Majestic scenes of wild horses roaming free on the range loom large in the American imagination. Yet what many people do not realize is that the federal government regularly rounds up these beautiful animals because it says they are overpopulated on literally nearly 30 million acres of land in the West.
Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West, a new feature-length documentary, chronicles the plight of these wild horses across remote, mountainous wildlands in states ranging from Oregon to South Dakota, Colorado to Utah.
Director Ashley Avis and her crew spent five years traversing more than 20,000 miles across thirteen Western states to film the wild horses in their natural habitat.
While they witnessed scenes of incredible beauty, they also saw horses injured and sometimes killed as they were rounded up and held in confined pens. You can watch the trailer here.
What they saw during the production of the film motivated Avis, who had previously directed the 2020 feature film Black Beauty, to create a nonprofit foundation and a campaign to lobby Congress to protect wild horses.
Avis sat down with Hillary Atkin to discuss the making of this powerful documentary and shining a light on what is being done to safeguard these magnificent animals.
Hillary Atkin: How did you originally get the idea to make Wild Beauty?
Ashley Avis: I grew up with horses, and my great love of them was inspired by equine-themed literature such as Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty and Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion. In 2017, all of this came full circle when I was brought aboard to write, direct, and ultimately edit Black Beauty which starred Kate Winslet, Mackenzie Foy, and Iain Glen and was acquired by Disney+.
It was extremely important to me to honor Anna Sewell’s original intentions for the novel, which has impacted so many people around the world since its publication in the late 1800s. Few people know that Anna Sewell didn’t necessarily write Black Beauty as a children’s book; it was an animal welfare plea for the horses of her time. The cab horses, the carriage horses, the voiceless. She really helped to revolutionize our understanding of animal empathy and intelligence through her work.
And so, in our modern day reimagining of Black Beauty for audiences of today— I wanted to find a parallel to give a voice to the horses of our time. That is when I came across the plight of wild horses— and I was shocked that I didn’t know that this was happening in our country. As I began speaking to other people, I realized how few people knew.
And so, to authentically show real wild horses in Black Beauty, Ed and I raised a little bit of financing back in 2018 to go out in the wild— to Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada. We filmed wild horses and their families free on the range, stunning images of stallions battling for dominance and also these astounding quiet moments, where those same brave stallions became deeply gentle and delicate— standing over their foals (baby horses) as the little ones slept in the sun. Some days when we would hike out to find them, we would have hundreds of horses surrounding us, breathing gently, nickering softly— the sky would look flecked with gold. It truly was magic, and inspired the use of the Henry David Thoreau quote in the film— “We need the tonic of wildness.” I wish for every person, that they could go out and experience what we did.
Atkin: But you found the underbelly of these majestic scenes.
Avis: Juxtaposed however all of this beauty were the roundups. Wild horses, right now in our country, are being eradicated in the most inhumane and cruel way. It’s preposterous to me that these roundups are even legal, and the problem again is— people just do not know.
Wild horses are chased by low flying helicopters, which stampede them for miles— sometimes in extreme heat, or dangerously cold temperatures. Horses are highly intelligent and deeply bonded with their families, and they break their legs and necks trying to escape, or get back to one another. Day old foals are trampled, or literally run their hooves off. In a word, it is horrifying.
From there, the horses who survive are put in government holding facilities, some never to gallop again. These places are often cramped, some don’t even have shade. Every year, thousands of horses are flipped into the slaughter pipeline— to suffer unimaginable fates in Canada and Mexico.
These roundups are being conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, and helicopter contractors are awarded millions to do this work. One of the “preferred “ contractors for the BLM, Cattoor Livestock Roundup Inc., has been awarded over $30 million— despite Dave Cattoor being accused of, and pleading guilty to a federal crime in using his aircraft to “hunt” wild horses for the purposes of “capturing them, killing them, and sending them to slaughter.” He was only fined $500, and the BLM is still hiring Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc.
