Thirty years ago, Ginger Kathrens was perched on a remote spot in the Pryor Mountains, set up with a camera and a long lens that shot out like a cannon. From the corner of her eye, she noticed movement along a tree line, out of which came trotting a beautiful, feral Palomino with a newborn foal following close behind. Nearly white, Kathrens named the newborn Cloud. For years, Kathrens followed and documented Cloud, producing a film for PBS in 2001: Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies. A sequel soon arrived after: Cloud’s Legacy: The Wild Stallion Returns.
The Cloud Foundation
In addition to being an Emmy-winning documentarian, Kathrens is the founder and board chair of The Cloud Foundation, an organization named after the free-roaming white foal she first encountered 30 years ago. The nonprofit is headquartered in Colorado Springs and works to protect, preserve, and prevent the extinction of wild horses on ranges across the West. From Colorado to California, The Cloud Foundation works in regions of Oregon, Wyoming, Montana and elsewhere.
“We work to keep herds of wild horses in viable numbers—or grow them to viable numbers,” Kathrens says. “Some herds are really quite small, and you need to have around 150 horses for a viable herd. Maintaining herds in these numbers prevents inbreeding.”
A viable herd is a group of animals genetically diverse and healthy enough to survive and thrive. Inbreeding, and its lack of genetic variation, can lead to the loss of adaptive capacity. Small, isolated herds lose genetic diversity more quickly than larger populations.
“We’re determined to protect wild horses on public lands, especially isolated herds with unique characteristics and historical significance,” continues Kathrens. “We could lose these herds forever unless we fight for them.”
In addition to predators and daunting weather, over-management by humans is jeopardizing the future survival of wild horses, with competition from livestock ranchers being a primary cause.
“There's always been this push-pull between livestock producers and wild horses on public lands, because wild horses are grazers and compete with livestock for forage,” says Kathrens. “There's a lot of herds that have been zeroed out, and Colorado doesn't have very many herds left.”
Family + Freedom
Kathrens stresses that family and freedom are vital to wild horses.
“Wild horses have family units called bands, and it's easy to anthropomorphize them,” she says. “It's hard not to use comparative or complimentary language when they have many characteristics of a human family, with a mother, father, youngsters and yearlings.”
The horses have personalities, too. Cloud was a dominant, confident and curious horse—and also fathered a female named Encore.
“Encore looks like Cloud; she's just a beautiful, pale Palomino,” says Kathrens. “Even though Cloud is no longer with us, she's certainly a wonderful memory of him. She's plucky like him. She's very strong-willed. Us girls out there on the range think she's pretty cool.”
Through The Cloud Foundation, Kathrens and her team work to educate the public on how they can help support the preservation of wild horses here in Colorado and across the West.
“In Colorado, herds have been cut down a lot in size,” says Kathrens. “It’s not as easy to witness wild horses, even compared to just a few years ago. It’s pretty wondrous to behold, to see wild horses running free. They are a symbol of freedom, and of our own freedom.”
Website: https://www.thecloudfoundation.org/
Facebook + Instagram: @TheCloudFoundation