Photographing the Strength and Beauty of Rescued Horses | National Geographic
- [Katie] These are the horses that don't fit in in any other place. All of these abandoned animals were getting sent to slaughter. They would have been killed. I think what they're doing here is incredible.
I'm born and raised in New York City. I still live here and base here even though most of my work is pretty far away and abroad. You get into the city life, and it's really important to get away from all of that and to go somewhere that's closer to nature, but also have the opportunity to slow down.
I'm on assignment for National Geographic. I'm going up to Rosemary Farm Sanctuary, which is a horse rescue in upstate New York. It's this really interesting place where horses are living a life that you're not accustomed to seeing. They're letting animals live in a really different and unique way, and the animals are relating to people in a really unique way.
I hope that I can capture that with the images and people can read this story, and maybe it's just a break from the normal news that they're looking at. Every story that you tell doesn't have to be so dark and difficult and gritty.
Nemo is an unusual donkey. This is not normal donkey behavior. When he was at the hospital and we had his leg amputated and they started teaching him how to wear his prosthetic, they spent a lot of time with him. And one person would sit at his head and cuddle and the other person would put the leg on. And so he developed this routine.
[Katie] Something I really wanted to capture was putting on Nemo's prosthetic leg, and I know it's just a really big part of their daily routine there for the people, but then also for Nemo.
[Man] Come on, Nemo, you wanna come out?
[Katie] He was injured when he was really little, and it's not normal for equine animals to live if they lose a leg.
Come on, Nemo.
[Katie] It's pretty cool to watch the journey of this really resilient and inspiring little creature. He's ready, let's go Nemo. Hey, beauty.
I never know where I'm gonna find inspiration. It oftentimes comes from stories and sometimes it comes from chance. There's this energy here, so that's something I really wanted to take.
I really wanted to sort of capture a moment where you could feel the energy of all the horses as one, the feeling of them as a herd and the strength of that. But it's also dangerous. These are really powerful creatures and there's also, a lot of them, they were put up to slaughter because they won't obey and they won't act like what people consider a normal horse to act like, and that's okay, they get to be free there, but then I'm on their turf.
With everything that's going on in the world, especially what's happening to the environment, it's almost like photographing a way of life where there's this really deep connection with nature and this interconnectedness between people and animals, it's almost like you're capturing history.
This is just as important as any huge news story. It's just a little harder to grasp. When I've shot something special, I know immediately. Everything comes together and it just says something much more than what you're seeing in front of you. (intense electronic music)