Wild horses running freely beneath a great, open sky is an iconic symbol of the American West, though seeing the powerful animals in person isn’t always a guarantee. Catching a glimpse of these particular horses feels like an extra special treat, as they were once destined to disappear from the land.

The hundreds of horses that live within the Tonto National Forest and roam along the banks of the Salt River are technically feral, as they’re the descendants of horses the Spanish re-introduced to North America during their conquests of the New World. However, as with most of the feral horses in the United States, they’re referred to as “wild.”

According to state records, the Salt River herd has been roaming the land freely since before the Tonto National Forest was designated in 1902. But though they’d been living on the land for at least a century, the horses’ fates were uncertain in the early 21st century.