Carter Stallion and his mare

Our National Day of the Horse arrives on Sunday. In 2004 Congress set aside a day to honor the most significant animal to the building of the history of our nation. Horses have served in our wars, plowed our fields, built many cities, served police and firefighters, delivered our mail, provided personal enrichment and personal profit.

“The equine eye is the largest of all land mammals–whales, seals and ostrich are the only other animals that have larger eyes. Perhaps it is that in that eye we see so much of ourselves that both inspires to protect and exploit these amazing beings?” LLeigh, WHE

One of the McDermitt Reservation horses at the slaughter auction. Eyes say so much.

In part one we discussed a few of the dangers faced by our horses, both wild and domestic, with a focal point on slaughter for profit. In this section we are going to focus on the emotional connection and appreciation for “the horse.”

At Wild Horse Education (WHE) we devote our days and nights to wild horses. We fight to gain protections from abuse, slaughter and to gain sanity on the range. In the course of our work we have encountered many extraordinary people that also devote time and energy to our amazing horses. We have had extremes of experience from tragedy to triumph. Every step of this journey we are blessed with the presence of the horse.

We love this song. Jennifer Johnson is a beautiful woman with a great gift. You can read about the inspiration for her song here: http://wildhorseeducation.org/2012/10/25/mustang-soul/

Joe Camp, Saffron and Firestorm

We have a section on this website where we talk about some of the people that have been inspired by wild horses and inspire others. Joe Camp (the author of the Soul of the Horse series and Benji), Christina Lublin (television producer), Stephanie Martin (filmmaker) are among those we featured in “Inspire.” Their stories can be found here, along with several others: http://wildhorseeducation.org/inspire-me/

Strong Women, Wild Horses is the name of a film project by Michele Blackwell. Michele did an interview with our founder Laura Leigh at Palomino Valley Center that can be viewed below (Leigh images and video edited in with interview). She also accompanied Leigh for several days on the range at the Carter HMA (managed by California) and to see the Sheldon Mustangs before they disappeared forever. Leigh was very sick (breast cancer) during those trips. It was very nice to see Michele still devoted to completing this project while WHE was doing a talk at a college in California. Our trip with Michele can be seen here and also link to the films website: http://wildhorseeducation.org/2014/06/14/sale-horses-at-pvc-and-on-the-road/

Palomino from Michele Blackwell on Vimeo.

So many people are inspired to help our domestic and wild horses. We can not mention everyone here and apologize for the limited space.

The partnership of man, yet in truth they did not require that partnership, we did.

In our fight to protect wild horses we have our own road of “inspiration.” A single image taken by photographer Elissa Kline of a wild stallion kicking back at a low flying helicopter during a roundup first inspired our founder to head on “the roundup trail.” Roundups were happening almost daily, yet infrequent glimpses made the public eye.

Our resolve was turned to steel after looking into the eyes of a colt that literally had his hooves run off during a roundup. We called him “Hope Springs Eternal.”

Our road has covered successful battles for access, against inhume treatment and unjustified removal.

Yet our vision stays focused ahead. We have massive obstacles yet to face. Most of those obstacles (all sides) are rooted in deeply entrenched historic behaviors. Yet we hold “Hope” in our hearts as we fight to move forward, inspired.

Fish Creek is “on hold” as historic prejudice stays rooted in drama, not progress. We will not give up. We continue to battle for equal access to process, balanced use and justice against cruelty.

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