11/01/2026
From the archives and still just as poignant:
Tawa
November 1st, 2023
A horse person asked me not too long ago, "Isn't seeing horses in the wild just like seeing domesticated ones in a pasture?" And honestly, in some ways, I guess it is. They ARE horses, after all, and I've seen a million of those... so what's the difference?
Amongst the hours of grazing and snoozing in the sun, a visit with a wild horse typically means a few blessed moments like this one here with bachelor stallion Tawa. All he has to do is raise his head from the grasses below, glance over at something in the distance, and there it is... that wildness, that freedom, that "something" that is so darn hard to describe.
In those eyes are tales of a life lived on 40,000 acres that, try as we may, we will never know very much about. No matter how much we track and document and study his life and the lives of others on the range, there is so much that remains unknown. Has he had an encounter with a mountain lion? Has he watched a companion succumb to the endless cold? Does he enjoy his life as a renegade bachelor, or does he long for a family of his own? What are the stars like late at night in those most remote, rarely traveled parts of the horse range? In a world where we can find answers to nearly anything, I treasure the fact that wild horses are one thing we still haven't quite figured out.
There is something so endearing about knowing that an encounter with a wild horse becomes a short entry in the journal of their life. With all the difficult, sometimes tragic things a wild horse must see in their lifetime, I hope our brief encounters are a relaxing, happy memory. They certainly are for me.
