St. Louis, MO (KMOX) - "The horses are still alive, their spirits are dead. So, it feels like empty. It's just an overwhelming emptiness." -- Meg Frederick, Wild Within
A federal court this month stopped the Bureau of Land Management from rounding up thousands of wild horses, but it could just be temporary. A St. Louis native has focused his cameras on the practice with an upcoming documentary called Wild Within. Director Ryan James DeLaney was born and raised in St. Louis and grew up training quarter horses. "Horses have always been such, you know, a big part of my life. And then I've always known Meg and I've known of her story."
Listen to our interview about Wild Within
DeLaney explains, Wild Within tells her story, but also highlights the plight of wild Mustangs. "So, she was driving to actually go see her horses in Chesterfield off Wild Horse Creek Road, ironically, and it was a Sunday morning around 10 a.m. and she got hit by a drunk driver and she had to relearn to walk again. So many surgeries and that brings a lot of trauma and issues. So, she just kind of had to find her freedom and her purpose all over again."
"She was not able to ride a bike again, ride her horse again. So, she kind of fell into photography and she took a clinic out at Return to Freedom, which ironically is where the horse Spirit lives. And so, she really everyone knows Spirit and she fell in love with the horses and she became a famous professional wild horse photographer."
DeLaney says horses living on the ranges of Western states are like elephants -- they represent generations of Mustangs and have a family bond. "And it's just really beautiful to witness that." But concerns about overpopulation have led federal officials to round them up. As his documentary shows, that often happens by helicopter, "And then this monster comes out of the sky, rounds them up, and then they're separated from their family. And it's dangerous to run these horses for miles in the heat. A lot of these horses are pregnant. A lot of them have newborn, one day year old foals. And so, you know, running them, it's not safe."
Some are sold -- often for tens of thousand of dollars -- but others languish in corrals for a decade before they're deemed to old to adopt, and that's when DeLaney says they're killed. Advocates are calling on the federal government to stop wasting fund housing them, and instead support the use of contraceptives to control herd sizes.
The film project has the support of Peter Busch & Grant’s Farm, in fact they have their own rescued wild mustang Gabriel -- a local symbol for what’s at stake. Wild Within is expected to be released in 2026.
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