Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area

Search Results

Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)
Next
275 images found

Loading ()...

  • Texas cougars that have been relocated to White Oak Conservation.
    RANDY OLSON_06201_503862.JPG
  • Texas cougars that have been relocated to White Oak Conservation.  They are bei ng used in a pilot program to save the Florida panther.
    RANDY OLSON_06201_503861.JPG
  • A conservation group hikes through wilderness and old growth crossing creeks and rough terrain in Tongass National Forest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075115.TIF
  • Volunteers from a conservation group return orphaned elephant seals (Mirounga l eonina) to the surf at Point Reyes National Seashore.
    RANDY OLSON_06103_496006.JPG
  • A Palomino mustang mare with a blue eye has distinctive, unusual coloration.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222818.jpg
  • Drivers using cell phones in a parking lot of a scenic stop in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The 13-mile drive through ancient sand dunes is a protected area near Las Vegas under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management and Southern Nevada Conservancy.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680974.jpg
  • A Florida panther (Felis concolor coryi) is one the endangered species found on White Oak that was established by the late Howard Gilman, then acquired by TWF Conservation.<br />
<br />
Since 1986, White Oak has rehabilitated and released 19 sick or injured Florida panthers. In 2018, White Oak rehabilitated and released a panther family back in the wild together for the first time.<br />
<br />
The panthers at White Oak are kept in large naturalistic enclosures and have very little interaction with people in order to maintain their wildness and natural instincts. <br />
<br />
Recovery efforts to save the endangered panther, which numbered at one time around 40 has grown to 200.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_110411.JPG
  • Peering down from a tree, a Florida panther (Felis concolor coryi) is one the endangered species found on White Oak that was established by the late Howard Gilman, then acquired by TWF Conservation.<br />
<br />
Since 1986, White Oak has rehabilitated and released 19 sick or injured Florida panthers. In 2018, White Oak rehabilitated and released a panther family back in the wild together for the first time.<br />
<br />
The panthers at White Oak are kept in large naturalistic enclosures and have very little interaction with people in order to maintain their wildness and natural instincts. <br />
<br />
Recovery efforts to save the endangered panther, which numbered at one time around 40 has grown to an estimated 200.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_110411-4.JPG
  • A Florida panther (Felis concolor coryi) is one the endangered species found on White Oak that was established by the late Howard Gilman, then acquired by TWF Conservation.<br />
<br />
Since 1986, White Oak has rehabilitated and released 19 sick or injured Florida panthers. In 2018, White Oak rehabilitated and released a panther family back in the wild together for the first time.<br />
<br />
The panthers at White Oak are kept in large naturalistic enclosures and have very little interaction with people in order to maintain their wildness and natural instincts. <br />
<br />
Recovery efforts to save the endangered panther, which numbered at one time around 40 has grown to an estimated 200.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_110411-3.JPG
  • A Florida panther (Felis concolor coryi) is one the endangered species found on White Oak, established by the late Howard Gilman, then acquired by TWF Conservation.<br />
<br />
Since 1986, White Oak has rehabilitated and released 19 sick or injured Florida panthers.  In 2018, White Oak rehabilitated and released a panther family back in the wild together for the first time.<br />
<br />
The panthers at White Oak are kept in large naturalistic enclosures and have very little interaction with people in order to maintain their wildness and natural instincts. <br />
<br />
Recover efforts to save the endangered panther, which numbered at one time around 40 has grown to 200.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_110411-2.JPG
  • Hiking along an overlook above a rocky shoreline on the Lost Coast in the King Range National Conservation Area (NCA).<br />
The King Range NCA encompasses 68,000 acres along 35 miles of California’s north coast. The landscape was too rugged for highway building, giving the remote region the title of California’s Lost Coast. It is the Nation's first NCA, designated in 1970.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705678.jpg
  • A hot smokey controlled fire burns undergrowth in a pine forest on Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fires are set on a three-year rotation to prevent wildfires which threaten nearby homes and farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470844-6.JPG
  • Aerial photo shows a smoke rising from a controlled fire burning undergrowth on Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fires are set on a three-year rotation to prevent wildfires which threaten nearby homes and farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470844-5.JPG
  • Smoke rises from a controlled fire that burns undergrowth in a pine forest on Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fires are set on a three-year rotation to prevent wildfires which threaten nearby homes and farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470844-4.JPG
  • A controlled fire burns undergrowth of pine trees on Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fires are set on a three-year rotation to prevent wildfires which threaten nearby homes and farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470844-3.JPG
  • Firefighters watch a controlled fire burn undergrowth that billows over a road on the edge of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fires are set on a three-year rotation to prevent wildfires which often start from lightening strikes from frequent summer storms and threaten nearby homes and farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470844-2.JPG
