West Desert Mustangs

Parkcitymagazine.com - Full Article

Text and Photography: Vicki Ross-Gaebe

Last spring, some fellow photographers and I discovered that a group of mustang owners from the Utah Horse Expo & Festival of Learning had organized a field trip to the West Desert in search of the elusive mustang. We packed our cameras, joined the caravan and headed west. We were not disappointed. From the raw power of the stallions, to the fragility of newborn colts, it's hard not to be in awe of the wild mustang.

It's about a two-hour drive from Park City west to the Cedar Mountains, where one of the largest herds of wild mustangs in Utah can be found. Being there is like a scene from a movie - a herd of wild mustangs galloping alongside our car, and then disappearing around the side of a mountain, miraculously managing to skirt treacherous gopher holes and deep crevices. The mustangs were headed to a nearby watering hole, where eventually we would find a herd of nearly 100 horses.

Quietly, we crept up to a vantage point and watched in amazement as these incredible animals carried out their day-to-day lives. We saw mothers with foals, frisky adolescents and bossy stallions.

More...