R.J. says: Photographed in Northern Wyoming as two wild mustang stallions came together to smell each other, and honor the beginning of their sacred war dance. I captured this moment just before they began to strike at one another, fighting for dominance and the right to mate with the females drinking below. The Dance Begins was just awarded in Nature’s Best Photography Awards, and is currently on display at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in D.C. through September of 2018, as well as in the 2017 fall/winter edition of Nature’s Best Photography Magazine. Horses are such beautiful and powerful animals, full of intelligence and emotions so very similar to our own. Within this image you feel their power and presence, and the honoring of one another in this moment of peace as the dance begins.