This year alone in Nevada, over 30 horses were killed in a single roundup— including one palomino (golden) stallion well-known to photographers because of his beauty. That horse bravely jumped the fence, and suffered a compound fracture to his back leg. The helicopter, along with a cowboy on horseback,— proceeded to chase him for more than half an hour in unimaginable pain before he was shot.
Despite all this, the BLM still considers roundups “humane.” Chasing a highly intelligent, federally protected flight animal with a chopper in 2023 is without question animal cruelty. There is nothing “humane” about this.
The roundups are ultimately being conducted to appease a small group of well-funded special interests who want the horses gone. Namely, tax-subsidized livestock companies who want to graze their cattle and sheep at a massive subsidy on our public land. And who is paying for it? We are. We, the American public, are paying for wild horses to be rounded up, incarcerated, and killed so that a select few can make millions of dollars by destroying the ecological balance of our public lands.
That is why we made Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West. To show people the astonishing beauty, and desperate plight, of these creatures.
Atkin: It’s your first documentary, so what did you take from your experience directing scripted features into this genre?
Avis: The goal is to get people to care about the individual horses, so it was helpful to have a background as a narrative filmmaker in how I approached this. In a narrative film, if you care about the hero, or the hero’s friends— you connect with and care about their plight or larger journey. And so, we very much wanted to thread the individual stories of these horses so that people would connect. Ultimately horses, just like humans, feel a great range of deep emotions— love, joy, anger, fear.
What was miraculous was that those individual horses, and their families, really found us along the way. The Onaqui horses of Utah, who are in Black Beauty (featured as Beauty’s’ wild family) became the herd we followed most— and we got to know their different personalities. There was the mysterious Old Man, a 30-year-old stallion who it took us years to finally meet; the powerful Stargazer, a stunning pinto who captivated our imaginations but was tragically rounded up in 2021; the comical blue-eyed stallion Norman (who was tragically shot by the BLM this year); and a darling foal called Suncatcher who we eventually found out had a happy ending with an adopter who loves her.
These are individuals, and families, and so in portraying them emotionally and truthfully that way, we’ve received such beautiful reactions from audience members. And hopefully even for some of the horses that didn’t make it, their legacies will go on in inspiring people around the world to fight for the protection of wild horses. Those losses cannot be in vain.
Atkin: Tell me about the post-production of the film.
Avis: Editing the film was also deeply important, and also incredibly difficult for me emotionally. I have been editing my own work for over fifteen years, including Black Beauty. But trying to cut this while reliving the roundups over and over again— at certain points I thought would break me. But I had to stay with it, for the horses.
Interestingly, the film found its voice along the way. Initially, I thought we were going to approach the film like an indie Planet Earth with a celebrity narrator taking audiences through the journey. But as our filming became progressively journalistic, and we became bolder in how we approached the BLM, eventually culminating with the decision to go undercover— that approach changed. I never intended the project to become personal, but it ended up happening that way. I think the film led us in the direction is wanted to be.
Atkin: What else does the public need to know about the roundup of wild horses and why the federal government says it needs to be done?
Avis: The public needs to know there is a massive disinformation campaign being effectively publicized by the Bureau of Land Management, stating wild horses are “overpopulated, starving, and they are being rounded up for their own good.” This is false.
The BLM has created a false narrative about wild horses to justify its actions as a puppet for the commercial livestock industry. The cattle lobby has poured millions of dollars into a campaign against wild horses. They are using them as a scapegoat to draw attention away from the real facts: cattle and sheep are destroying the rangeland.
The eradication of wild horses ties right into the destruction and mass killing of other species to appease ranchers and hunters— wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, grizzly bears. These anti species work together to maintain the ecological balance of our world. Look what wolves did for Yellowstone. How are we not doing a better job at protecting that?
Atkin: So you’re saying the bottom line is that cattle and sheep are the real problems and wild horses are the scapegoats for overgrazing?
