Wild Horses of Pilot Butte (5 pics!!)

We took a side trip on our way back from Yellowstone through the Pilot Butte Horse Management Area. It's an area of publicly owned land that is full of wild horses. A nice gravel road runs throughout the area and many horses can be seen. If you're in the neighborhood it's worth the side trip.

These aren't the greatest horse photos ever, but I thought I would post anyways. I don't think there are many wildhorse threads in this forum.


A distant thundershower made for a nice background.

very nice dave. i enjoyed looking at them.they could almost be paintings

I especially love #3 #4 and #5

the wild look all over is great
it's really nice to see them

Thanks for looking. Pbase was really slow last night. Hope you didn't have to wait too long for these to load.

If I ever make it back to Wyoming I plan an spending an entire day in this region. The wild horses are a blast to photograph. The are somewhat approachable and I think there are some amazing shots possible.

Dave

Oh wow, nice shots of the wild horses. #5 is my fav. I should have visited that place when i was there.

Cute. The horse lovers like them.

---Bob Gross---

Very nice Dave. It's funny how we think of these animals as domesticated. There are not many areas in North America where you can find these still roaming on the loose. We have such an area in southern Alberta and every so often they do a roundup of them. Thanks for sharing.

Good shots Dave, have been there and can say "that's what it looks like".
My wife is the equestrian, she has a Tennesee Walker now, and your shot's
passed her critique, with lot's of ooohs, and aaahs !

She say's Thank You!

Good shots, Dave. Glad you were able to get reasonably close. I've had both extremes: able to walk right up to them, then (this year) unable to get close enough for a decent shot. There are several places in WY and CO they can be found.

Nice shots,number one is my favorite.

Thanks guys. When we photographed these horses I only had 13 shots left on my last memory card. It was the end of vacation and I was out of memory. I would shoot, then erase and then shoot again. I wish I had gone out with a blank card because I could have used my 20D's burst mode and AI servo a bit more effectively. It was still fun shooting. The horses make lots of noises. It was cool getting up close.

A hunter told us that the state comes in and rounds up the horses every year. Some are sold to ranchers and some are released. It's sounds like a nice system. The wild horses have a home and the state makes some money off population control. It also makes the horses a little less afraid of people. That migh be why they let us get as close as we did.

Nice! I'm amazed at how close they apparently let you get.

very nice shots. It didn't take long to load at all.