Meet the Advocates
Cherie Tobin is a Family Medicine/Integrative Medicine Physician and Wildlife Photographer. Over the last 3 years she has spent over 200 hours photographing the Wild Horses of Montgomery Pass. She is in the middle of writing a Photo Essay book about the Herd. Her photos show their refined communication and the priority they place on harmony. “I am in awe of the social etiquette these horses practice with one another. It would be such an enormous loss for us all if this precious herd, from whom we could learn so much, is decimated. It is the last large herd of wild horses we have in California."She wants to get water ON Territory for them, put up road signs on Hwy 120E to slow the traffic which now goes upwards of 70-75 mph where horses cross, and put up fences to provide protection for all. She wants to get this herd designated as an Official Study Herd to learn more of their social etiquette and preserve the unusual genetics she has seen in them.
Carl Mrozek is wildlife filmmaker and writer based near Buffalo, NY whose work has appeared in many TV series on many channels and networks around the world. He's been a nature video contributor to CBS Sunday Morning for 30 years and filmed a short on the Montgomery Pass mustangs for it which was broadcast on Father's Day 2025. That short was simply a warmup for a documentary he's now filming, featuring them."These are the most colorful and engaging mustangs I've filmed in over 20 years, and the High Sierra landscape is magnificent. This is one of the few herds in America whose population is naturally regulated, mainly by mountain lions. What fascinates me is how their entire herd structure and behavior has evolved in response to mountain lions, That's a big focal point of my film, plus their ongoing battle to get a fair share of the water and grazing rights on their own territory. But first we have to stop the unjust roundup and removal of the last undisturbed herd of wild mustangs in the Sierras."
Craig Downer is an ecologist and lifelong advocate for the protection of wild horses and burros on public lands throughout the American West. He has conducted decades of field research on wild equids, holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley and an M.S. from the University of Nevada–Reno, and has specialized in the mammalian order Perissodactyla (horses, tapirs, and rhinos). During the 1970s, he worked closely with Wild Horse Annie on public education, field inspections, media outreach, and litigation supporting the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. He later served as Director of Research Services for the Animal Protection Institute of America, where he continued legal, scientific, and policy advocacy for wild horses and burros. Downer is the founder of the Andean Tapir Fund / Wild Horse and Burro Fund and has worked since 1996 to defend wild equids and endangered tapirs within their native ecosystems. He is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and authored the official Action Plan and Species Description for the endangered Andean (Mountain) Tapir.