  • Workers ride an elevator up as they come off shift working to seal off a mercury mine. It is a 500 year old problem that has polluted underground water in Idrija and surrounding areas although closed in 1995. It was the second largest in the world. Mercury can be used to extract silver and gold, therefore the silver and gold-rush motivated mercury mining. The mining industry brought science, technological advancements, and industry to this mountainous region but it also created considerable medical problems and health hazard due to its toxicity.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_985667-2.TIF
  • Miners traveled underground in Idrija, Slovenia for 500 years to mine mercury.  Now with little need for the metal, the mine closed leaving an environmental nightmare. A small crew works to fill in the tunnels to keep heavy metals run off from polluting groundwater. Men take showers after their shift and hang their clothes on hooks.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_985667.TIF
  • Multi-state activists of all ages protest mountain top removal coal mining outside Charleston's state capital building.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023744.jpg
  • Multi-state grassroots environmental activists rally against mountain top removal in Charleston, West Virginia.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023649.jpg
  • A coconut sign marks a building erected as a mess hall for a failed copra plantation
    RANDY OLSON_MM6778_671352.JPG
  • Aerial photo shows a smoke rising from a controlled fire burning undergrowth in a pine forest on Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fires are set on a three-year rotation to prevent wildfires which threaten nearby homes and farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470844-7.JPG
  • Arial photo at night showing a controlled fire burning undergrowth on islands of peat floating in the marsh water of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fires are set on a three-year rotation to prevent wildfires which threaten nearby homes and farm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_05842_470844.JPG
  • Activists protest mountain top removal coal mining at a rally outside Charleston's state capital building.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023742.jpg
  • Vivian Stockman protests King Coal and mountain top removal coal mining joining a number of multi-state activists at the state capital.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023741.jpg
  • As researchers take measurements to study a brown bear (Ursus arctos) they trapped and tranquilized near the Unuk River, the grizzlies eyes open. They had to work quickly  as the sedative began to wear off.
    MM7258_20050831_11042.tif
  • Wild horses are gentled and trained by prison inmates at the Warm Springs Correctional Center. After several weeks of handling, the horses are auctioned off to the public.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222912.TIF
  • Wild horses wade in a waterhole to drink and cool off on a summer evening in the Wild Horse Sanctuary.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222911.jpg
  • A yearling finds a low lying limb on a tree to scratch his back.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222907.jpg
  • Skeleton of a wild horse likely killed by a cougar in the high desert has teeth intact in the skull. The horse's natural enemies are predator animals: mountain lions, wolves and humans.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222906.TIF
  • Two paint mustangs playfully bite while grazing at South Steens mountain in Oregon. The wild horses are friends and hang out with other bachelors in the herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222905.jpg
  • A dog rides in the saddle on the back of a horse at the Extreme Mustang Makeover. The wild horse had bonded with the canine as a companion. Riders waited their turn to enter the ring.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222903.jpg
  • After ritualistic pawing and sniffing, an aggressive gray stallion goes for the throat of another wild horse in a confrontation to establish dominance. Fur flies as the stallion rears back, caught off guard at the attack. Although many conflicts are short and not so brutal, serious injuries can occur as stallions fight. Many mustang studs have missing ears, and their bodies are battle-scarred from bite marks and strikes from front hooves. <br />
White Sands herd from the missile range in Utah have a rare gaited gene.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222894.TIF
  • A wild mustang stallion chases studs away from his mares. Other horses in the herd graze, rarely stopping to watch.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222882.jpg
  • The horse herd grazes in the last hours of light, and a mustang mare locates and nuzzles her foal.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222879.jpg
  • Two yearling mock battle to earn confidence to battle a stallion. As they mature, stallions fight for dominance in a herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222875.jpg
  • Two gray stallions put their heads together to smell a territorial marking. Although it may look friendly, the mustangs are exhibiting behavior typical in a wild horse herd when studs are vying for dominance. At this point, they may fight or walk away to battle another time.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222872.TIF
  • As night falls, a blur of galloping horses reveals a stud that is chasing a younger male from the band. When males come of age showing sexual maturity, they are driven from the family to find a mate. It is believed this is their natural way of warding off inbreeding. The younger horse must find other males to form a bachelor band or win a mare for his own.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222869.TIF
  • A white-hat tops a cowboy who competes with the wild horse he trained in thirty days for the Extreme Mustang Makeover. For this exercise in the competition, the horse is turned in circles keeping inside the square of orange cones.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222862.jpg
