Wild horses, in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Feral horses have been around this area of the country since the 1600's and are descendants of horses from early Spanish explorers, rather than a unique species which survived here from prehistoric times. Some horses however, are newly-released horses from locals who can no longer care for a horse. You can pick them out because they're branded (but I won't be photographing those). Even though they are absolutely beautiful, these wild horses to have to be managed because they aren't native. Yes... they've been here for hundreds of years, but we (humans) brought them here. They eat a lot, and that causes direct competition with native wildlife such as deer and antelope. For this reason, every now and then the feds come and round up some of these horses and take them to live elsewhere in large sanctuaries. The hard facts are that with no natural predators, herd sizes can double every 4 years, so the BLM removes thousands of wild horses every year in order to protect the native wildlife. These horses can also be privately adopted or sold, but the BLM will not sell to "kill" buyers or slaughterhouses. The landscape in the basin is often full of soft pastel colors in the hills, which almost look painted. Some wild horse herds can be seen from the highway, but these horses were so far in the backcountry that, for the most part, only occasional hunters see them. These horses probably haven't been photographed very often, or have seen people stopping to look at them. The matriarch of the herd, and a few other horses, were out of the frame here. This herd first ran off, but then stopped to look back at us, and slowly came closer to investigate. They'd then get nervous, trot off, and then come back and investigate us again. The slight haze is from heat radiating up from the ground, preventing me from getting a sharp focus over this distance. However, I still love the colors and the feel of this photo.