A galloping herd of wild horses thundering across a valley floor or a lone stallion on a ridge top are images that make our hearts beat just a bit faster. Wild horses speak to something inside us as old as time itself. At the dawn of our creative spirit horses inspired the first cave drawings. Today they provide us with no less inspiration to our creative souls.
Here we take a closer look at some of the works wild horses inspire today. Music and photography are some of the types of inspiration that most think of but wild horses and burros generate so much more. Many of us are inspired to advocate or adopt. Some of us have written novels or created films.
Every week we will add more stories of what our wild horses and burros have inspired! We are editing a video with adoption stories,music inspired by wild horses and so much more!
In our first installment meet:
Joe Camp, author of the Benji novels and the Soul of a Horse
Christina Lublin, Award winning television producer. Her work includes The Dog Whisperer and America Declassified
Jeanne Nations, Nevada Wild Horse photographer
Nevada States Quarter
Nevada’s wild horses and burros you “Inspire Me!”
Born Wild, The Soul of a Horse ~ Joe Camp
Saffron, Joe and Firestorm
From Joe Camp…
It’s been a long time coming. I began this book five years ago. We had only been horse owners for a year and a half and I had been asking a lot of questions, apparently too loudly too often, about how our new horses should be kept and cared for… and what we could learn by looking to the horses in the wild.
“Not a thing,” I was told, over and over again. “The domestic horse and the horse in the wild are not even the same species anymore.”
That made no sense to me. I remembered a teacher I once had who taught me to make decisions based upon knowledge and wisdom, not hearsay. So we began a new exploration, a new journey, once again charging off into uncharted waters… until we were suddenly stopped cold in our tracks and the book went on the shelf for almost three years. A very important three years, it turned out, that uncovered knowledge and wisdom we didn’t even know we were missing, and conclusions we could never have come to three years earlier. These discoveries astounded us, exhilarated us. And made us better. I hope that the words in this book have melted into the folds of what was being done, not what is being said. For that is their purpose. To create the experience for you that you might live it with us, do it with us. Feel it with us.
And now those words are yours. We hope you’ll find them worthy, and share them often.
Joe & Kathleen Camp
“March 21, 2012 – Barely an hour after Firestorm was born. Time has flown by at the speed of light. It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been two years since Firestorm was born, two years and four days since Miss Saffron stepped off the trailer, an, as yet, unhandled mustang from the wild who had never willingly touched or been touched by any human. And she was very pregnant. We were told by the BLM that she would probably deliver in May. That was March 17th. Four days later Miss Firestorm was born.”
note from Laura Leigh~ I was there when Joe’s beautiful palomino mare Saffron (Firestorm’s mom) was stampeded in the desert heat at the Triple B Roundup in Nevada. That roundup gained a court order, the first in history to inappropriate conduct by the BLM. It is incredible for me to know all of the things that sweet soul endured and to see her and her baby “inspire” Joe Camp.
Leigh’s work is featured in Joe Camp’s book, Born Wild.
To read more from Joe go to: http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog/the-books-of-joe-camp/born-wild-the-soul-of-a-horse/
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Christina Lublin won a Genesis Award for the America Declassified segment on wild horses
Christina Lublin, Award winning television producer
Christina writes: “Wild Horses. You envision freedom, magnificent beauty and a rich history. During the summer of 2013, I traveled with a production team to film the Wild Horses for a new Travel Channel series. I was so excited to see the magical Mustangs running across the Nevada desert! Sadly, this is not what happened. What we witnessed was the cruel, sad truth ~ our government is systematically rounding up the wild horses to the point of extinction. The horses are in the way and are taking up expensive real estate needed for the big business of mining, ranching and fracking. The government and ranchers have decided the horses are no longer of any value and simply need to be eliminated.
Director Melissa Jo Peltier, Laura Leigh and Producer Christina Lublin
I will never forget the sights and sounds of the helicopters chasing the horses in the gather pens. A black stallion was separated from his family and had to make the heartbreaking decision ~ be captured with his family or run for his life. He stood on a hill and watched, running one way then another, finally choosing freedom. Working in the media and being an animal activist, I have met many incredible people. Laura Leigh is in a league of her own and is living proof that one person can and will make a difference. She has dedicated her life to saving and protecting the wild horses and if anyone can truly save our Wild Horses, it’s Laura.”
Wild Horses at Palomino Valley checking out the crew of Travel Channel’s America Declassified, photo Christina Lublin
For a preview of America Declassified http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/america-declassified/episodes/d-b-cooper-missing-mustangs-bayou-sinkhole or the full episode can be purchased on Amazon for less than $2.00! http://www.amazon.com/D-B-Cooper-Missing-Mustangs/dp/B00GM3IIEE
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The Nevada State Quarter
Nevada’s Quarter
As we were preparing this piece on things inspired by Nevada’s wild horses an article came out in the Las Vegas ReviewJournal. Each state in the nation has it’s own quarter. Residents of the state of Nevada voted on the wild horse as representing the state. Apparently the quarter ranks eighth in popularity.
Ed Vogel writes: “In Nevada, you either love wild horses or hate them. Clearly more residents love them because in a public vote, conducted by then-state Treasurer Brian Krolicki in 2005, a scene of wild horses running across the desert was selected for the front of Nevada’s state quarter.
School children, in particular, voted for the wild horse design. Sorry, ranchers. About half of the nation’s wild horses live in Nevada, ranging from north to south.”
Read more here: http://www.reviewjournal.com/nevada-150/wild-horse-design-nevada-s-state-quarter-proves-popular
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Our wild horses and burros are a treasure immeasurable by a dollar sign. The riches they give us extend into our very souls.
Share your story of how our wild horses and burros have inspired you by emailing them to: wildhorseeducation@gmail.com with “Inspire” in the subject line.
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