Mustang Meg

Would you say you’re… oh let’s see…. A little mustang wild? Some of my MustangWild merch…
Come roam and see wild gifties like canvases, calendars, mugs, and wildcards in my online shop www.WildHorseSpirit.com !

This canvas print: https://www.zazzle.com/wild_west_colt_canvas_print-192282886445583425

July moments. Stories accompany images along with the trip’s journal (album description).
July 2025

This July trip to the Steens of Southeast Oregon had temps well into the 90s. So we were up before the sun and out after the sun tucked itself below the west horizon.
We saw several bands such as Aztec, Valor, and Amado bands, along with some bachelors. We saw sorrel bachelor stallion Totem who has a fetlock injury, but comparing to May reports, seems he has improved, as we did see him put more weight on that leg.

Matriarch Macawi has a cute pale baby…. looking at the muzzle (where they tend to shed out first), looks like it may end up turning similar to mother Macawii in color later, like a grulla possibly. They are with the Aztec band. Both Macawi and Aztec were captured last August and returned earlier this year.
Neither Valor nor the Amado bands were captured in 2024, and their bands intact. Amado has two handsome colts one of which looks to be his clone down to the white patch on his withers and that rich dark bay with other pinto accents. He also has bachelor Eros trailing them- we saw Eros around his band last April as well.

Throughout the time we were at Black Canyon, we were in the company of a ferruginous hawk family- a juvenile often eager for handouts from its parents and was rather vocal. At one point, one of them flew circles around the sun, and from our vantage point looked like it was headed to the sun- making me think of Greek mythology- and the story of Icarus. The hawks had a nest among the rimrock across from the rimrock we were traversing.

Alice was chasing bluebirds again, and we ended up hiking along the rimrock wall and were surprised by a bobcat just out 10 yards from Alice who apparently was napping. We had seen it here also in April. It sure was surprised to see us and didn’t stick around long and headed up higher into the rimrock. It appeared to be a young male.
In the area too was an old-growth juniper that seemed like a baby bird nursery with a variety of youngsters- Townsend’s solitaires, mountain bluebirds, rock wrens, and I believe sage thrashers- such a massive tree with so much diversity. It made me think of the avatar tree from the movie.. Alice found Emperor moth caterpillars - 4 all on one bush no other brush had them, but the one. Curious if next year that same one will have more caterpillars.

Roaming wild, exploring, and seeing lots of critters, and of course the beautiful wild horses… all packed into this one hot summer trip.

Keep the WILD in our WEST …. and our WEST WILD! -Mustang Meg

MustangWILD
PO Box 785
Lebanon, OR 97355
www.roamwildfund.com

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South Steens Wild Horses/ SE Oregon
July 2025

A good view of Herd Management Areas (HMAs) around the western United States- centered around the Great Basin region. At last count there were 177 HMAs across the ten west states.

I was interviewed by Diamond Peak Media- Kaden Swart, about the wild horses of Oregon. You can see my two minute segment chatting with him about the mustangs in the interview beginning at minute 10:30. He covered the SE portion of the state where I photograph.

Kaden is a graduate in Environmental Science with a deep interest for filmmaking and photography. He resides in Bend, Oregon and runs his own media business. He plans on releasing full feature documentaries in the upcoming years that showcase the importance of the environment and wildlife.
Catch his updates on youtube: Diamond Peak Media, and IG: diamond_peak_media. He does good work.

Freedom Wild Ep. 3-Steens Mountain Wilderness: The Search for the rare Kiger Mustang ft. Mustang Meg Zak and I travel to Steens Mountain in Eastern Oregon, in pursuit o...

Never Let Them
I wrote this with friends in mind, which I know are dealing with roundups that have occurred or will be occurring… effecting herds and horses they are familiar with or tracked over a number of years… reactions and feelings are real and raw.
I understand.

Here in Southeast Oregon Steens, herds we’ve been following since 2011, and in both 2022 and 2024 have had to deal with full-scale helicopter roundups, taking out most of the horses and by 2024 removing approximately 90% of the population.
This isn’t about whether or not roundups should happen, this is about the sensitivity for others experiencing the fallout:

Never Let Them…
tell you how you should feel:

Sharing hard or sad posts is difficult anyway. I have a variety of readers, but the things I share on this page I want to be sure are safe for others, but especially the impressionable young readers, so I think hard before sharing sensitive material. Feeling safe on someone’s page, to me is important. I worked as a counselor for ten years with youth at risk, and it was not my job to tell them how they should think or feel, but rather listen with compassion, and perhaps offer tools to process and cope.

Once in a while sad posts or comments by distraught readers bring out those that find it their job to tell others how they should think or feel, as they truly believe their self righteousness is above others’. I tell them to take that rhetoric back to their own page, it doesn’t belong here with my followers.
“You shouldn’t feel that way because…”
“So you’d rather see them blahblahblah…”
“You should be happy that they …”
“You should be glad that ...”

The reasons don’t matter, the feelings do. The “you-you-you”….by those who think they know better, needs to stop. Or at least take a moment to think before opening up that self righteous hole. I said what I said.

There have been times reading soliloquies and chastising others’ questions or beliefs and thoughts and feelings irritated me which made me think of this piece I wrote called “Gathering Thoughts”.. . a piece processing my own thoughts on the gather/roundup here on Steens Mt in SE Oregon. But also trying to consider others’ thoughts and feelings about the situation who may have been following some of these horses for the dozens of years along with me (although the gather was necessary due to unusual drought conditions that year). But all those feelings are real. The anger is necessary. The darkness of sadness helps us move toward a more healing light. There’s no right answer, but it just is. Your thoughts and feelings about matters are yours and yours alone and we all process through them differently. Don’t let others’ insensitivity stomp yours into the dust. They don’t know you, or what you’re going through, they’ve never stepped a foot in your shoes, and therefore have no right to tell you how you should feel, merely for their own displaced justifications.

