Wild Might

I took a road trip to further explore this Wild Horse Saga.  Returning to my home my email was eviscerated. I, like the horses, cried on deaf ears.  Alas with a wild might I’ve returned to tell a bit about what I saw.

I went to the Bureau of Land Management’s Advisory Board Meeting, drove through Nevada’s Highlands where a small band of wild horses roam, visited the Wild Horse Gentling Program at the Northern Nevada Correctional Facility and closed this road trip at the Ridgecrest BLM Facility in California.  

At Ridgecrest I met some three strikes horses.  Three Strikes Horses you might ask, what is that?  Well, these horses have been put up for adoption and not adopted three times.  Now they are on the road to a death camp, dog food, and at the Advisory Board meeting there was a man who suggested selling the horses as meat to China, or France where they eat horse meat.  WHAT?  

“Pick Me, Pick Me” they pleaded through their imprisoned fate.  Look at those faces.  Do they deserve to die?  Who makes their fate and why? Yikes, Three Strikes!

We might be out! Pick Me. Adopt Me!!

“Pick Me, Pick Me” they pleaded 

 I am not fond of meat. It was at an outdoor market in the south of France that I saw a jaw bone of a horse for sale, and bows tied on the tales of dead pigs with captions saying, “je suis tendre.”  This tipped me off eating meat and on to a road of learning about diet and nutrition.  So, FYI, there are perfect proteins beyond meat.  I am not a militant vegan but harvesting wild horse meat is not a route I want paved.  Look into the eyes of these beasts.  What do you see?

I've been numbered

…

in these eyes a “hey, help!” 

 
I see nothing but a friendly spirit in the eyes of the horse, and in these eyes a “hey, help!” I don’t have to ride them to enjoy their life.  Deanne Stillman wrote a book, Mustang, the Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West.  She introduces herself with a tale of growing up with a Mother supporting the family by being an exercise boy on the racetrack. (There is more I want to know about this – Deanne! Please do tell). In Mustang Deanne recounts the history of the horse, the mustang and what a friend to man the horse has been and is today.  The wild horse is an American icon, “it is really the wild horse, the four legged with flying mane and tale, the beautiful, bighearted steed who loves freedom so much that when captured he dies of a broken heart, the ever defiant Mustang that is our true representative, coursing through our blood as he carries the eternal message of America.” So, why this plight?  Why are the Wild Horses of the United States, who are protected by law to live on public lands, why are they suffering the mismanagement of man with an option of a death sentence when they should just be left alone??

 Burros too.  Yes, the burros who are not so magestic are included in this seige.  Their lives are threatened and their fate is a question. 

We are too cute to die!

…fate is a question.

Madeleine Pickens has stepped into the light of this story to “rescue” the horses and hopefully some burros too.  She has plans for a big ranch, education and public touring of the Wild Horses.  However lives and fate sits unchecked today.  Madeleine does not yet have the ranch, its infrastructure is in thought and still the horses, many of them, have three strikes.  Between now and then, what will happen? 

I want life!

…what will happen?

For more news, see:

 http://www.plentymag.com/features/2008/12/last_stand_for_the_wild_horse.php

Come on back.  Soon Kate, who joined me on this escape adventure, will be stopping by.  We’ll see what she has to say.