I found myself standing among hundreds of horses for the first time in my life, though I felt something was deeply wrong so I began asking questions.

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I learned they were recipient mares—surrogate horses used to carry foals for breeding programs—sourced from auctions across the United States. Some feral, others with a lifetime of training. Yet despite their different backgrounds, they all shared the same fate. Those who survive the initial screenings are bred repeatedly until their bodies are no longer considered useful. At that point, some are culled on site if deemed too weak to travel, and others are shipped across the border for slaughter. If any client along the way reports back that their recipient was not a good mother or had behavioral issues, the mare's journey is cut short and they join the others on the next shipment out. The mares who had been there the longest had the lowest numbers, and the mares in the 3000's were the newer additions. 

I felt the world spinning as my heart sank deep into an underbelly of darkness. I couldn't save them. 

The only thing I felt I could do was honor them by taking their portraits and documenting their existence. I returned the following morning and spent hours with them. At times it felt like swimming in a sea of power, sorrow, and connection, overwhelmed as horse after horse pushed through the herd to reach me and my camera.
 

This gallery is just as much about exposing suffering as much as it is about restoring individuality. Behind every tag is a horse with a personality, a history, and a life worthy of living.
 

Profit teaches us to see numbers. I invite you to see beings. I urge you not to look away. For the only reason these  horses ended up here, is because time after time, people chose to do exactly that. See it. Let your heart shatter. Those cracks are the beginning of change. 

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