“This moment will haunt me forever,” Laura Leigh Image from the roundup at Conger in Utah 2016. A stallion tries to touch his orphaned foal after his mare broke her neck on panels during capture. His attempt to touch his baby goes completely unseen by those handling the wild horses.
“When you click a shutter you can connect people to time and place. If you are lucky you can create an image that can click change.”
Laura Leigh ~ Each life lived gathers a unique set of experiences and skills. My life led me to a place where I wanted to use my skill set to create change. Many people say “but wild horses are such a small thing in the big picture” and I disagree. I love my country and I love our wild places. Wild horses truly are an overlooked window into the heart of the way we treat our wild things and wild places. It is also an overlooked window in the hearts of those tasked with those mandates.
I came wanting to open eyes. I came with a hope that my experiences in life could be a part of creating a new path. I wanted to help stop cruelty and apathy. I wanted to be a part of healing the land, the horses and to the creation of a fair and equal conversation.
If wild horses truly are such a small part of the bigger picture, why are so many working so hard to hide the truth? Why are so many pushing back against any conversation based on the truth? Why are so many hiding in ignorance or holding onto this illness like a child holds a blanket?
We can create change. We can be kinder. We can protect our wild ones from absolute disregard of them as living beings. We can also be kinder to each other.
“Take pleasure in the simple things” is something I am often told. Truth is a simple thing. In this world? Truth is a dangerous thing.
Caliente (Ely) capture in 2016 that was slow, careful and transparent
Wild Horse Education
We have taken many photos. Literally millions of photos over more than a million miles of travel. Some of the photos have created amazing court rulings, some document issues on the range to engage for change. The change we instigate has made us unpopular with many.
Our fight to gather the truth of the wild horses was a fight in federal court that created language used in civil rights cases nationwide. (write up May 2015)
Our work to create a humane handling policy was instrumental in many things. Our daily reports from roundups that began in 2011 pushed the BLM to create daily reports and photos to the public. Our court cases (WHE is the ONLY organization to take issues of inappropriate actions to court and win, over and over). (write up May 2015)
Our work on the range exposed lacks of data in decision making and practices destructive to the range and wild horses. (write up May 2015)
Our founder dropped some active litigation to move on the issues in the documents to build a less confrontational path. In April of this year the attempts to create a more integrated conversation toward minimizing adversarial action led to her doing some volunteer work (not a paid employee or special status through any contractual agreement like an MOU) for the Bureau of Land Management. It appears that work is as controversial, perhaps more, than any she has done. (read more)
As an organization we support the attempt to build a better way. As an organization we do not support the attempts to dismantle or malign it. The work that goes into each and every day of WHE, no matter the task, is all encompassing and with all our heart and soul. ~ WHE Volunteers
A photo worth a thousand words for World Photo Day.
The release of wild horses at Stone Cabin in 2012.This was less than a week after our First Amendment win in the Ninth Circuit. (you can read about that roundup in old blog entries here)
Main website: http://WildHorseEducation.org
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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