Photographer Kimerlee Curyl Advocates to Protect Wild Mustangs
A wild horse does not pose for the camera. It decides whether to allow a human presence at all.
That quiet truth sits at the center of Kimerlee Curyl’s work. Her images of American mustangs are not staged portraits or romantic props against a western sky. They are records of living animals, shaped by family bonds, weather, fear, curiosity, and hard-won freedom on public lands.
Curyl has built a reputation as both an artist and an advocate because she treats wild horses as individuals. Her photographs invite people to look longer, past the familiar symbol of the mustang, and toward the real animals affected by policy decisions, land use conflicts, and public misunderstanding.
Her mission is simple to say and difficult to carry out: help protect wild mustangs by making them visible, valued, and impossible to dismiss.
A camera became a bridge to the wild horse world
EquuStyle: What initially drew you to wild horses and inspired you to focus your photography on them?
Kimerlee Curyl: After wanting a horse my entire life and finally having one as an adult, I was
working with a trainer in what was coined “natural horsemanship.” It was often mentioned that “in the wild,” a horse would behave or respond a certain way. And while I wasn’t necessarily questioning that, I felt this pull to see them for myself—to be immersed in their world, watch their behaviors, and draw upon my own instincts and intuitions about them.
And from that very first visit, my heart was on fire. It lit me up like nothing in my life had before. I didn't know exactly what was happening yet, but I knew my life had just changed. Everything I had been doing was about to take a 180.
Why wild mustangs need more than admiration
EquuStyle: How has your understanding of wild horses evolved over the two decades of your work?
Kimerlee Curyl: Wild horses are pure, raw, and simple when it comes down to it. Their basic needs are freedom, family, and forage. As a horsewoman, this understanding has completely influenced my interactions, my thoughts, and my approach to being with horses.
Now, mind you, it’s been 22 years, so nothing was ever learned overnight. But one of the things I’ve come to understand is that while some horses can be what we would call dominant, dominance is never what they are looking for. Sadly, much of the horse world still follows this outdated theory. Horses are looking for a leader—someone their highly intelligent and incredibly sensitive nervous systems instinctively trust and will follow. Horses feel the difference between the two before any physical interaction has taken place. It is an intuition I am completely in awe of.
Their connection to the grounded land beneath them, and to the energy and emotional elements of the air around them, is so deeply intertwined with who they are. Mother Nature could not have composed a better symphony, in my opinion.
Wild horse photography that makes an impact
EquuStyle: What techniques do you use to capture the emotion and spirit of wild horses in your photography?
Kimerlee Curyl: Patience. Something I am not innately gifted with. It has certainly been one of the many gifts, and lessons they have given me.
You simply cannot contrive a moment to happen in the wild, especially with these highly sensitive creatures. There is no hiding in the bushes and waiting to get the shot. You really need to feel, to know and understand their behavior. These creatures can feel a fly land on their back; sneaking around them makes them uneasy and tense. They know you are there, and that won’t be a shot most collectors are looking for.
I truly believe you have to know your subject, not just love them. Horses are easy to love and admire for their glorious beauty, strength, and grace, but knowing them takes a lot more than a few hours behind a camera with them while adjusting your f-stops.
I have loved and been obsessed with horses my entire life, but in the summer of 2003, that love I had for them shifted. They took me out of a dark place and everything became completely about them. And to this day, I’m still learning, watching, and listening to the beautifully complex ways of the horse. They are so completely fascinating.
For me, that is where the real magic happens—not in trying to create a moment, but in being present enough, patient enough, and knowledgeable enough to recognize it when—or right before—it unfolds.
The mustang as an individual, not just an icon
EquuStyle: How do you balance artistic expression with the need for advocacy in your work?
Kimerlee Curyl: For me, they have never really been separate, the two merged so seamlessly.
I fell in love with wild horses long before I fully understood the complexities of what was happening to them. In the beginning, I simply wanted to be there—to witness them, to understand them, and to photograph what I was seeing and feeling. But the more time I spent with them, the more I learned what was happening to them, I realized that loving something also comes with a responsibility to protect it.
