This is a NO picture post on purpose.

Dear photographers and advocates,

Let the subject of your photography be more important than the photo itself. Keep the focus on their well being, not on the many awwws and ohhhs you get, for posting a foal first.

The average survival rate for Salt River foals to make it to their first birthday is only 70%, with their first two weeks of life having the greatest risk, especially when born in extreme heat. There are not a lot of foals on the river this year because of our successful birth control program. Therefore we want the few that are born, to have their best chances.

Publishing young foals who are extremely vulnerable during their first two weeks, while it does not seem like a big deal- that very act puts them at more risk from crowds of photographers and visitors. While most people love them, and respect them, there are also people who do not respect them and there are sadly also people who hate them.

Have you heard of the story of the much loved broccoli tree? 🥦 Not unlike the broccoli tree, the Salt River wild horses are sometimes too popular for their own good. Could we possibly love them too much?

This is why we kindly ask photographers on all of our pages to wait 2 weeks before posting the brand new foals. If you’ve seen them posted somewhere, please do not like that, as it encourages more people to find them and take pictures, and more and more, until they have no minute rest left. (The same goes for injured horses)

This is not a rule, it’s not the law, and its not even a guideline. You can think and do what you like, we are just letting you know what we have learned and recorded from our daily experiences.

Our inherent need to protect the horses is larger than the national attention we would get for posting the adorable foals first. We respectfully ask the same consideration from all of our own volunteers, our supporters, and also of all of the photographers who truly care.

People who are currently posting the pictures were not the first ones to see them. We want to thank everyone so much, who have also seen the adorable foals, but are holding their amazing pictures without posting them. We will promote those pictures, (of the photographers who care more about the horses than about credit). We will promote them exactly on their two week celebration of life, because there is a very real chance that they do not make it that far.

We hope that all supporters of the Salt River wild horses understand where we are coming from. We hope that people can see the “bigger picture”.

Purposely NOT posting a picture,

SRWHMG.