  • Palomino Valley houses wild horses captured on public lands that are processed and prepared for adoption. A Bureau of Land Management facility in Nevada, mustangs trucked there are fed hay, vaccinated, given a freeze-mark brand and placed in corrals where they wait to be adopted or moved to another facility making room for more captured horses. There is little to no shelter from the sun in the barren facility.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222860.TIF
  • A man feeds carrots to nearly tame mustangs in a Nevada subdivision. Residents in the Virginia Range are accustomed to wild horses grazing and then visiting their yards.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222858.TIF
  • A captured wild horse eyes his surroundings after loaded onto a trailer following a roundup by the Bureau of Land Management.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222854.jpg
  • A helicopter circles back to drive a herd of wild horses across the desert toward a trap in a roundup by the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada. Dust rises as the panicked horses flee the buzzing noise above them. Drought and wild land fire create stressful conditions with little water and food available for the herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222850.jpg
  • A band of wild horses follow single file to water as they roam the wide open spaces near Pilot Butte a unique formation that stands out in the high desert on public lands in western Wyoming.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222845.TIF
  • A patient cowboy trainer works with his mustang to for the Extreme Mustang Makeover competition. The two-year old Nevada horse had never been handled and within thirty days he was trained and ready to show off their abilities.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222840.jpg
  • A wild stallion attempts to escape but is roped by cowboys during a Bureau of Land Managment roundup. The wily wild horse whinnied to the other trapped horses, then tried to outrun his captures.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222836.jpg
  • Detail of the main on a colorful wild horse rescued from the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222830.jpg
  • Bachelor mustangs spar and mock battle to practice their fighting moves and build up the courage to challenge a stallion to steal mares for their own bands. A thick blanket of fog made it tough for the dominant stallion to keep a watchful eye to protect his band.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222827.TIF
  • Under a threatening storm, a herd of horses crosses a stream following the lead mare. In a wild horse herd, she leads them to food and water while the stallions follow behind to guard. A herd is similar to a neighborhood and made up of bands that are like families. These horses have dark dorsal stripes and primitive markings. They are genetic descendants of the Gila herd that came with Spanish Conquistadors to North America in the 1600s.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222824.TIF
  • Two wild stallions eye each other and begin a ritual to establish dominance. They paw the ground establishing their turf and next they will either walk away or fight. Horses are prey animals with a strong "fight-or-flight" response where they flee for safety but they defend themselves or stand their ground when their hierarchy is challenged.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222816.TIF
  • A young stud lifts his lip catching a whiff of a mare in heat. The Flehmen response is a biological reaction to smell where an animal curls back the upper lip and senses pheromones.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222815.jpg
  • A wild horse is seriously wounded from running into a barbed wire fence. The western landscape is full of old fences that once divided ranches and they are hazards for unsuspecting wildlife.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222814.jpg
  • A herd of mustangs move across the grasslands as a summer storm builds over the high plains. It is believed that over two million wild horses roamed the largely unfenced American West in the 1900s.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222811.jpg
  • A wary foal stands with his mother near other mares in the herd as they graze together.<br />
Foals are often born with a pale shade of their adult color. In the wild, the dull colored coat camouflages babies from predators. However, they typically shed their fuzzy foal coat at three or four months of age and evolve into their adult coloration.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222809.TIF
  • A rumble of thunder, crack of lightning, and winds blow dark clouds across the prairie alerting a mustang herd that a summer storm approaches. When the sky opened with torrents of rain, the nervous young wild horses bolted to outrun the storm.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222808.TIF
  • Two young studs playfully spar as they gain confidence and moves that will help them challenge older stallions for hierarchy in the herd. They bite and kick, running in circles and kicking up dust around the other horses.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222806.jpg
  • With a burst of speed, a white mustang stallion charges at another wild horse.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222805.jpg
  • A stallion nips at at another stud as they fight for dominance in a wild horse herd. Dust rises as the pair clash in the dry summer months in the West.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222803.jpg
  • Head lowered and ears laid back in an aggressive posture, a stallion is "herding" or "snaking" or to control his mare and foal. The white mustang is also sending a warning to others. Wild stallions protect their families and this behavior is in reaction to a threat to his band.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222801.jpg
  • A white mustang stallion challenges another stud as the herd adjusts to the new dynamic of status as horses introduced.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222800.jpg
  • A wild horse takes a dust bath by rolling  in the dirt.  It may be a sign he is happy or it may be to self-clean his coat by eliminating extra oils and to discourage insects.<br />
