RED WING, Minn. — For as long as she can remember, Deb Lee Carson has had horses.
“I think I had 26 of them when I graduated high school,” she said.
Growing up on a dairy farm, her family used horses to help with their work.
Now she’s expanding her passion to be a voice for those horses who need one.
She’s been in photography since 1999, and an epiphany in 2014 got her to realize her art’s mission.
With six horses of her own as her models and a community of friends who support her, Carson is making a difference.
What about your background on a dairy farm influenced you to do what you do?
When my mom was pregnant with me, she rode horse. She still has the farm just north of Spring Valley. Dad would __have steers every year, and we didn’t __have enough of our own pasture, so we’d have to drive them to summer pastures. That was always very cool for me. I just loved using my horse to do that. I was really involved with FFA, when women were just starting to get involved. I received the state horse proficiency award.
My dad milked about 60 cows. He built the first milking parlor in the state the year I was born. It’s a four-stall, two doubles. They come in head-to-tail. You’d be in a pit and milk four cows at a time. We had to do chores before we could do sports. Just that work ethic and that passion for the land was already there, and the horses, of course. I am ever so thankful for the opportunity to have been raised on a farm. I wish more people could spend more time in agriculture to understand what makes this country tick. We feed America.
How did you get into photography?
That came about because of one of those life-changing moments. I was engaged to a man, and he was killed in a work-related accident in the Lanesboro area. I took my horse Annie, got in my car and went to Texas looking for a job. I’d always wanted to work on a ranch. I got a job at the Babcock Ranch in Gainesville, Texas as a secretary. One of their customers hired me away to a quarter horse ranch in Fayetteville, Tenn. My main job was to make sure their mares and customer mares foaled okay.
Then his brother, who lived in Newcastle, Va., invited me to work for him on a beef ranch in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I was like, ‘Sure!’ That spring I was there, and the forest on the eastern edge of the ranch was the Shenandoah National Forest. All his land was tree-covered and rolling. The whole forest was covered in these little pink flowers called spring beauties. There was pink everywhere. And I thought, ‘How can I remember that?’ I talked to Rodney and he said he had a camera and would show me how to use it. It was a Pentex K-1000. And that’s where it started. I just connected with that. That was about 1999. I’d been around photographers, like my niece Carrie. We grew up with cameras around the house. But I’d never pursued it.
How did that morph into photography of wild horses?
In October 2014, my husband, Michael, and I self-promoted an event called ‘Celebrate the Year of the Horse,’ because it was the Year of the Horse in Chinese zodiac. We held it at a vineyard just over the hill from here. That went surprisingly well. I put together a slide show for it. I was sitting there with my friend Deb Fjetland, and a quote that I used came across that said ‘Fly Without Wings.’ I physically had a reaction to those words. What it said to me was that I need to photograph the wild horses and use my art to be a voice for them.
I was familiar with wild horses. In 2012 I made a trip to Teddy Roosevelt National Park, that’s when I first met Blaze, Pinnacles’s sire. There was something so spiritual about him that tied all of the passion to the wildness. I was aware of their plight. I’d been thinking about doing a project like that. But when I had that epiphany, that’s when I knew what I was supposed to do. I still get goosebumps when I think about it.
I knew the only way I could study them and learn their stories was basically to live with them for an extended time. The Fjetlands knew there was this study going on in the North Dakota Badlands with Colorado State University about contraceptives, and they suggested I apply for a research tech job. I was brought on as a volunteer technician. I got hired to work this year and have committed to two more years out there. I was out there four months this year and last year. We ended up there because of my relationships that I’ve developed.
What endangers wild horses today?
The Teddy Roosevelt herd is pretty well protected because there are thousands of people that follow them. The free ranging ones in the western states, there’s a constant battle between ranchers, special interest groups, encroaching civilization, weather in the high desert. In 1971 the Wild Horse and Burro Act was passed, which protects them. The Bureau of Land Management manages the horses on the western range. According to the AMLs that were done, 36 million acres can only support around 25,000 horses. Currently there are about 67,000 horses, according to BLM statistics. They are constantly taking horses off the range, and they go into holding facilities. Right now there are 45,000 horses in holding facilities. $46 million goes toward taking care of these horses. That’s our taxpayer dollar. The horses are made the scapegoat.
My goal is to raise awareness for adoption. You’ve got lots of management tools in place. The tools work well until you get to the holding facilities, and then it just stops. Last year the BLM picked up 3,600 horses off the range, but they only adopted out 2,500. You’re looking at about 100,000 horses that need homes. I don’t get why people don’t step up and adopt, and I think it’s because wild horses can be viewed as underclass, not as good as a quarter horse, not a pedigree.
Pinnacles’ DNA came back as 100 percent Spanish. They’re very talented horses.
Tell us about your horses.
The five quarter horses are all performance-bred. They’re bred to do cutting and reining. They’re my models.
I found Pinnacles with the two other techs last year. Part of our job is to document the foaling rate of the herd. We have to monitor about 90 mares. We knew her mother Domino was getting close to foaling, and we went back and found her when she was a couple days old. We named her Pinnacles for Pinnacles National Park. The park uses low-stress methods for removing them, and then they’re put up for adoption.
I wanted Pinnacles to stay wild because I was not in a position to adopt her in the spring. They put her down and put her in the trailer, and I couldn’t watch. A woman from Canada adopted her. But she wasn’t allowed to cross the border because her passenger had a prior record. I suggested we try to bring her closer to Canada from North Dakota, which would be Minnesota. The Fjetlands, who live 25 miles from us, have a gentling facility and agreed to keep her for awhile, and the woman said she’d pay the fees. So they got Pinnacles here and never heard from the woman again. She came back up for re-adoption. I thought, ‘She’s my favorite horse of all time, there’s a reason she’s here.’ I emailed Michael of all the reasons we should adopt her. That weekend six of my friends had come out to the park, and they were like, ‘You gotta get her!’
The adoption was a Tuesday night and I didn’t hear from Michael. I called him and he said she had a $500 limit. I didn’t see that as a problem. The girls all said, ‘Okay, good luck!’ I was sitting in my room, the auction’s about ready to start, I told my friend Robin to text Deb Fjetland and Michael. We were at about $475, and Robin said, ‘There’s these people that are in for $200!’ They’re sitting in this restaurant in Montana watching me bid and helping me. A friend of mine in the park said she was in for half. A community of women came together to buy her. That was this spring. She’s been here three weeks, and I just got her turned out with all the horses. She’s pretty special.
