The Captain Call

valentine

Sometimes, the way the sun glints the chestnut hair that falls in his eyes reminds me of the color of a glowing pumpkin

He’s really tall

It’s hard to know what he’s thinking

But I think he likes me

Did I mention, he’s really beautiful? - he has long smooth muscles and liquid chocolate eyes both soulful and inscrutable?

It really gets to me – the way he trusts me

And I believe he’d protect me if things ever got gnarly

Spending time with him is a guaranteed endorphin rush

It’s pretty sexy – the way he slowly licks my palm

He can run really fast

I went looking for him and he came home with me

I don’t always make good choices, but that time I sure did

I say to him: Let’s grow old together.

(to my mustang, Captain Call)

-KM

Looking to the Future

 Remember Wild Horses

Diligence and focus, please keep the horses in mind.  History and story to note…

http://kvsun.com/articles/2008/11/13/kv_life/doc491c5a47d5554349463307.txt 

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

It is time to let the coming administration know they must not forget the horses.  Please, follow the link below and vote.  In order to vote, you have to create an account or sign in to the Transition Team’s website. Its easy.  Just do it.

Write your friends, your family and tell everyone you know; this is their chance to make a difference for America’s wild horses! Let them know they need to VOTE NOW using this link:

www.change.org:80/ideas/view/investigate_the_blms_admin_of_wild_horse_and_burro_program

On behalf of America?s wild horses and burros, thank you for your support, 

The AWHPC Team

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

www.wildhorsepreservation.org

I thank all who work to save our Wild Horses.  Happy New Year.

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.

I went to a Wild Horse and Burro Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 11th.  There is a real need to get the horses into the headlines. Can we agree all animals have spirit, our dogs, our cats, the turtle, the dove.. OK corny poetry aside, horses have great energy.  They are beautiful to see.  They are regal.  They aren’t predators.  They don’t procreate like rodents.  They are roving grazers and reflect the health of the land they inhabit.  They are romantic co-conspirators in stories and they have carried us into battle.  What other animal does this?

Why?

Trapped

Links to the Wild Horses:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deanne-stillman/wild-horses-heading-to-th_b_143152.html

The above is a must read!

Facts and figures! http://www.americanherds.blogspot.com/

There’s more: http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/ViewPost/80635

To take action, check out;  http://karenkeeneday.com/wildhorseProtect.html

This is just the beginning.  Spread the word, we need to save the Wild Mustang!

Check back for more soon.

Howdy,

Welcome to our virtual ranch!

Here in Cantertales, you will find lifetimes of journeying with horses. Tales, tidbits, and territory devoted to the lives and well-being of this gentle yet wild beast.

Some people are born loving horses. Some people are afraid of horses. Some people don’t know horses. Some people find mystery in horses. In Cantertales you’ll find good company. Here is a site set on the love of horses.  Tales of tails and tales of trails will come to tell each week.  Life on the ranch invites visitors, weather, seasons, news and views all together… and all are welcome all the time.

Pony up. Today meet Kate.

“Some people are born loving horses”

I used to gaze out the car windows when I was a kid, superimposing over the passing Midwest roadsides a big, dark, beautiful horse that galloped alongside our Opal.

I collected plastic horses that held much more affection in my girl’s heart than Barbie & Co.I read every horse book I could get my hands on. Marguerite Henry was and is a favorite author. 

Misty, Stormy, Mustang Wild Spirit of the West.

When I was 11, a miracle - my parents bought me a short, obese, white horse named Frosty. Then there was Cornflakes, a young palomino mare. We rode and jumped a little and went to dinky horse shows. I sold Cornflakes when I went away to college, an experience so traumatic I have completely blocked it from my memory.  My second life with horses began when Thomas and I moved to a mountain property in Kern County, a few hours from Los Angeles but a whole different world. We live in Cowboy Country. Lots of people here have horses.

We decided it was time for our horse.  A Mustang who I adopted/rescued and named Jackson.  It has been a wild ride to our present.  Nowadays we have four rescued mustangs and a mule; five dogs and some cats round out the population. We have raised chickens. We used to have a flock, then we just had Flick… but that’s another story…

Now I spend my time with horses, and talking to horse people: trainers, breeders, riders, and rescuers… and my absolute favorite thing is when we catch up with our horse friends and go for a ride up the forest trails.

Saddle up and ride with us here at Cantertales! We’ll visit Chincoteague ponies, Rocky Mountain horses, endurance-racing Arabians, mule babies, champion Quarter Horses, cowboys, cowgirls and cow-smart horses with jobs, and especially America’s “living legends”, the Mustangs.

Future articles will include and be featured in The Round Pen: Training, learning and life lessons - as adopted mustangs Jackson, Gus and Captain Call (and they are not all) go from WILD to MILD; Feral or Foiled: Investigations into the issues facing horses in America and beyond; Wild Horse Heroes: Profiles of the Brave, Obsessed, and Big-Hearted;  And Hoofprints: Horses and the folks who love them.  This is just the beginning.  On a horse we can go anywhere.  Join us.  Let us know what you think.  Tell us a story of your own.  Giddyup!