I’ve always believed that art has the ability to reach people in a way that facts and statistics cannot. “Art has a voice” is a phrase that came to me very early in my career, and I’ve carried it with me ever since. A photograph can impact you in an instant. It makes you feel something. And feeling something is often the beginning of caring—and when you care, you are more likely to take action.
I don't want my work to feel like a lecture, or for every photograph to carry a heavy message. Over the years, my images have naturally become another form of advocacy. I realized I had the ability to bring these horses into people's homes and lives in a way that could create a deeper connection to them. For me, that connection is where inspiring change happens and the real power of art lies.
My goal has never been to simply show people what wild horses look like. It is to give them a glimpse of what they feel like—their relationships, their individuality, their freedom, their tenderness, their raw power. If I can create that connection through my work, then I have an opportunity to give them a voice beyond the boundaries of the wild places where I photograph them.
Advocacy, to me, isn't about making every photograph a statement. The most powerful thing I can do is simply let horses be seen for who they are. Beauty opens the door. Connection keeps it open. And once someone cares, conversations are sparked, people want to know more, and ultimately, they in turn help protect what they have come to love. At least that is my hope.
Protecting wild horses is a complicated issue
EquuStyle: What are the biggest challenges facing wild horses today? And, how can individuals help?
Kimerlee Curyl: The biggest challenge wild horses have faced—and continue to face—is human greed competing with their right to remain on the public lands they call home. The details run deep, long, and, frankly, are exhausting.
Wild horses are removed from public lands for a variety of reasons, including livestock grazing, oil and gas development, and other competing uses of their habitat. Much of the conflict comes down to how we choose to manage and prioritize our public lands. Federal grazing permits allow livestock to use public lands at rates far below what comparable private grazing would cost, while American taxpayers subsidize much of the management and infrastructure associated with these uses.
And this is where the wild horse issue becomes much bigger than wild horses. It is about who has access to our public lands, who benefits from them, and whose interests are being prioritized. Wild horses are often portrayed as the problem, when in reality they are competing for space on lands that belong to all of us.
That is, of course, a very condensed explanation of an incredibly complicated issue and it is frustrating for me to have to repeat the same concerns after more than two decades of watching it unfold.
The good news is that awareness has grown tremendously since I first became involved. There are more organizations doing important work, more people asking questions, and more resources available for individuals who want to understand the issue and use their voices.
And that is where I believe individuals can make a difference. Educate yourself. Follow organizations doing credible work on the ground. Contact your elected representatives and the agencies responsible for managing these lands. Submit public comments when decisions affecting wild horses are open for input. Support the organizations fighting for humane, science-based management.
I hear it all the time: “But I do call. I do write. I do submit comments, and nothing happens.” And I understand that frustration. But I also want people to understand that exhaustion is part of the problem. Special interests and the federal government can rely on people becoming overwhelmed, frustrated, and eventually silent. Please don't mistake the lack of immediate results for a lack of impact.
I believe individuals can make a difference. Educate yourself.
I have watched awareness of this issue grow exponentially in recent years. That did not happen because of one phone call or one letter. It happened because people kept speaking. It happened through voices, images, videos, education, organizations, and, most importantly, people caring enough to keep showing up.
You don't have to be an expert, and you don't have to do everything. But you can learn, you can speak up, and you can keep showing up. Every voice adds to the collective one. And I believe that collective voice is exactly what has brought this issue into the public consciousness in a way I could never have imagined when I first began this work.
EquuStyle: How do you engage your audience in the conversation about wild horse conservation?
I’m not going to pretend I’m particularly great at social media. I love engaging with people about the images—through talking about a moment, a story, or why I feel something is worthy of becoming a limited edition. Some images are created very intentionally as awareness pieces, while others are created simply as fine art. There is a story and a reason behind both, and I love having the opportunity to share that.
Honestly, this translates so much better in-person. At a speaking event, a gallery show, or simply standing beside an image with someone, the conversation unfolds naturally. Someone may walk up because they are drawn to the beauty of an image, and five minutes later we're talking about the horse, the herd, their relationships, or what is happening on the public lands where I photographed them. Those are my favorite conversations because they are organic.
