There are some 64,000 wild horses running free on public lands in the Western United States. However, these horses, and the 28 million protected acres on which they roam, are increasingly under threat from public and private interests seeking to reduce their numbers in favour of livestock. The Fate of the Wild tracks the life and activism of Laura Leigh, who has devoted herself to fighting to protect the country’s wild horse population. Through interviews with Leigh and aerial footage of the helicopter roundups that drive the horses off the land and into into lifelong confinement, the US filmmaker Andrew Michael Ellis draws parallels with Leigh’s own experience of domestic abuse and homelessness. The resulting film celebrates her resourcefulness and grit, as well as the magnificent sight she’s fought so hard to protect: of horse herds running through wide open lands.