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San Luis Obispo Wild Horse and Burro Photo Safari

Saturday, August 30, 2025
3:30 PM PDT - 7:00 PM PDT

On the hill at the San Luis Obispo sanctuary. Photo by Irene Vejar.

To register click the "Register for the Wild Horse Photo Safari" button. You're also welcome to donate to Return to Freedom by clicking the "I Can't Attend but I'd like to Donate" button.

I Can't Attend but I'd Like to Donate

On 2,000 acres of horse heaven on California's Central Coast, over 65 wild horses and 24 burros roam free. You may choose to embark on a photo safari or herd observation experience. While photographers will follow the best light, observers will instead have the opportunity to quietly watch herd behavior and move at their own pace. Each experience will have its own guide. Safaris last for approximately three-five hours and the San Luis Obispo Wild Horse and Burro Photo Safari is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. (dark).

Horses from the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in southeastern Oregon, along with other family bands, grace the beautiful rolling hills of San Luis Obispo with a view of the ocean in the distance. A picnic basket with healthy snacks and beverages will be provided.

Minimum suggested fee: $375 per person.

A minimum of four participants are required to hold the San Luis Obispo Wild Horse and Burro Photo Safari.

Read more below about some of the horses and burros that you might meet when you visit the sanctuary.

Dr. Luke is a charismatic and sweet burro who is estimated to have been born in 2012. Dr. Luke was captured from Black Mountain, Arizona and came to live at Return to Freedom’s sanctuary with some of his friends in 2015. The Black Mountain burros explore every bit of 2000 acres in the rolling oak-studded hills at RTF’s San Luis Obispo sanctuary. Dr. Luke is fond of human interaction and will pause a while with visitors while his shyer friends watch from a safe distance. Photo by Paloma Ianes.

Galahad is a robust chestnut stallion captured in 2010 from the Silver King Herd Management Area in Northwestern Nevada’s Great Basin. In the legend of King Arthur, Galahad was always known as the “Perfect Knight.” He was the very picture of nobility, purity, courage, gentleness, courtesy, and chivalry. It was Galahad who found the Holy Grail. For these reasons, it is also the name given to this heroic chestnut stallion when he and his family were captured in the Silver King roundup on October 3, 2010.

In April 2017, Return to Freedom celebrated the release of Galahad and his reunited family band onto RTF’s 2,000-acre satellite sanctuary in San Luis Obispo County. The chestnut stallion, his lead mare, Hope, and three other mares trotted out of the meadow where they had been getting acclimated to their new surroundings. They paused on a sunny hillside before heading up through the tree line and out onto the great fields of grass and wildflowers beyond. Photo by Paloma Ianes.