Avis: In a peer review of BLM’s own data, the findings show that 72% of rangeland degradation is being done by livestock, not wild horses. The figure is under 1% for wild horses, in combination with livestock! The BLM is certainly not publicizing those numbers.
Instead, they have released over 1,000 press release since 2010 alone about wild horses being a problem. They are knowingly misleading the public, and therefore this is by very definition a disinformation campaign. And the agency unfortunately has been so effective that news media often gets it wrong. You’ll see stories about wild horses being overpopulated, and it’s simply not true.
There are only approximately (most experts believe) about 60,000 wild horses and burros across 245 million acres of public land. Talk about a drop in the bucket.
Atkin: You created a nonprofit foundation and continue the efforts to get Congress to pass the Wild Horses And Burros Protection Act. Where does that stand now?
Avis: I formed the Wild Beauty Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit in 2020 while I was editing Black Beauty. The organization began when I saw a wild horse caught in the slaughter pipeline, a beautiful but terrified and deeply emaciated gray filly. She was in Texas, about to be shipped across the brother to Mexico to be killed for meat unless she was purchased. This is part of a major problem with the BLM’s adoption incentive program— wild horses are being “adopted” and flipped illegally into the slaughter pipeline, and there is virtually no accountability. Thousands of horses have been lost this way.
The day I decided to rescue her (along with my ever-patient and supportive husband Ed), we decided to rescue all the horses in her group— thirteen horses in all different ages, breeds, some were pregnant, some were wild. That’s where my Black Beauty bonus money all went!! And The Wild Beauty Foundation was born.
I found and vetted adopters for each of those horses, and some of them went to children as therapy horses. I know one little girl would probably not be alive today if she had not been paired with her horse, who was also deeply abused. It is incredible how horses and humans can heal each other.
From there, I began doing discussions with children in schools— comparing or contrasting Black Beauty with Wild Beauty and encouraging kids to help. In 2021 we began a letter writing campaign called “I Stand With Wild Horses” encouraging children and teens to write letters to their lawmakers. We have received thousands of letters around the world. It’s incredible, the power of storytelling.
We have now been to Washington D.C. with Wild Beauty twice, most recently screening for Members of Congress and staff in June. We brought a real (rescued) wild horse to greet guests in front of the Warner Theater, and the evening before we projected our footage of the roundups against the Department of the Interior with acclaimed advocacy projectionist Robin Bell. We’re trying to creatively find any way we can to get people, and lawmakers, pay attention.
Next February, we will be returning to Washington D.C. to screen within the Capitol. We are trying to use the film as a tool to help support The Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act (H.R. 3656) which if passed, would eliminate the use of helicopters in the roundups. This bill is about animal cruelty, and no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, an empathetic individual should get behind that.
Atkin: What happened to the families of horses that you followed in Wild Beauty? Surely there must be some positive outcomes.
Avis: Moondrinker was left free on the range, but the resplendent stallion Stargazer and his family were round up in 2021. It was heartbreaking beyond belief to watch them chased by the chopper. Suncatcher, the young foal, was part of the melee too.
Suncatcher thankfully was adopted by a wonderful wild horse photographer, along with his favorite mare Northstar and they are now living together.
Norman and Rowan, part of the three “amigos” which included a stallion called Rudy— were shot and killed by the BLM.
The Pearlino sisters wound up at auction, but were thankfully both adopted by two different individuals. Sadly, they were not reunited.
Old Man was left wild, though we never saw him again. Most think he has now passed away, the way a wild horse should— free on the range.
Atkin: You had a number of experts in the film giving their points of view as well, including a wildlife photographer.
Avis: We were so fortunate to have such a great team of experts. Biologist Erik Molvar is the Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project, Dr. Yvette Running Horse Collin, PHD was tasked by several tribal nations to prove the wild horse never died out during the Ice Age, which— if she is successful— would be massively disruptive to the cattle industry, because wild horses would finally be protected as they should be.
