Wild horse lovers and advocates..... we are an eclectic bunch, living in all kinds of places around the world, from different walks of life, have different religious beliefs, with different political parties and different voting habits, and every bit as wild - and rather less manageable - than the wild horses themselves!!
We hold our beliefs about wild horses and their management strongly, we are passionate and want people to see what we see, to fight the fight we are fighting, and to fight in the way same way we are engaging in that fight!
But is that fair.... or even remotely realistic, given how very passionate we are in our personal thoughts, feelings & beliefs about these magnificent wild ones?
Wild Horses of Arapaho Creek HA
The fight to keep wild horses wild in their wild home range has been for hundreds of years.... it began long before Wild Horse Annie, truly.
Under the oversight of this nation wild horses have been used to breed stronger stock for ranchers, faster horses in sports, and even war horses. And when each of those reasons were exhausted, as the land was claimed hundreds of acres by thousands of acres, for settlement and expansion of human growth, for the grazing of cattle and sheep herds, as highways and fences cut across wild lands and cut wild horses off from their ancestral migration - the same as it has done to other wild things - as they wander into what man now claims as his water holes and grass pastures, they are vilified as feral and unwanted, a pest to be dealt with in the same manner as wolves and bears that were hunted until almost completely scourged from the land.
So what are we to do... us wild as a wild horse admirers and advocates?!
Wild Horses of Stewart Creek HMA
I have been in the wild horse world for about 13yrs now, long enough to have gone through the progression of falling innocently madly in love with their wildness, then learning about how their simple existence causes angst and controversy, and now balancing time with them observing and continuing to learn, documenting what I observe on the range, and doing advocacy work as actual boots on the ground in the midst of it, living in one of the states with politicians bent on completely and permanently removing all wild horses from public lands.
Videoing Wild Horses in Arapaho Creek HA
It is easy to be angry at what is happening, and we want someone to blame for wild horses not being as protected as they are meant to be.... as we were promised they would be under the 1971 Wild Horse & Burro Act.
The newer folks to this fight feel as if nothing has changed and those that have been around for a while must not be trying hard enough.
I had a bit of that attitude at the roundup I attended in Green Mountain HMA.
I was frustrated with some things that had happened, of horses being run in hot and sweaty having run for miles in 90+ degree weather, a foal that died after being run so far it could barely move by the time they got near the trap, and the callousness of the contractor regarding the over-exhausted baby.
As I vented my frustrations to a long experienced advocate sitting with me in the hot summer sun, the pro-removal crowd a few feet from us behaving as if they were at a social event, this gentleman who has been observing and documenting roundups for decades started to tell me about how things used to be.
It was the education I needed as a still fairly new to the political side of things girl.... that although what I witnessed those few days on Green Mtn was horrid and to this day makes me angry, it was by far an improvement to what a roundup once was and what it could return to without meaningful observation by thoughtful and educated advocates - I will be forever grateful to him for finding a way to share with me the history lesson, and for offering advice on how or what to ask when at observation of round up operations, along with just being a friend to a complete stranger that was experiencing the heartbreak and horror of things that he had witnessed over and again for years.
We need the ones who have been working as advocates longer than some of us have walked this earth.... they know things we have not yet learned, they know just how absolutely horrifying it really can be, they know policy and procedure, when or how or even which questions to ask at roundup observations, and they know which fights to pick and when to start that challenge of actions done by BLM or the contractor.
We need the old guard to continue on this trek with us, bringing with them the knowledge of what has been, and what has been tried and succeeded or failed.
Newer to the party advocates are filled with a bright energy, they have only recently become acquainted with wild horses in the last few weeks - months - or years, and just as they found their passion in the unmatched joy of wild horses, they find themselves pummeled with news that the wild ones are being taken from their wild places, landing in uncaring homes, finding them in auction houses with kill buyers ready to purchase and haul away to a foreign nation to lose their life in a most horrifying way.
And these young advocates find themselves heart broken, furious, and wondering how on earth after all this time and all the things that have been done, including a congressional act, how is it that these magnificent creatures are still being harmed - surely there is a better way than has been tried by anyone else to give wild horses the protection they were promised and deserve!!
Wild Horses of Arapaho Creek HA
So here we are today.... the old guard, the mid-termers, and the new to the party folks, all of us wanting the same thing in the end - wild horses permanently protected and wild in their wild places. But how do we get there?
For a long time I argued for us somehow getting onto the same page, or at least presenting a united front to the outside world, I felt we needed to work together, because those who are steadily winning in the fight to remove wild horses from the wild present a very cohesive united and seemingly powerful front.
But that is not who we are.... we are, each and every one of us, as wild and unruly as a wild horse, we don't take kindly to being told what to do or how to do it, we do not like feeling constrained or trapped into a situation, and we have oh so very many of our own passionate and strongly held opinions!
Soooo..... what then? After a long year of introspection and chats with friends, I personally am choosing to walk my own path, the one that does not chafe at my soul or leave me feeling as if I betrayed the wild ones I've made promises to.
And I encourage you to do the same.... search your soul and find the place where it is pure and untouched by man - find the answers in the wild ones themselves.
Perhaps there, that is where we shall meet and find the place we will stand together for the wild ones.... no matter where you may find yourself, if you are following the path that you know to your core, where you soul is and your ego has been left behind, that is the place you are meant to be.
Each of us holds our own piece of the puzzle in this fight, and it will truly take all of us to find the win for the wild ones, but only in our own heart do we know the path we ourselves are meant to take, because no one person alone can do all of the many things that must be done, it is okay for each of us to be on a different path as we find our way to doing the thing we personally are meant to do - and one day soon I hope to meet you in the place of victory when our wild ones are finally and for all time protected in their wild places.
Wild Horses of Arapaho Creek HA