About an hour east of New York City, just out of earshot of Interstate 495 and minutes away from Long Island's MacArthur Airport, you can find a taste of the Midwest. Tucked away inside the mere 7 square mile hamlet of Holtsville, a horse trainer just met his next venture. For the past three months I've been photographing a horse trainer here on Long Island. Cliff Schadt acquired a feral Mustang horse from the barren lands of the California desert. In an attempt to seemingly help alleviate a nearing capacity of horse population, the Bureau of Land Management, working with various organizations, is encouraging Mustang adoption through competition. Trainers are given approximately 90 days to train a once feral mustang under BLM control. At the culmination of those 90 days, Cliff will demonstrate the progress of the horse and the horse's learned gentleness, amiability, and level of compatibility in the hopes that a sponsor or guest at the competition will eventually adopt him. The horse is temporarily named Lost Cowboy, after the clothing brand that is owned by Cliff's sponsors during the challenge.