Social media, of course, comes with a different set of challenges—the constant competition for attention, the algorithms, and, inevitably, the trolling. But even that doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. I don't mind someone who sees the issue differently expressing their opinion, as long as we remember that opinions are just that: opinions. There is a tremendous amount of science and research supporting the importance of wildlife, healthy ecosystems, and protecting wild places. And, what that means for our futures.
What does frustrate me is that we continually seem to have to justify the existence of wild things and wild places in the first place. Sometimes it feels like we're trying to justify the need for clean air and clean water. These are not luxuries. They are the foundation of life.
So, I suppose the way I engage people is less about trying to convince them of something and more about inviting them to look closer. Look at the horse. Look at the relationships. Look at the landscape. Ask questions. Become curious. Because once you really see something—and begin to care about it—the conversation becomes much more meaningful.
What Curyl’s work teaches about responsible attention
EquuStyle: What role do you believe art plays in wildlife advocacy and conservation efforts?
Kimerlee Curyl: I think art can do something that facts and statistics alone sometimes cannot: it can create an emotional connection. Science can tell us what is happening and why it matters, but art can make us stop long enough to care about it.
Wildlife conservation needs scientists, biologists, advocates, policymakers, and people willing to do the hard work of protecting these places and animals. But I also believe it needs storytellers. We need people who can translate what is happening in the natural world into something others can see, feel, and understand.
That is where I believe art has an important role. A photograph can cross boundaries that words sometimes cannot. You don't have to know anything about wild horses to be moved by the way a mare looks at her foal, the relationship between members of a family band, or the freedom in a horse running across a landscape. You can feel the connection before you ever know the facts.
Once you care, you become inspired to learn. You want to know where that horse lives, what is happening to the landscape, or why that mustang needs protection. In that way, art has the potential to be the beginning of the conversation for conservation.
Every piece of art doesn’t need to carry a political or conservation message. Sometimes its greatest contribution is simply reminding us what is beautiful, what is wild, and what we stand to lose if we don't protect it.
For me, that is the power of art in conservation. It doesn't replace science or advocacy—it helps give them a human connection. It gives the issue a face, a feeling, and ultimately a voice.
A mission measured in visibility and protection
EquuStyle: How do you envision the future of wild horses in America, and what steps do you think are necessary to ensure their protection?
Kimerlee Curyl: This question is difficult for me because, honestly, I am incredibly worried about the future of wild horses and wild places in America. After more than two decades of photographing them, witnessing their lives, and advocating for them, there are things happening right now that are deeply concerning. Regulations and policies are being changed, healthy horses are being removed from the range in record numbers, and truckloads of horses shipped to slaughter. Special interest groups are incredibly powerful and working very hard to shape the
future of our public lands and the animals who depend upon them.
We are living in a time when wildness does not always appear to be valued by our federal government. But I don't believe that means the American people don't value it.
In fact, I believe quite the opposite. I believe there are still so many of us who are willing to step away from our screens, look up, and remember what it feels like to be connected to something bigger than ourselves. To inhale the beauty of a wild landscape. To stand in the presence of a wild horse. To understand that these places and animals have an intrinsic value that doesn't depend on what they can produce, what they are worth financially, or what we can take from them.
The future of wild horses cannot rest on a handful of advocates or organizations. It also involves a much larger public voice, people who are willing to learn, speak up, stay engaged, and refuse to become exhausted by the enormity of the fight.
And despite how worried I am, we must remain hopeful. For their sake.
I have witnessed too much change over the past 22 years to believe that our voices don't matter. Awareness of wild horse issues has grown tremendously. More people know their names, their stories, and what is happening to them. That awareness exists because people cared enough to speak, to photograph, to write, to educate, to organize, and to keep showing up.
The road ahead is not envisioned as an easy one.
But refusing to envision wild horses not still running across open landscapes, families still together, and future generations having the extraordinary privilege of encountering something truly wild is not an option.
That is the future I will continue to work toward. And as long as there are people who still care, I believe it is possible.
Kimerlee Curyl serves as an inkind partner for The Wild Beauty Foundation.
EquuStyle Magazine is grateful for Kimerlee Curyl's thoughtful and informative interview and for sharing here exquisite photographs.
All images Copyright Kimerlee Curyl Photography-all rights reserved. Cannot be reproduced for any purpose without permission from Kimerlee Curyl Photography.
