For #WildHorseWednesday! Sheldon and the dirty boys! A spring scene from the north Onaqui range with a group of young bachelors, Sheldon, Paco and Sidney.
It's #FoalFriday! And everyone loves the babies, even big brothers. I love this family scene as it shows the close connection between family members in the wild.
#WildHorseWednesday! Get Off My Cloud! A wild stallion runs out, whinnying loudly to warn off an approaching stallion. Letting him know clearly that he is not welcome. I love the sound of thundering hooves and whinnies!
I don't just photograph wild horses! I actually spend most of my time photographing equine events and portraits. Here is a portrait shot I took last weekend of a young AQHA Perlino stallion who is looking for girlfriends for the fall 😁. This was for his stud flyer.
Every year, the bloom of thousands of almond trees in California spurs one of the world’s largest, albeit artificial, migrations of animals; as billions of #honeybees are loaded onto trucks and sent to deliver lucrative pollination fees for their human keepers.
This insect odyssey ensures paydays for often struggling beekeepers, the production of most of the world’s almonds, and increasingly, an opportunity for enterprising thieves.
Standing in the way of the bee rustlers — often alone — is #Rowdy#Freeman, a deputy at the Butte County Sheriff’s Office in California’s Central Valley.
Freeman is a steely sort of bee detective. Angular, with a shaved head and fond of wearing wrap-around sunglasses, the taciturn deputy is a beekeeper himself and is aghast at how hive thefts have become so ubiquitous.
Last year, according to Freeman calculations, a record of more than 🔸2,300 honeybee hives were stolen in the Central Valley🔸.
This year’s thefts could easily surpass that number, with Freeman recording nearly 2,000 hives stolen already.
Despite the growing scale of this crime, Freeman is typically the only law enforcement officer working with beekeepers to track the stolen hives and their thieves.
“I’m trying to get more help for this because it’s become a major problem, it’s getting out of control,” Freeman said.
While California has state branches devoted to stamping out the theft of #horses or #cattle, no such task force exists for bees, he notes with no small amount of envy and frustration.
The federal government is also uninterested in the issue, despite what Freeman describes as clear-cut evidence that stolen hives have been transported over state lines @thebeeguy @ai6yr @firephoto
From the archives: The rules of barrel racing, the only female-dominated rodeo sport, are simple. It’s the execution that’s hard. https://www.texasobserver.org/on-a-dime/
Can the French #wine industry adapt fast enough to #climate change?
“We’re going back to ancient ways.” To deal with erratic frosts, he has begun pruning his vines later in the year, which postpones bud emergence. To cope with drought & high temps, he’s created higher canopies of leaves that provide more shade to the grapes. He works the land with #horses, rather than tractors, to preserve the health of the soil, & 6 years ago he started to plant annual vegetation around the vines to retain winter & spring water into the summer. In the summer, he cuts the annuals back to create “a sponge of #organic matter” that continues to hold water & cool the soil.
More & more French wine-makers are following a similar path. “The more climate-resilient or smart the vineyard is, the better able to adapt to climate change." They’re seeing the importance of regenerative farming that focuses on natural resources & the need to mitigate their impacts." #permaculturehttps://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02974-y
Prancing into #WildHorseWednesday! This wild gray stallion on Utah's west desert demonstrates the trot for all the dressage people out there. All natural, no aids needed, lol.
#WildHorseWednesday! Two wild stallions greet each other on a dusty ridge. AKA 'you put your left foot out', lol. They snorted, pawed and went on their way.