Feral Horses

I have come across Feral Horses a few times in my photo journeys. The first time I remember I was looking for Pronghorn at Hart Mountain in Southeastern Oregon along the Nevada Border. Hart Mountain is rolling mountainous terrain without much vegetation so you can see for miles. HM  is not on the way to anywhere, so if you see any people at all they are they for the same reason you are. But, out of the half dozen or so times I've been I only seen someone else once. I was driving on one of the 4x4 roads and came across -- maybe ten or twelve Feral Horses at a distance of at least 1/2 mile. But when they saw me they took off running in the opposite direction. Because it was so open I watched these beautiful animals running at full speed for another 1/2 mile until they were out of sight. This was an eerie, yet special happening. I had never seen horses run away. I realized that wild animals, whether bear, coyotes, wolves, ---- or horses are not interested in people and don't want to be around them. I took a photo (although not very good) and over the years must have trashed it. It is still a fond memory, though. The photo above is of Feral Horses I came upon in Alberta Canada. There is a 100 mile stretch north of Hinton called Wildhorse Provincial Park, where, yes, wild horses exist.  I had been searching for them for about five hours when I came across these two fighting. I took a couple of photos and took off. It was back in the film days and I wanted to conserve my film. In retrospect: "Oh, how I wished I had stayed -- even to simply watch them." A mistake I hope I learned from. I was so focused on finding wildlife to photograph, I forgot to enjoy the wildlife when I found it. Besides, with digital now, there is no excuse for passing up a photo op.