Dust fills the air. Gracefully, tentatively, these powerful animals dance around one another on vast prairies bathed in the golden light of day. Watching these gentle giants, they seem like creatures from a bygone era. Watching them, we discover how much we share in common with these tender, regal, free spirited animals.

Photographer and painter Caroline Christie captured images of these wild horses during several journeys to Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, Pilot Butte WY , The Pryor Mountains in Montana, The High Deserts of Nevada and The Sand Wash Basin in Northwest Colorado. There, Christie found herself drawn to the ballet-like interplay between these horses, especially pairs of them, who maneuvered around each other like tango dancers tentatively sizing up a new partner. Viewing the dynamics of family bonds between horses and the intensity of the stallions in a wild chase is so inspiring to see. To hear the hoof beats of a wild horses is a memorable experience. It makes you feel like you are in another world.

Christie was captivated by the immense landscape of America’s Western frontier, which can still be found in picturesque places like the vast corner of Idaho.

Christie was also drawn to the Island of Assateague, VA/MD where she found herself wrapped up in the dynamic energy of the pristine shores of the eastern coast and the wild spirits of the ponies of Chincoteague.

Cumberland Island, GA is also a place all of it’s own, old world stories of Carnegie riches and the roaming horses of Cumberland Island is a beautiful mysterious place that captured Christie’s imagination. The energy of the water combined with the ponies untamed souls was a great inspiration.