June Monthly Highlights
Meet Marty Wright
This month, the Pinto Post sat down with documenter, photographer and story-teller extraordinaire to talk all things wild horses!
PINTO POST: How did you get involved in wild horses?
MARTY WRIGHT: I’ve been involved with horses most of my life. I was a barrel racer as a kid and a horse show announcer as an adult. A friend and I came out west a few years ago and saw an advertisement about a wild horse tour near Reno. We booked two days with a guy named Mark Terrell. The first horses we saw looked like ants on a hillside in the Pine Nut Mountains, but we were thrilled. The second day, Mark took us up to a spring high in the Virginia Range. There were several wild horse bands up there but the one that spoke to me was a dark bay stallion with about 30 in his family band. His name was Bodie and I was smitten. I watched him move his band down the mountain and across the valley below. I was fascinated when I saw how the family behaved so orderly. Part of the way down, he turned back to look at me and I knew I had found my new home.
PP: What is your favorite part of documenting?
MW: I love finding the bands that I’ve followed for years, photographing the babies, watching them grow up, and updating the band changes.
PP: Why are wild horses special to you?
I get so much pleasure from watching them, being with them, sometimes I think I’ve caught a disease!
MW: How long have you been involved in helping wild horses?
After my wild horse tour in 2014, I went back to Houston and started researching the issues about the wild horses. A year later I sold everything I owned, bought a Jeep, and headed to Reno.
PP: What is/was your day job?
I’m a Texas Real Estate Broker and I take folks on wild horse tours out here. I photograph and make people aware of the wild horses on my facebook page, Wild Horses Carry Me Away
MW: Anything else you would like us to know?
Wild horses are my passion, I love being with them.
Marty diversionary feeding! Photo credit: Ian C. Bates for the New York Times