A wildlife photographer from Arizona has been braving the desert heat and the risk of snake bites to capture breathtaking shots of majestic wild horses in action.
Susan Goudge, 74, is the daughter of a U.S. Navy Veteran who grew up all over the country. Today, she lives with her husband not too far away from the Salt River—a hotspot for wild horses.
A hobbyist photographer since retiring as a high school English teacher, Goudge told The Epoch Times: “I didn’t even know there were wild horses in the United States until we moved to Arizona in 2015. Once I first saw them along the Salt River, I was intrigued, and began going out there as often as I could.”
A photo excursion for Salt River horses involves a lot of hiking (3-5 miles). Wild horses in other locations are sometimes hard to find, and thus require a few hours of driving on two-track in an off-road vehicle first, to find the horses, and then a hike from the car to the perfect observation spot.
Apart from the Salt River, Goudge and her husband travel outside Arizona several times a year to see Onaqui wild horses in Utah, wild mustangs at McCullough Peak, Checkerboard horses in Wyoming, and Sand Wash Basin horses in Colorado.
Goudge uses a high shutter speed on her Sony a1 and Sony a9 cameras so she is “ready for the unexpected.” She also uses Sony 100-400mm and 200-600mm lenses, and Lightroom for small adjustments in post-processing: cropping photos, adjusting shadows and highlights, and removing debris.
Used to wading into rivers for better photo angles, Goudge is always prepared and wears quick-drying pants, old tennis shoes, and snake guards. She also takes a camping stool for low angles on dry land, and to allow her to sit and enjoy watching the horses once she has found them.
‘Explosive Action’
Goudge’s subject can be quite unpredictable. She said: “As with all wildlife, you need to respect your subject and keep a safe distance from them ... there have been times when I’ve been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and have had to move quickly as explosive action has broken out.”In the fall of 2021, Goudge and a friend were sitting on a riverbank photographing horses in the water when two bachelor stallions burst through the trees behind them.
“We both quickly scrambled out of the way, as the horses began sparring on the rocky shore,” Goudge said. “One of the horses lost his footing on the rocks and fell over backward. Luckily, he was unharmed, and the horses finished their sparring match and went on their way.”
While Goudge has dodged most of the risks that come with her chosen hobby, she recently suffered from a snake bite. During an impromptu photo excursion on a hot August morning, the day before she left for vacation in Hawaii, she ventured out without her snake guards and paid the price.
She said: “I saw a band heading for the river so I was rushing to get to the water. I felt a hard knock on my lower leg and thought I'd just stepped on a branch ... but when I got in the water my leg really hurt, and a little voice was telling me to get out of the water and check it out.”
When Goudge pulled her pant leg up, she saw two distinct small holes that were bloody. This made her heart sink. Fortunately, there were two photographer friends nearby and one of them happened to be a former EMT.
“She looked at my wound and checked me over, and said she thought it was a ‘dry bite,’ which happens when the snake doesn’t release its venom, but that I needed to go to the ER to make sure,” Goudge said.
Thankfully, she was fine.“My snake guards are now a wardrobe staple!” she said.
The Power of Storytelling
Storytelling is paramount to Goudge who turned to photography after spending years scuba diving with her husband and experiencing a “secret world,” under the surface.“The behavior of ocean creatures fascinated me, and I realized that photos could help tell the story of that behavior,” she said. “I had so much fun with it that I transitioned to photography on land, and became very interested in street photography—once again using photography to tell a story.”
After seeing wild horses at Salt River for the first time, she soon transitioned from street photography to wildlife photography.
Having learned from other wild horse photographers and observed wild horses for over seven years, she has grasped a lot about their behavior, which she hopes to convey through her art.
Wild horses, she says, live in a “structured society with a strong sense of family and strong emotional attachments.” Family “bands” can range in size from a stallion-mare pair to much larger groups comprising a lead stallion, mares, and a lieutenant stallion, sometimes two.
Stallions approaching 3 years old are emancipated from the natal band.
“[It’s] nature’s way of preventing cross-breeding,” Goudge explained. “They don’t understand it at first, and will try to go back to their band, but will be chased away by the band stallion. It’s harsh, but they soon join up with other bachelor stallions and form a band of their own.”
After spending a few years, with other stallions and practicing their sparring skills, they are ready to get a mare of their own and start their own band.
Goudge has seen myriad dramas unfold in her time following wild horses. She has seen newborn foals ready to take their first steps, a band grieving the loss of a foal that passed, and has grown fond of one foal that she looks for on every trip to the same river. She has also seen bands disrupted by outsiders.
Sharing a story, she said: “[One] time, a stallion lost his mare and foal to another stallion and was trying to get them back. I watched for hours ... the original stallion watching them from across the river, being chased away, only to return again and again, and finally making his move.”
Eventually, they all disappeared down a small cliffside to the river, followed closely by the stallion who had stolen them.
“I could hear a mighty uproar ... then the sounds of a horse coming back up,” Goudge said. “I anxiously waited to see which stallion it was, and was happy to see the stallion that had stolen the two horses was returning alone! The little family escaped across the river that day, and I saw them together several times after that.”
One of Goudge’s favorite discoveries has been a large desert expanse where bands of horses gather in the morning.
“The younger stallions would run just for the fun of it,” Goudge said. “They'd soar over the low cacti and run through the washes, making loop after loop. It was incredible hearing the sound of their running, and seeing their manes streaming behind them. I like to think they were experiencing as much joy as we were as we watched them ... truly what being wild and free is all about.”
