Yes, I have been dead for over a year - sorry about that. Turns out that as my life once revolved around photography, it has migrated to school and horses. I am an exercise rider at school, riding a whopping 3-4 horses a day. It has become my life, I could kill a man with my leg power.

Anyhow, Spring break of 2010, My best friend and I roamed down to Missouri since it was the warmest place within driving distance of Minnesota. With its temps at 60-80* it was perfect for camping, and thats what we did. We followed the Ozark Scenic Riverway and one fine night after trying a handful of places that were just not meeting our standards (camping in a control burn area seems scary) we found a campsite, we had to cross a small creek to get there (I drive a Toyota Echo..) and then the rain started. It rained and rained and rained. Turns out we were also in a flood area, so the ranger came and woke us up and told us we should head out. The creek next (about 2 feet away) our campsite had rose about 2 feet overnight. We decided to pack up and then check on the creek that we had to cross to get there. To do so we crossed a pasture, Linea noticed a horse in the woods, and as we stood there, more came out (still raining) I just assumed they were a free ranging pack of domesticated horses that it must be something the missouri rednecks do - just let your horses roam for a while. They were a range of blacks, whites and greys - B E A U T I F U L. There was one that was severely limping, but the rest looked to be in pretty good condition. A normal person would walk away, but a horse person wants to go meet them. They were skittish, but after I embraced a brains worth of horse behavior, keep low, make little direct eye contact, we were eventually surrounded by all the mares and foals. After about an hour of watching them, we were soaked, but 3-4 mares and most of the yearlings had come up and accepted us into the herd by greeting us. They touched us, however, we never touched them. We left because we were soaked, so much for rain coats. And that was that, we didn't get any pictures we just had the memory. We didn't realize until after we left that those were Missouri's Wild Horse herd - and not many people are able to get that close.

So, we went back this year - the only thing on my mind was to find that mystery campsite and perhaps see those horses again. I wasn't going to be unprepared this time. I had done my research over the past year trying to figure out as much as I could about them. But there is little information, the Missouri Wildhorse League which is formed to protect them has a defunct website. However, I did know that they have been an established horse herd for about 100 years, with over 40 horses  and 4 different herds that roam protected in the Ozark Scenic Riverway. Theres even less photographs. So yes, DA - I found them, and I got photographs! We found a different herd, of all chestnuts in the same field where we found the other herd a year ago. The next day we were awoken by branches snapping, and looked out across that creek that rose last year, and there were 3 horses peering over at us from a different herd.

Here is a link to some information:
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Here is a video with more information, thankfully, the woman who took the video gave me some wonderful information as well
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