Wild Horse Education (WHE) volunteer Marie Milliman is featured in Natural Horse Magazine this quarter. She recounts a life changing event; attending a roundup of wild horses at the Reveille Herd Management Area (HMA). One of Marie’s photo from the day of the release of the lucky mares that received fertility control back to the range made the cover! Congratulations Marie and thank you to Natural Horse for continuing to cover wild horses in these dangerous times.
The Children of Reveille and their discriminatory fate; this story is based upon my maiden attendance of a wild horse gather located in the Reveille HMA (herd management area) managed by the BLM and its most vulnerable and piteous victims, the babies.
I am an emerging, determined student and a budding advocate in the subject of wild horses and the land they stand on. With that determination, it was inevitable that a profound sense of duty to witness a gather (round up) would develop in a most personal way. The children that I observed acutely tested my broiling emotions. And now the sad cognizance of the bleak reality that these babies were born into has deepened my remorse for all wild horses’ circumstances. Basically, these children were born in the wild, on our public lands, to be abruptly weaned to a life of captivity. They will be “jailed” for never having committed a crime, nor awarded a fair trial or an unbiased jury. Even more tragic is the potential for future slaughter looming over their naive heads.
I received a call from Laura Leigh of Wild Horse Education. She informed me that she was going to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) operation in Nevada. She knew I had adopted a formerly wild horse, Hallelujah, from an area nearby Stone Cabin HMA and asked if I wanted to come along. I jumped at the chance to go. I would have the rare opportunity to see how my horses, Grace and Hallelujah (an unadoptable), were captured; Hallelujah’s homeland; and I would be accompanied by the person who has witnessed more days of wild horse captures from the range in the last decade than any other observer. Laura could also “show me the ropes.”
I have come to Reveille with a purpose: to observe, hold accountable, and afterwards create suggestions for the handling of our beloved wild ones. As those of you who have attempted to document an emotionally charged circumstance are aware, with that comes a responsibility to share and improve the victim’s circumstance. I do hope my voice and actions will add another grain of sand in the hourglass of the horses’ right to live wild; that seeing them through my eyes might move you to help make a difference; that in this struggle you, too, might find purpose to speak for the voiceless.
Click here to read the rest, The Children of the Reveille
Below is a video of the release that day. There is a much longer story associated with the images, including the ability to obtain the images as the BLM contractor was threatening us with litigation. Fortunately in this instance we were accompanied to the release, some of the wild ones went home and we were gifted with a rainbow.
There is so much work to do right now to protect our wild ones. Click here to learn about an upcoming webinar and how to make your calls to legislators. Our wild ones need your voice!
Main website: http://WildHorseEducation.org
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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