The Horses of Cumberland Island

On Cumberland Island, one of the most ecologically rare barrier islands in the United States, a conflict over feral horses exposes deeper tensions around power, belonging, and who gets to decide the future of a place.

At the center are two women who represent opposing forces on the island. Gogo Ferguson, a descendant of one of Cumberland’s founding families, embodies lineage, legacy, and the mythology of horses as symbols of American history. Carol Ruckdeschel, a longtime naturalist, aligns herself with wildlife, ecology, and the limits of wilderness.

The Horses of Cumberland Island resists easy conclusions, allowing admiration, conflict, and contradiction to coexist. The film invites viewers to consider not only what we choose to protect, but who is empowered to make those decisions, and at what cost.