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How a devoted filmmaker and a charismatic Palomino put a face and personality on the movement to preserve wild horses.
Documented on film from the day of his birth on May 29, 1995, Cloud is the pale palomino wild stallion whose life in the Pryor Mountains of Montana has put a face on the wild horse preservation movement. “I’ve known him since he was a couple hours old,” says Emmy Award-winning producer and cinematographer Ginger Kathrens. “I was there when his mother brought him tottering out of the forest in front of my camera. His father, Raven, followed the family, protecting them from the rear.”
For 16 years since, Kathrens has chronicled Cloud’s epic drama on the designated range of roughly 40,000 acres where his band lives amid the mountains the Crow Indians call the Arrowheads. (At times, the band also “illegally” roams part of the Custer National Forest, where their ancestors lived for centuries.) From establishing his own band to surviving extreme snowstorms to beating three Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundups (he was released and returned to the wild each time), Cloud’s is the story of Western resilience and determination.
“If you could have witnessed the 2009 roundup ... . He stood up to the helicopter that was driving them in,” says the filmmaker, who caught much of the stallion’s protective behavior toward his band on camera both as they were herded (by helicopter) toward the capture corrals and several days later when they were released, minus four singled out for adoption. Rather than run for the hills the moment he and his diminished band were set free, Cloud initially tried to drive his remaining mares back to the corrals in quest of the missing members. “He tried to get the rest of his family,” Kathrens says. When Cloud eventually gave up and thundered off with the remaining members of his band, Kathrens knew she’d seen wild horse stallion behavior she’d never observed before.
Besides the threats of roundups, other dangers lend a sense of urgency to the preservation effort Cloud has come to symbolize. There’s the loss of wild range habitat. And birth control measures mean declining populations of wild horses. “2010 is probably going to be the last big foal crop since the mares have been given infertility drugs. ... For Cloud to leave a lasting legacy, these offspring have to be protected, particularly Echo,” says Kathrens, who has also followed the unusual upbringing of Cloud’s only son, Bolder, who fathered Echo, Cloud’s look-alike grandson. “Echo was probably 3 weeks old when I first saw him. It’s not so much that he’s a pale palomino like his grandfather, it’s that he embodies his indomitable spirit.”
Kathrens’ hope — and the hope of The Cloud Foundation she has established — is for a future that allows continued freedom for not just Cloud and his Pryor Mountains herd but for all the wild horses of the West. “Cloud is an ambassador,” she says. “He’s put a face and personality behind the wild horse preservation movement. I do think he is incredibly spirited, powerful, and brave, but there are others out there like him.”
C&I talked to Kathrens about the joys and challenges of filming her favorite band of horses in the wild.
Cowboys & Indians: When you first filmed Cloud, how did you happen to be there?
Ginger Kathrens: I had picked up a friend from Southern California. We had gone [to Montana]. I had been filming wild horses in the area for about a year, and on this trip, we were just going for three days over Memorial Day. We were about halfway up the mountain and we were filming a stallion who had left to play with bachelor stallions. His son was trying to breed [one of] his mares, a newly acquired young mare, and the mare was kicking him. The father came back. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white coming through the trees and I panned my lens on it. We were probably 50 feet away. Cloud’s mother brought this toddling little newborn out of the trees, and they just passed by in front of my camera. Here I had this great big lens on, so I had to zoom back to the 150 millimeter portion — the widest that that particular lens would go — and just try to keep everything in frame. It was kind of a relief when they walked away from me because I could finally get them in focus. I remember turning to my friend and saying, “Do you know how special this is?” It was years later before I realized how very special it was. That was in 1995, and here I am still documenting this one wild animal. It’s the only documentation of its kind in our hemisphere.
C&I: Normally when you go up there, do you have a place in mind or feeling about where the horses might be?
Kathrens: Over the years you learn what their habits are. If you’ve seen Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions, which is the newest
Cloud film, we looked and looked for Cloud. He was in an area he’d never used before, so sometimes you really get thrown for a loop. In general, I figure it will take three days to figure out what’s going on. That’s in the summertime. You see where things are and try to figure out where the ones are you’re looking for, which is Cloud’s family, his son Bolder’s family, and his stepson Flint’s family. These are the characters that are most important in the story of Cloud. Then, you have all the peripheral characters like the newborn foals and Cloud’s grandson Echo, who was born last year. Seeing him for the first time was wonderful as well.
C&I: What does it take to document wild horses on film and follow a particular stallion and his band?
Kathrens: In the winter it’s sometimes almost impossible to find horses. This past winter we hiked out to the edge of Big Coulee Canyon [in Montana], from the west looking east, and we started with spotting scopes panning on every little section of that vast Tillet Ridge. We spotted Cloud almost directly across from us, but miles away. It was wonderful to see him and see the family, but there was snow that prevented us from getting any farther to access him. We were going to go home [the next day], which is a 600-mile drive.
C&I: But then you decided to wait one more night and unexpectedly spotted Cloud somewhere that you could actually film ... .
Kathrens: We were driving on the low country dirt roads and happened to look back into what they call Turkey Flat — in the low red desert country. Cloud had come all the way down the mountain. We made a plan. We were able to drive on the other side of the red desert and then we hiked about three miles. We spent two-and-a-half or three hours with him and his family. We were doing some HD filming and just watching and just soaking in the wonder. It’s so peaceful. Someone said to me, “He knew you were there.” I don’t know about that, but you do wonder why they came down. Of course, there was new little green grass coming up around the sage in the desert. Yet, other people believe he knew I was there.
C&I: How many people were with you and what were you lugging along three miles?
Kathrens: We had a tripod and a camera and three still cameras and various lenses, so it was a significant amount of stuff. I had my intern Catherine Stokes from New York and [former] intern Lauryn Wachs, who’s now become an employee. Had there been only me, I would have hiked out there anyway, but probably taken only still equipment. I don’t think the HD camera weighs over 15 pounds; the tripod probably weighs 15 pounds. We also had the still cameras. I don’t think we had over 50 pounds of gear with us, but we could split it in three, so that helps. Then we had food and water with us.
C&I: What other logistics are involved when you film the horses in the wild?
Kathrens: You never know. In the winter, the most difficult logistical thing is getting to the horses. You can see them from a vast distance, but you absolutely can’t get there because there are canyons choked with snow. So that’s very difficult. Over the years, you kind of know where you think they might be. It’s much easier in the summer because the horses are vertical migrators and they come to the mountaintop in summer.
C&I: But that mountaintop has become a problem, and you’re in court with the U.S. Forest Service and BLM over it ... .
Kathrens: What’s very difficult is that when the horses come this summer [2011], they’re going to find a huge fence that will prevent them from going to their high meadows. It was constructed by the Forest Service last fall. That’s a very immediate concern and that’s why we’re in court again with the Forest Service and BLM — to try to get that fence taken down. When the horses would normally go up to their highest meadows, there is this fence there. They’ve used this area for hundreds of years and now it’s suddenly inaccessible. We feel it’s illegal and unfair. The [Forest Service and BLM are] jeopardizing Cloud and his family and his herd because they don’t want horses on Forest Service land.