Funny thing is the way I manage my page, most, if not all are respectful or stay out of other’s business. If they don’t like some thing, most just scroll by but typically no one harasses another person for their thoughts, questions, or ideas. But once in a while, I do come across those that stick out, as we do not operate that way here. I do not typically block people as I think it’s a hair trigger and juvenile reaction, but I do block those that insistently harass others, much like we do with spammers. I have shortlist and watching it closely for those repeat offenders.

Again, it’s nobody’s job to tell you how to feel or think. It’s fine for them to share an opinion, but should never go after another person for theirs. Rant over.
Here is the OG “Gathering Thoughts”..

South Steens gather August 15, 2024
Gathering Thoughts II
Been doing this for over 15 years - multiple times a year every year, tracking and photo-documenting wild horses of Steens mountain in SE Oregon. I have been enamored by wild horses as a kid in the 70’s when the Wild Free Roaming Horses and B***os Act was signed into law. Then, by chance came across a wild herd crossing a mountain road in front of me in 1994- total star struck. I was a shocked & moved to advocacy in 2004 learning of the Burns Amenment putting thousands of captured wild horses and b***os at risk every year.
All these years since a kid- endlessly inspired and fascinated by their untouched wildness, their behaviors and dynamics.
As part of the Oregon Mustang Group, together over the years weve been connecting the dots of these treasured herds, unlocking much about the wild horses (individual and general) since my first footfall on this Oregon range.

While my logical and pragmatic side looks at the numbers and the logistics and knows it’s necessary to keep populations down and suppress growth, but needless to say we are only human, and therefore It is still heartbreaking. Heartbreaking not just for me but so many of you following these amazing mustangs right alongside.
During the roundups I felt like that 7 yr old wanting to hide behind my fingers or under a pillow during the bad parts of a movie- hoping nothing bad happens to a horse or animals.

My hope going forward, is suppressing fertility through wild mare contraception (PZP), the better alternative to population suppression, never by surgical or chemical, (such as GonaCon) sterilization, the antithesis of anything that’s wild mustang bc sterilization alters hormones and changes natural behaviors in horse, band, and herd - effecting dynamics in complex wild horse society.

I’m sure those following wild horses have noticed that roundups have stepped up and increased with around an estimated 20,000 wild horses removed from the ranges in the ten west states by the end of 2024. This is along the lines of implementing The Path Forward- the plan signed into action by groups, organizations, and the agency to bring down all of the herd management areas in the 10 states down to AML (appropriate managent levels decided back in the 1980’s)… once down to AML, stepping up fertility control with the goal to maintain lower populations through fertility control/contraception. Long-term holding has been at capacity with tens of thousands of wild horses, now just where they’re putting the latest tens of thousands, I don’t know.

Time will have a lot to tell.

What can you do… Stay knowledgeable, stay engaged, stay aware, and stay sensitive to others. Share about our wild horses with your netposse - how amazing they are and also their plight. If you want to take a stand and be their voice - contact your representative, and also support the organizations fighting the good fight.

Protect to preserve …. and as I’ve said over the last 15 years -
Never give up. Never give in. Never back down!

Keep the WILD in our WEST, and our WEST WILD! -Mustang Meg

To contact your Senators and Representatives - call the switchboard at 202-224-3121

Also:

US Senate
Washington DC 20510
www.Senate.gov

Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3100
Fax: 202-208-6956
E-Mail: [email protected]

In 1971, the BLM was put in charge of implementing the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and B***os Act. The U.S. Senate stated:
"An intensive management program of breeding, branding, and physical care would destroy the very concept that this legislation seeks to preserve, leaving the animals alone to fend for themselves and placing primary emphasis on protecting the animals from continued slaughter and harassment by man."
PUBLIC LAW 92-195-DEC. 15, 1971: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-85/pdf/STATUTE-85-Pg649.pdf

MustangWild
PO Box 785
Lebanon, OR 97355
www.roamwildfund.com

*About the illustration: A composite utilizing a photo of me Alice took when we climbed up a rimrock to scout for mustangs from a bird’s eye view, when a redtail flew over thermal updrafts just in front of us just off that cliff- just soaking in the moment. The cremello is Digitally Generated and Remastered and inset into the scene by me, Mustang Meg/MustangWild 2026

How about a little more golddust?
Had my camera ready the night before next to me, jumped out of my bedroll and started clicking even before my coffee. The sun was just barely peeking over the rim and it was some amazing light when these two young golden colts were playing, kicking up the desert dust.

Nothing like gold colts and a little gold dust to highlight an incredible morning out with the mustangs.

Had my camera all ready the night before next to me, jumped out of my bedroll and started photographing even before my coffee. The sun was just barely peeking over the rim and it was some amazing light.

Part of the GoldDust series I have been slowly adding to since 2012 on my website MustangWild: https://www.mustangwild.com/p1070309485 (when there, be sure to click on "See more" to open the whole album).

Follow me also on my video channel: www.youtube.com/mustangmeg

July 2020 Sirocco Band
SE Oregon/ South Steens Wild Horses Range
July journal and album: https://www.facebook.com/pg/mustangmeg1/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10158301460398956

*Images are shared at a low resolution. To inquire about one of my images at full resolution prints, or ready-to-hang canvas or metal prints, feel free to send me a message. You can also visit my website:
Thank you for helping me roam wild on the ranges, and helping me to work on keeping the "wild" in our west... and our west WILD! ~ Mustang Meg

MustangWILD
PO Box 785
Lebanon, OR 97355