Prologue

Family Gathering by Laurel Strohmeyer

Welcome to the second installment of our our Arizona Wild Beauty…series, an intimate journey into the lives of an Arizona Wild Horse family. The first installment is entitled Arizona Wild Beauty: First Encounter.

Photographer/videographer Laurel Strohmeyer has spent the past four years studying many of the bands of wild horses along our Arizona rivers, but one family in particular captured her heart and thus her natural curiosity for wildlife. Witness the ongoing stallion battles for territory, battles for mating rites, the wild horse family dynamic, social hierarchy, the roles each family member plays,. Through Laurel’s work you’ll learn to interpret subtle behaviors and maybe even fall in love with our Arizona Wild Beauties yourself.

Meet the Family – Watch Slide Show

Part Two. Patch’s First Steps Video

It’s mid-June 2016 and I had been following the group almost daily waiting for the birth of Dakota’s foal. Last year both of the foals passed away; the first was Ellie’s whom I believe was lost to predation and Dakota’s foal drowned in the river.

By the end of the month I knew she was very close to foaling. I had hopes of seeing the birth, however, when I arrived very early in the morning on June 29th I was greeted with a beautiful boy, lying in the grass who had yet to take his first steps. Join me on this wonderful day to witness the first hours of a newborn wild foal’s life.

His Name is Patch!

Watch Video