The Cowboy Way: GoPro Runs with Our Nation s Wild Mustangs

The Cowboy Way: GoPro Runs with Our Nation's Wild Mustangs

I can attribute most things good in my life back to horses

Vast open landscapes, wild horses running and the swagger of a rugged cowboy is symbolic imagery of America's history, but these legacies seem far removed from our urban sprawl and traffic-clogged highways. And although these defining images continue to be encroached upon by urbanization and cultural evolution, the American cowboy still carries on the legacy today. As part of its Adventure of Life in 4K video series, the GoPro media team journeyed to the countryside of Nevada to reconnect with the story of our land, our exploration of the great West, and the majesty of the Wild Mustang. The result is a stunning homage to the heritage of our country and a video that will leave you nostalgic for simpler times.

For the shoot, GoPro production artists Mario Callejas, James Kirkham, Gabriel Noguez and Trenton Pasic visited the Mustang Monument, a sustainable resort and preserve for wild horses, which encompasses more than 900 square miles near Wells, Nevada. Surrounded by mountain ranges and wide open valleys, the Mustang Monument's mission is to protect the wild horse, educate the public on their inclusion in American history and ensure their protection for years to come. Leading that stewardship and narrator of the GoPro: Wild Mustangs edit - is Clay Nannini, a third-generation cowboy who learned everything he knows about horses by his father and grandfather. Nannini is continuing the legacy with his two sons as his family works at the Monument to help nurture the more than 600 wild mustangs that live on the preserve.

The GoPro media team had only four days for the shoot, with the added challenge of filming a subject matter whose movement was somewhat unpredictable. Skittish by nature, the horses would tend to run away if the media production team members got close to them. Really quickly we knew that we had to place cameras in areas that we knew they were going to go through, recalls Callejas. On one of the days, the team got lucky. Right before a storm, with mud all over the preserve, the team worked with Nannini to anticipate where the horses would run and placed between more than a dozen cameras on the ground to get the shot of the horses running right at the camera. The imagery captured delivers a perspective viewers could never see on their own an intimate immersion of sight and sound into a horse stampede.

The team left Nevada impacted not only by their experience with these wild horses but also by Nannini's reverence for the Mustang, and all that these horses did for American culture. In the video Nannini notes, Without the horse, who the hell knows where we'd be. They really are a part of our history. We came west on their back. Nannini, like his father and grandfather before him, has devoted his life to squaring a debt that is impossible to ever fully repay. We salute Nannini and all of the cowboys out there for helping preserve such a rich part of our culture and helping to remind us of simpler times now passed.

Watch GoPro: Wild Mustangs - A Legacy in 4K

LINK:	http://gopro.com/news/the-cowboy-way-gopro-runs-with-our-nations-wild-...
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