It was late in the evening, and I was on my way to Heron lake south of Chama to photograph the water in the snowstorm. As I turned off the main highway on the road to the lake, I looked off to my left to the meadow. Through the blowing snow I saw a red stallion running with the wind and the snow. I saw him circle the meadow two or three times. The speed of this horse in the blowing snow captivated me. I never made it to the lake.

I grabbed my camera and ran out into the meadow with the horse. I felt his wildness. There was no fear in either of us. As he circled the meadow again, I knelt down in his path. As he approached me in a full gallop, I felt the earth and the snow trembling.

He looked much wilder at 50 yards away than when I sat comfortably in my truck. I held the camera and focused on him thinking he would stop for a simple portrait. He kept running. When he saw that I was not going to move, he crossed his back legs trying to stop, dragging them in the snow. At 15 feet away, I got this image of this wild horse.

I wondered why he was acting so crazy. Then I saw her standing behind some scrub chamisas about 50 yards away. They were preparing for courtship in a snowstorm and I was not supposed to be there with a camera at such an intimate moment.