This weekend, May 4-5, the photography of Caroline Christie is on display at the Cottonwood Art Festival in Richarson Texas. You can find more information below.

Dust fills the air. Gracefully, tentatively, these powerful animals dance around one another on vast prairies bathed in the golden light of day. Watching these gentle giants, they seem like creatures from a bygone era. Watching them, I discover how much I share in common with these tender, regal, free spirited animals. The smell of high mountain sage fills the air as you are drawn into their gentle ballet-like interplay between one another, that turns into a beautiful tango.

Silently I sit on the dusty ground, trying to conceal myself in a gnarly juniper bush as I watch two painted stallions fight for the rights of a perfect mare with a tousled flaxen mane and hypnotic eyes. The challenge leads to a chase of flying manes and thundering hoofbeats.

As they chase each other into the dust I watch a perfect little foal sleeping in the sage

brush, oblivious of the action and just content to soak up the warm spring rays. The stallions race through the land like a hurricane while the tight knit band graze and the yearlings play with one another in a game of patience. The sparring ceases and the young challenger retreats in the direction of the setting sun. The lead stallion returns to his band- still complete. It is time for them to move on, by some unknown sign they pick themselves up and gallop off to get a last drink at the watering hole before the night falls into darkness. I see them vanish around a butte, their tales dancing behind them. Then there is silence. And I am alone. I would chase them if I could but I am content.

Some of the locations where I photograph the wild horses include The North Dakota Badlands, The Sand Wash Basin in North West CO, the Mc Cullough Peaks of WY, the Onaqui Mountains of Utah, the Pryor Mountains in MT, the Salt River in AZ,

Cumberland Island,GA and the shores of Assateague Island in MD.