From the Heart

By Laura Leigh on June 16, 2017

Cathy Ceci of WHE 2017, “We had spent the week running a marathon of organizing information for legislators, making appointments and getting a webcast completed for the public. We took our second run out to the range to gather current documentation. Looking into the eyes of this young stud I was deeply moved and my commitment to continue to run as fast as we can to bring the truth to light was rejuvenated . Not just the truth of today, but all they have lived through year after year. I will never forget him”

Wild Horse Education (WHE) has always made documentation and representation of the “wild” our primary focus. Issues surrounding wild horses span range to roundup, rescue adoption and sanctuary. These two sections of management are even controlled distinctly by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the extent that funding and paychecks come from two different offices, state and national. Our work also distinguishes between the two phases; wild through capture and post capture (adoption, rescue). Our primary focus is this first phase.

WHE has fought massive First Amendment battles that spanned the better part of a decade and won. WHE is the only organization to ever take issues of inhumane treatment to court and we won the first, and repeated, court orders against conduct such as hitting a horse with a helicopter and running them through barbed wire. Our ground data has stopped roundups before they begin. We have posted a “mini resume” of sorts here: https://wildhorseeducation.org/milestones-of-whe-our-resume/

Owyhee

Antelope Complex 2011

This work is not accomplished sitting at a desk, it lives on the range.

For the better part of a decade we have documented wild horses, the range and impacts from other uses. Today that documentation is priceless, but we must continue. Massive amounts of propaganda swirl in a dark cloud of politics raining a storm of destruction on our wild places and wild things. We are busy documenting and providing that documentation to members of Congress that can fight back. We are filing litigation. Most importantly we continue our work behind a moving dashboard.

WHE volunteers are on the move.

Water haul for cattle during drought in overgrazed area of Nevada, in drought years there may be a dozen water hauls for horses statewide compared to ten times as many for domestic livestock

Why? (short interview excerpt with Laura Leigh, founder of WHE)

“A reporter recently asked me ‘why’ did I do all of this and live this way, like a nomad refugee. He knew about my cancer battle and several interesting facts about my personal life. I asked him if he understood what love was? I could see I confused him.

He expected some fluffy answer about the beauty and majesty of the wild horse. I had to explain that in the wild horse I see hope. I see a being able to cross from the wild to the world of man and back again. I see a ‘communicator’ that has a voice so quiet you have to learn how to listen to whispers again, a skill our modern world has lost. I love them for it.

In my work I have been able to create a voice to protect that living being. I have been able to fight and win against abuse. I have been able to fight and win to protect a voice. I have been able to fight and win by carrying that truth of the world they inhabit. I love the work they have provided me.

But I have heard the screams and not just the whispers. This work is both beauty and horror. To understand I had to live it, just built that way I guess. But I also had to document it all in this world of spin so others could know the truth, like federal judges.

Today I grapple with the weight we have placed on the back of the wild horse and do not distribute appropriately. We are going to lose our wild ones as we know them because of it. The horse carries so many profit driven exploiters, all sides, and his knees are buckling.

I’m not sure exactly how this will turn, but all I know is it is my job to carry the truths the horse has given to us (WHE) over the last decade, year in and year out. I saw this building over the course of the last few years; the push to slaughter and turn over management either program wide or HMA by HMA, creating one more entitlement program the wild horse will carry. I have watched social media create an alternative reality that has been used against the horse time and again.

Can we win? We have before when we were told it was impossible by high paid lawyers on retainer by million dollar organizations, we just ignored them. Can we win against all the wild horse is up against now? I don’t know. All I know is that it is a fight worth fighting. Sometimes that is all you need.”

WHE is in field gathering data and getting it into hands that can fight back. We have filed litigation aimed at the corruption of the system our wild horses have been subjected to. We are doing media outreach to educate and push back against decades of falsehoods. We are working as hard as we can.

“A moment to stop and listen to them,” 2017

“Our wild horses are a national treasure. Often when things get really hard and complex the wild ones come and give you an amazing gift. The time spent with this small band was priceless inspiration. We carry their whispers and their screams.”

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Help us if you can. We have no corporate sponsor, no wealthy benefactors. Our work carries one voice, the wild horse. We need your help to make that voice as loud as we can.