people, and I often select images that show a close up of wild horses, that evoke their wildness, their power, or I love showing images that display a relationship, like a tender moment between a mare and a foal, two stallions who are wary friends, and entire family on the move to water together, for example.
EquuStyle: What do you believe makes your images successful?
Walker: I am able to capture the spirit of the horses in my images. My very favorite thing to photograph is horses running - I think that is when they are at their most joyous and elemental. But I also love the quiet moments I spend with wild horses, when they may look at me, let me sit with them and be in their world with them, and sometimes approach me and there is a sense of communion, connection. I want to show that to people who see my images.
EquuStyle: In what ways has your work as an advocate for wild horses impacted how you photograph wild and domestic horses?
Walker: It has changed everything. I have absolutely no interest in these days of photographing horses being ridden. What truly inspires me is seeing horses at liberty (for domestic horses) or in the wild, free like they should always be. I am now spending all my time photographing wild horses.
It's funny I had a friend ask me several years ago why I was still photographing domestic horses and I told him it was because people want to buy photographs of the "pretty" horses, the spectacular well-groomed Andalusians, or Friesians, not so much the rugged, dirty, and scarred wild horses. But more and more people are getting involved with wild horses these days, and I feel an urgency to be out there with them as much as I can before they disappear.
I have regrets that I did not spend more time with the wild horses of the Red Desert Complex, that I did not spend more time with them in 2022 before the horrific winter of 2022/2023 that killed over 50% of them. This year, the Bureau of Land Management is planning to hit Wyoming hard, rounding up and removing thousands of wild horses from herds that I Know and love. I plan to spend as much time out there as I can this year.
EquuStyle: You recently launched your podcast “Freedom for Wild Horses.” What has the response been like?
Walker: It's been almost a year, I can barely believe it! I launched in March 2023 and today my 26th episode came out. It has been a wonderful experience, getting to share my stories about wild horses as well as interview wonderful, committed people with a depth and breadth of knowledge about wild horses, helping educate people about the issues facing them. It's a work of love for certain. And it is an opportunity to meld several skills - writing, speaking and photographing. And it's a challenge and a new way to spread the word about wild horses and what is facing them today.
EquuStyle: You have authored four books including Horse Photography: The Dynamic Guide for Horse Lovers. What motivates you to write?
Walker: You can see what I wrote above for my first book, Wild Hoofbeats. I wrote Horse Photography after several years of going to Equine Events and Shows speaking about photographing horses. I saw a need for a book which would lay out simple guidelines to getting better photos of horses.
The next two books were about rescuing and reuniting wild horses families after they had been rounded up: Galloping to Freedom: Saving the Adobe Town Appaloosas was about 4 families rounded up in Adobe Town and removed in 2014, and then reuniting them at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. Both of these are hardcover coffee table books full of my photographs of the horses in the wild and after the roundup and at the sanctuaries.
The next book, my newest, is Blue Zeus: Legend of the Red Desert. I followed Blue Zeus for over 3 years in the wild, asked a sanctuary owner to take he and his family if I could find them in the BLM holding facilities, and he and his mares were reunited at a sanctuary.
The books tell an important story about what is happening to our wild horses, and about the importance of family. And although they both have what you could call a happy ending, it is so so bittersweet. Those horses have lost their homes forever. The stallions are gelded. They won't be raising the next generation to follow them.
EquuStyle: Is there one wild horse you have photographed more than any other? What captivates you about this particular horse?
Walker: That would have to be Blue Zeus. Blue Zeus is a blue roan pinto whom I met in the Red Desert Complex, and when I first saw him I thought he was the most beautiful wild horse I had ever met. It wasn't just his color and his striking high stocking markings, but a calm, wise and proud presence that absolutely captivated me. Every time I visited the area, I looked for him and his family. and I spent time just sitting with him, photographing him, breathing him in. Every time I go there now that he is no longer there, I miss him.
EquuStyle: Which is your most memorable sighting?
Walker: One of the most amazing encounters I had was with that wild family I mentioned when talking about my first trip to Adobe Town. The family was the scarred grey stallion, his beautiful grey mare and their two year old and yearling fillies.
In the afternoon, the mare was heavily pregnant and when I found them the next day, there was an hours old new foal, a colt, by the mare's side. She was lying down, and I approached slowly and watched. Mares are very protective of their newborns but she let me watch. The whole family was gathered around, and the stallion drove off two bachelors stallions who wanted to take her. She got up and the foal started nursing. It was a beautiful spring day with the sun shining, and truly a magical time with this family I had come to know.
EquuStyle: Where is your favorite place to photograph wild horses and why?
Walker: That is a tough question. I have several favorite places in Wyoming. Salt Wells Creek for one - it is such a beautiful location, the horses are fairly used to people so it is not difficult to approach and spend time with them, and there are the curlies. Wild curly horses with curling manes and coats, they are gentle giants.
One of my other favorite places is the Red Desert Complex, that is where Blue Zeus is from, and it has some of the most beautiful colorful wild horses I have ever known.
EquuStyle: Over the years how do you think your style has evolved?
Walker: I know I have become a better photographer because I am better at finding the good light, getting settings, etc. but I also have become more experienced at predicting behaviors of wild horses, being able to find them, which of course is important, and I also have better equipment now which allows me to get close without being close - the long lens is essential for photographing wild horses. And I think I am known for my style with the close ups.
EquuStyle: How do you maintain your creative edge and stay inspired?
Walker: I really love what I do, and spending time with wild horses never gets old for me. It is the most peaceful place in the world for me, just sitting with wild horses. Every day with them is different, and I consider it a gift.
EquuStyle: Do you still carve out time to teach photography workshops? If so how often do you teach?
Walker: I do not teach workshops anymore.
EquuStyle: How do you balance all of the time you spend advocating for wild horses, creating your podcast, and posting on social media with photographing horses?
Walker: That's a good question. Sometimes the advocacy takes a lot of time and energy, and can be quite exhausting. I have a routine for posting on social media daily and that's the easy part. As far as photographing I take week long trips several times a year and that's where I get my images.
EquuStyle: What does a typical day look like for you?
Walker: That's hard - there is not usually a typical day. Right after waking up I walk my two Australian Shepherds, throwing the ball for them in my pasture after feeding my three adopted mustangs.
The couple of months before the holidays I do a lot of shipping and filling orders. Returning emails and posting on social media is daily no matter where I am.
Sometimes I work on new images and fill orders, work on the podcast, do billing. It all depends.
EquuStyle: Whose work has influenced you the most?
Walker: One of the most inspiring wild horse advocates I know is Ginger Kathrens who is a filmmaker and has done more to raise awareness about wild horses and show people that they have lives and families and deserve to be protected more than anyone else I know. A wildlife photographer I find extremely inspiring whose work is to show the beauty of marine life and he works to protect it is Paul Nicklin.
EquuStyle: The image of Black and White Stallion is incredible. Did it take a long time to get this shot?
Walker: This is an image of Washakie, who was always my favorite stallion in McCullough Peaks. He was a stunning black and white pinto stallion with a huge personality. From the very first time I saw him I was captivated by him.
On this morning I was near a waterhole watching the horses that had come in to drink. Washakie and his family had already drunk and were grazing nearby. A bachelor stallion approached Washakie's family and he was not having it. He started chasing this stallion away and I was right in their path. I hid behind my vehicle and as he ran by I captured him - one eye looking at me, mane flying. It was an amazing moment.
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Wild Hoofbeats is Carol J. Walker's wild horse education website, where the podcast is hosted: http://www.WildHoofbeats.com