# Wild Horses of Sand Wash Basin



## Etoimos (Oct 9, 2019)

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel with my father-in-law to the north west part of Colorado to photograph the wild horses of Sand Wash Basin for four days.

It was a very neat experience to spend time and mingle with the herd of wild horse.  Below are some of the images I captured on that trip.
































I hope you enjoyed these images.  If you have any questions about them or the location, please let me know.


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## Flying Panda (Oct 9, 2019)

Awesome set! I especially like the last two action shots. Nice looking animals in this herd.


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## Jeff G (Oct 9, 2019)

Incredible shots!


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## edsland (Oct 9, 2019)

Awesome set of some beautiful hourses


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## Etoimos (Oct 10, 2019)

Thanks everyone.



Flying Panda said:


> Awesome set! I especially like the last two action shots. Nice looking animals in this herd.



Thank you.  The action shots are always fun to capture.  It surprised me how often you get to see a fight, but most of the time they are not close enough to get really good shots of them.  That last shot I was probably only about 50 or so feet away from them.  I had be "grazing" with them for about 30 min maybe when it broke out.  They were harassing each other that whole time and finally just went after it.


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## RVT1K (Oct 10, 2019)

Very nice!

Annnd now I'm hearing the Rolling Stones in my head....


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## smoke665 (Oct 10, 2019)

What a great set and experience, beautiful animals. Those last two action shots are amazing.


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## K9Kirk (Oct 10, 2019)

Wow! Just awesome! We get very few horse pics here, let alone pics of wild horses and an excellent job on the action captures I might add. The action in #5 is my favorite, #6 for the zoomy win. Thanks for sharing!


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## baturn (Oct 10, 2019)

Great stuff! I think you just added a new place to my bucket list.


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## Etoimos (Oct 10, 2019)

@RVT1K @smoke665 @K9Kirk Thank you.



baturn said:


> Great stuff! I think you just added a new place to my bucket list.


​
Thank you.  There are several herd Management Areas (HMA) in Colorado.  This one is quite remote, but it is one of the bigger ones and has a wide verity of horse colors.  It is about 7 hours from my place, so I might be checking out some of the other HMAs to see what they are like.

It looks like there are a bunch of HMAs much closer to you in OR and WA.  That link above will get you started in the right direction on your research.


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## Dean_Gretsch (Oct 11, 2019)

Best series of wildlife in quite some time. There are some beautiful animals there. Great colors.


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## ronlane (Oct 11, 2019)

Nice set. #5 Nominated for Photo of the month.


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## Photo Lady (Oct 11, 2019)

oh so so beautiful .. incredible shots of the wild......... wow i enjoyed them all


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## Tropicalmemories (Oct 11, 2019)

All great - nice light, good angles, sharp, amazing subjects - action shots are just so good, look like paintings.


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## Etoimos (Oct 11, 2019)

ronlane said:


> Nice set. #5 Nominated for Photo of the month.



Thank you sir!


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## AlanKlein (Oct 11, 2019)

All great shots.  The animals seem to allow you to get fairly close.  How close can you get?  Is it safely recommended?


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## Etoimos (Oct 11, 2019)

Thanks @Photo Lady , @Tropicalmemories .



AlanKlein said:


> All great shots.  The animals seem to allow you to get fairly close.  How close can you get?  Is it safely recommended?



It really depends on the horse/herd.  Some don't let you get get closer than 150 feet and some will let you get to about 20-30 feet away after spending some time with them.  The 4th image of the white horse, that one was taken out of my Jeep window.  That horse walked up to about 10 feet way and was checking us out pretty good.  The small herd of the last image would graze around me at about 20-30 feet.  That specific image was taken when they were about 50 feet away.  I don't think I would want to be any closer when they are fighting!  

Horses are prey animals, so they will run away before they try and fight another type of animal or human.  That said, some of the stallions will approach you with a little bit of attitude.  When that happened, I just backed off some and they went back to tending their herd.


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## AlanKlein (Oct 11, 2019)

Etoimos said:


> Thanks @Photo Lady , @Tropicalmemories .
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Showoffs.  Knew some guys like that when they were with their girlfriends.


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## Jeff15 (Oct 12, 2019)

Very nice shooting............


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## LK_Nature_Photography (Oct 12, 2019)

Wow! Wild horses! Cool! Very nice images too! Our wild horses in Germany aren´t soo pretty, they look a bit more "primitive"


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## Etoimos (Oct 12, 2019)

Thank you @Jeff15 



LK_Nature_Photography said:


> Wow! Wild horses! Cool! Very nice images too! Our wild horses in Germany aren´t soo pretty, they look a bit more "primitive"



I find it interesting how horses from different areas look different.  Even these wild horses looked a little different from the domesticated horses we had.  Especially in the structure of their heads.


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## AlanKlein (Oct 12, 2019)

Horses, like dogs, were bread for different purposes hence the different types.  I also suspect that climate and other environmental impact modified them as well.


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## Hennessy8 (Oct 15, 2019)

Etoimos said:


> Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel with my father-in-law to the north west part of Colorado to photograph the wild horses of Sand Wash Basin for four days.
> 
> It was a very neat experience to spend time and mingle with the herd of wild horse.  Below are some of the images I captured on that trip.
> 
> ...


You did an an amazing job and should be very proud of your work.


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## Etoimos (Oct 15, 2019)

Thank you again @Hennessy8


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## NE-KID (Oct 15, 2019)

Beautiful horses. Brings me back memories when I use to ride horses in Southern California.


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