The more dominant horses will have a favourite rolling spot and will be the last to roll in it. This means that their scent is the strongest and therefore their rank is higher within the herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222799.jpg
  • Two mustangs groom each other, a common social behavior among wild horses. The mutual grooming brings heads together and reaffirms bonding between horses, reducing social tension within a herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222797.jpg
  • A charismatic mustang stallion looks like a white horse on a merry-go-round as he arches his neck and proudly walks through a flowering meadow in the Wild Horse Sanctuary. Phantom was well-known in the wild, and after capture, his fans raised money to find him a safe home with his band.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222796.jpg
  • Wild horses stand opposite ways to flick flies off each others faces with their tails.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222794.jpg
  • Scars and open wounds prove the fights are fierce. When wild stallions battle for mares and status in the hierarchy of a herd, the injuries can be brutal.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222793.jpg
  • Stallions kick up their heels as they spar in a battle for mares during the foaling season.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222791.jpg
  • Profile of a curious, young, fuzzy mustang foal.<br />
Foals are often born with a pale shade of their adult color. In the wild, the dull colored coat camouflages babies from predators. They typically shed their fuzzy foal coat at three or four months of age, however, and evolve into their adult coloration.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222790.jpg
  • A young mustang foal romps to play in a meadow running circles around his mother while she grazes with other mares in the horse herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222786.jpg
  • Portrait of a wild horse in the snow-covered Ochoco National Forest in the Big Summit Wild Horse Territory in Oregon. The origins of the herd are not entirely clear according to the U.SD. Forest Service. Early accounts describe local ranchers in the 1920s turning loose quality animals from a good breeding stock to ensure a future supply of good horses. Recent genetic testing has linked the Ochoco Mustangs to Iberian and Andalusian stock, leaving much to be discovered about their true heritage.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222777.jpg
  • Dot, a former wild horse, patiently waits under a guard dog's watchful eye as a sheepherder checks on the animals in his care.<br />
After the mustang was trained by prison inmates, the horse was sold at auction. He earned respect the first week on the ranch in the Wyoming range when he found his way back to the corral in a blizzard saving the life of his mount.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1201771.jpg
  • If you are quiet, they may approach you. A trusting, wild mustang gently nuzzles a wild horse activist.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1200576.jpg
  • Foals hover in a corner of the pen, separated from mares and stallions following the round up by the Bureau of Land Management. Mothers nearby call out trying to find their young ones that are frightened and huddle together for safety.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1200522.jpg
  • Wild horses create a cloud of dust as they gallop making trails across dry, sagebrush-covered public lands. Trails mark paths the horses follow in their trek through the barren desert of the Bureau of Land Management's Jackson Mountains searching for water and food.<br />
Nearly half the wild horses in the U.S. live in Nevada where they compete for food, water and territory with cattle, other wildlife, and oil gas and mineral exploration. Drought and wild land fire place greater pressures on the scrappy herd that survives on little to nothing in the Winnemucca rangeland.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1200521.jpg
  • Aerial view of a golf course on old coal mine site after it was reclaimed as mining in the distance continues.<br />
Twisted Gun Golf Club is an 18-hole regulation length golf course in Wharncliffe, West Virginia. The golf course is a reclaimed mountaintop removal site, and was recognized by golfonline.com in 2007 as number 17 on the “Top Fifty under Fifty” ranking of top 50 golf courses where the public can play for under fifty dollars. Twisted Gun in Mingo County near Gilbert, has been called the “jewel of the coal fields.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023735.jpg
  • Hydroseed grass is sprayed on steep contours of a reclaimed mountaintop removal mine site in an effort to control erosion. Reclamation requires mining companies to return the land to it's original contours and plant but little grows on these rocky soils and the operation is often repeated.  Spray-on grass replaces more than 60 tree species that ruled some of the world’s most diverse temperate forests.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023732.jpg
  • Nyungunyama Fish Ponds operated by Lazoro Tobango family.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7314_1023394.JPG
  • A photographer sets a camera trap at a water hole so a laser beam will trip the shutter to photograph wild horses.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222910.jpg
  • A photographer holds a cracked housing for remote cameras used to photograph wild horses stampeding.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222909.jpg
  • Bureau of Land Management contractors use a helicopter to push wild horses toward a trap during a roundup. Wyoming has "checkerboard" ownership of public land abutting private ownership. Ranchers won a lawsuit to have mustangs removed because they cross unfenced lines while grazing and searching for water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222908.jpg
  • Prison inmates gentle wild horses at the Warm Springs Correctional Center. Many of the men bond with the horses they train and mutual trust is formed.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222902.jpg
