March Monthly Highlights
Meet Deb Sutherland
For this volunteer highlight, the Pinto Post interviewed Deb Sutherland, a longtime wild horse photographer and newly-signed-up AWHC documenter. She has such a deep history in the Virginia Range horses and we love to hear her stories and see her beautiful photographs! Take it away, Deb!
I became interested in photographing the wild horses about twelve years ago when a band of wild horses ( Bodie Braveheart’s band) used to wander through our neighborhood then back to the canyon. I live at the base of the Virginia Range and started noticing them after that and I would follow them to the canyon to photograph them. I am a teacher in Lyon County, (almost retired) and I was on my way to work one day when I saw a mare standing guard over two sleeping foals in an empty field near my house. The foals were using each other as pillows, it was so cute, I had to stop and snap a photo of them and from that day on I would find the band in the canyon, spend time with them and photograph them. I would watch their interactions with each other and with other bands on the range, and was amazed how they loved and cared for each other, fought each other for various reasons, and their ever changing family structure still amazes me. I noticed how they were survivors even when things got tough. They became something I loved being with, not just something I photographed. I loved watching their relationships with each other as I watched them grow from foals to stallions and mares, to having foals of their own. I kept track of who was born to whom over a ten year period on a piece of paper I would carry in my camera bag. I still have that paper as a reminder of the wild ones who stole my heart.
I am a documenter, but have assisted with the reuniting of some wild ones who got separated from their bands over the years. These events were so heartwarming to witness and photograph.
When I was asked this year if I wanted to be a documenter for the fertility control program, I was so excited because now my passion for photographing and keeping track of the wild horses can be put to good use and will help them. It is also heartwarming to be able to share past family history about some of the horse bands in my area. I feel very lucky to be able to contribute to the American Wild Horse Campaign using my two passions, photography and the love of wild horses. My husband and I have adopted two wild horses, Spirit Keeper in 2013 and Diamond in 2015. They are a joy to live with and if we had our way we would adopt them all.
Deb Sutherland on the left standing with photographer and AWHC documenter, Ellen Albiter!
A Story About Harriet
By Deb Sutherland
There were over a hundred wild horses in the canyon the day Harriet was born on April 1, 2013. The Virginia Range was dotted with the colors of pintos, blue and red roans, bays, blacks, grays, buckskins! Even the black and white stallion, Canyon Phantom, was there with his pinto and roan family. There was a newborn pinto resting in the sage that caught my eye. Nearby her dam, we called Starlite (AKA Withers), stood guard over her. As I looked closer, I saw the little pinto baby that captured my heart. Her sire was standing close by, making sure his family was safe. We called him Handyman because he had what looked like a white handprint on his left hip.
It was raining softly that day, so I called the tiny foal Little April Showers and I took many pictures of her and her family. I visited them often in the canyon. I watched them drink from the spring on hot summer days. Starlite and Handyman would always cuddle Harriet. After drinking from the spring Handyman would take his family to cool off under the shade of the pinion pine trees. After about a year I didn’t see them in the canyon anymore, they seemed to have disappeared. I thought they must have moved onto a new grazing place.
Last spring while I was out on the range photographing a band of wild horses, I noticed a beautiful pinto mare who looked familiar. A friend of mine, Ellen, compared pictures from a story I had written and noticed that the mare now named Harriet, was indeed Little April Showers all grown up! She lives with Ozzy, her stallion, and has two of the cutest daughters, Peg and Sue. Both her daughters look so much like Harriet when she was young.
I asked Cathy Cottrill, the one who documents the horses in that area, where Harriet and her new family band was. Cathy explained that they just showed up in the valley a while back, along with the Dickens band, who she had fun documenting. I am very happy to see Harriet again! I’m getting to know her new family which has been a great experience. Changes in family bands happen so quickly and Peg has already gone to live with the stallion Apache along with Shaggy’s x-mare Sissy, and her daughter Sunflower. I am so glad I will be able to spend time with Harriet again, but I will always wonder where she and her dam Starlite (AKA Withers) lived all those years that I couldn’t find them.
Harriet and her mom
Little Harriet
Harriet and her mom and dad when she was young!
Harriet all grown up!