Intimate Black & White Portrait of a Wild Horse

Usually I try to include a bit of the environment in my wild horse photos. After all, without some environment what makes an image of a wild horse look any different than that of a domestic nag? Lately, however, I've been trying to stretch my artistic wings a bit by experimenting with close crops and black & white conversions. I'd love to hear what y'all think.

I like the composition and concept of the shot. What bothers me personally is that my eye keeps getting drawn to the out of focus front of the horse. For me I'd like to see it in sharp focus. I mean as it is my eye should be drawn to the in focus eye of the horse but for some reason I keep going to the out of focus area.