  • Prison inmates ride wild horses at the Warm Springs Correctional Center creating a dusty, chaotic scene. They are training the mustangs to handle stress and to follow the riders directions in all situations. The horses are auctioned off to the public at the end of the training program. Wardens explain that the men and horses must learn to trust one another.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222901.TIF
  • A cowboy competes with his newly-trained wild horse in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. Thirty trainers were given unhandled young Bureau of Land Management horses and thirty days to prepare. Judges scored them on how well the horses performed certain tasks and an open program to show off more talents. Horses were auctioned off to the public following the event which featured mustangs strengths and trainability.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222895.jpg
  • Dot, a former wild horse now works the Wyoming range with a sheepherder. He is tame enough for trick riding and is a patient, obedient, old soul.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222891.jpg
  • Former wild horses are rewarded with oats after a long day working a Wyoming ranch with sheepherders. Camp is set up near the sheep and herders live on the range.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222890.jpg
  • A former wild horse stands steadfast while patiently waiting for a shepherd to check on a lamb as they work together on the Wyoming range.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222889.TIF
  • A once wild horse now works the Wyoming range with a sheepherder. The sure footed, adopted equine is won the trust of ranchers and cowboys when he saved the life of a rider lost in a blizzard by finding his way home.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222887.jpg
  • An adopted former wild horse now works the Wyoming range with a sheepherder and dogs.<br />
Dot, white mustang, was trained by prison inmates and then bought by rancher owners at a public auction. The docile horse earned his keep one week later when he saved the life of a shepherd who was lost in a blinding snow storm. The rider dropped the reins trusting the horse to find his way back home in spite of the blizzard.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222886.jpg
  • A former wild horse now works a Wyoming range with a sheepherder. Dot was trained by prison inmates and adopted for the ranch. The first week he arrived, a herder was lost in a blizzard and in danger of freezing. The rider dropped the reins and held onto the horses neck as the sure-footed mustang found his way home.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222884.jpg
  • A blue-eyed mustang mare is a descendant of horses bred in the Nevada's Sheldon Range. The horses were used as mounts for cavalry, and in later years, shipped to Europe to serve as war horses during WWI and WWII.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222881.jpg
  • A curious yearling approaches warily and wind-blown, shedding his shaggy winter coat. Although cautious, the horses’ ears are forward showing interest and openness. Horses are very social. Young ones play fight and gallop showing little fear as they test their skills while they navigate the hierarchy among members of a wild horse herd. These horses are descendants of a herd bred for the US Cavalry in the 1800s. Rounded up during WWI and WWII, they were shipped to Europe serving as "War Horses" pulling artillery and serving as mounts.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222880.TIF
  • Two young foals explore a scratching post tree after watching other horses in the herd pass under it  creating a well-worn path.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222878.jpg
  • Curious foals are drawn to a water hole making a reflective, pastoral scene as the herd grazes in early spring in South Dakota.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222877.TIF
  • Young studs playfully mock battle to earn confidence to battle a stallion. They practice their moves by chasing, biting, kicking and fighting.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222876.jpg
  • Ears pointed forward, a wild Palomino canters blurring at a fast pace through grasslands and prairie. Palominos are recognized by the color of horse distinguished by their cream, yellow, or gold coat and white or silver mane and tail. The Palomino horse is said to have originated in Spain around 1519, at the beginning of the Spanish New World and Cortez's reign. Although the exact development of these horses is unknown, their origin is rooted in Spain. Ears tipped forward indicate excitement or interest.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222874.jpg
  • A Palomino mustang mare intently gallops with a blur and ears pointed forward.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222873.jpg
  • An older red stallion scarred from bites and fights intently watches a challenging stud. Battles for dominance in a wild horse herd can be brutal.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222871.jpg
  • An illusive band of wild horses crests a ridge under a full moon and a night sky. Horse sleep only a few hours a night ever on guard for their safety from predators.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222870.TIF
  • A herd of colorful mustangs including Paints and Palominos graze through sagebrush as evening approaches. After stopping at the waterhole, they headed toward salt licks and to roll taking dust baths in Oregon's high desert.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222868.jpg
  • A sleek stud challenges a paint stallion as they clashed near a water hole in Oregon's high desert. Wild horses drink in order of hierarchy that is determined by their dominance. Their hooves thud when pounding each other in a fight within the herd.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222867.jpg
  • A bachelor band of horses group together for protection and company while grazing in the high desert of Steens Mountain in Oregon. Males in a herd form a family when they are young or old but have no mares.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7517_1222866.jpg
Next