Danube Delta Horses, Letea Forest, Romania

Four horses at full gallop across the open grassland beside Letea Forest, deep in Romania's Danube Delta, photographed in September 2024. Getting here takes a boat, which is part of the appeal. The herd's story is murky. Horses have run loose in the delta for a long time, but numbers swelled after the fall of communism, when many owners turned their animals out and never brought them back. Estimates range from a few hundred to a few thousand, and botanists worry about what the horses eat in a forest protected since 1938.