Wild horses evolved in North America 55 million years ago, and the Lakota and other Indigenous Peoples state they always had the horse, it was never introduced to them by the Spanish. Why are we not also paying attention to Indigenous culture and science?
Kimerlee Curyl is a wild horse photographer, and Scott Beckstead is an attorney— one of the leading wild horse experts in the world. It’s a great team.
Atkin: Describe the auctions of these wild horses that are rounded up and what happens to them after that.
Avis: The BLM has something called the Adoption Incentive Program, where they will pay you $1,000 to adopt a wild horse. You pay them just $25. Now, that might sound like a lot of money, but it often barely pays the trailing fee. Horses are expensive, and a wild horse is an addition responsibility to gentle and train. However, some of these horses have gone on to be therapy horses, NYPD horses, they are just incredible animals.
However, as the New York Times exposed, duplicitous people are using this system to “adopt” wild horses and flip them into the slaughter pipeline, taking their $1,000 per horse and then getting paid for the horse a second time at auction, where kill buyers purchase them to sell them for their meat. Let me reiterate these are federally protected wild horses. But the agency doesn’t seem to care.
I am trying to fundraise to help save 45 wild horses, families featured in our film, from the forests of Arizona. They were rounded up this year. The contractor who did it made from what I am told by a reputable source (*Salt River Wild Horse Management Group) over $2 million for the “operation”— and then refused to allow these horses to be adopted by reputable equine organizations who wanted to save them. That contractor then flipped these horses into the Bowie Auction in Texas (for a profit), a place we also feature in the film where I go undercover.
Right now, these horses are being bid on by kill buyers. We are doing everything we can, and have rallied other organizations to step in, too. This is about teamwork. What an example of a flawed, deeply broken, and corrupt federal system.
Atkin: What was it like dealing with BLM employees as you made the film?
Avis: The BLM attempted to stop us at every turn. Of course they didn’t want us to see what they were doing. Often our crew was placed on a mountain with little visibility of the helicopters, and they would make us stand behind trees or boulders saying it was “for safety.”
Very often, the BLM will hide the trap-site altogether. This is the corral area, where the wild horses are stampeded into a narrow enclosure, and they break their necks, legs, the foals get trampled by the adult horses. It’s horrifying. But they didn’t want us filming that, of course. We only got a full few of a trap-site once, after we worked with a group called Friends of Animals to threaten a lawsuit against the BLM.
To date, the BLM has not made a public statement about the film, though one of their publicists who we interviewed has taken to social media a bit. Let’s just say, she’s not a fan of me.
Atkin: What are your next steps with Wild Beauty?
Avis: Next up we are launching “Wild Horse Week” this December, releasing curriculum we’ve been working on for over a year with our experts, geared toward children. We’re continuing our national letter writing campaign for kids and teens to speak out for the horses to their lawmakers— and early next year we will be going back to Washington D.C. to screen at the Capitol for Members of Congress.
We hope the film will do what Blackfish or The Cove did for their respective species, and make change— before we lose our wild world. That would be a travesty, not just for us— but future generations.
Atkin: What are you hoping the audience will feel from watching this documentary?
Avis: I would like audiences to come away from the film feeling passionate, and angry, but also inspired by the astonishing wild world we still have. We cannot lose it. I desperately want people to care about protecting these horses, who are thinking, and feeling, and emotional, with families just like us.
If people are moved, I would like them to call their Members of Congress and tell them this cruelty must stop, and H.R. 3656 needs to pass. I would love for children to write more letters. People can help spread the word by sharing our film trailer and using the hashtag #istandwithwildhorses.
I’ve been asked why I chose to do this, given there is so much going on in the word. I think that we all have our corner of the planet we are passionate about fighting for, and this is mine. If we all picked a corner, and fought for it, I think the world would be a much better place.
