Triple B; Magazine

By Laura Leigh on March 1, 2018

Triple B E-Zine, 2018

We are creating a magazine that will publish on March 5, 2018 about the area named “Triple B.” Triple B is a complex system of Herd Management Areas (HMAs) managed by BLM and a Wild Horse Territory (WHT) managed by the Forest Service. The complex spans more than 2,000,000 acres.(UPDATE: you can now get a free digital view at: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2019/01/24/one-hma/)

At Wild Horse Education we get many requests to locate information on wild horses that have been adopted from roundups. We currently have a backlog of over 100 requests. Most requests sound like this, “If you could please find a picture of my horse during capture I would be so grateful. I want to know everything I can about my horse. The BLM just gave me this and it really doesn’t tell me much. I’ll pay you?” They attach a copy of the adoption paperwork. (When we find a horse we simply share the photos. We can not always find the horse and are grateful that the ones we knew wild have landed safe).

Adoption paperwork simply has a description of the horse (similar to a brand inspection), place and date captured. Often the date of capture is incorrect and can represent the date shipped or a day in the week the horse was captured.

To find an adopters horse we go back to the week noted in paperwork and then scroll through, often, the minimum of 2000 frames taken each day. Each frame needs to be enlarged (people do not realize that BLM is still rather random in allowing clear observation of operations and at even at Triple B were held a mile or more for the trap for the vast majority of days. We have gotten longer lenses, but each frame still requires considerable enlargement to match to an adopters new family member).

In the past we have offered to create a visual record of each horse shipped, and at holding, to go along with the paperwork an adopter receives and BLM had refused the offer for a decade now. They have not taken the suggestion to heart and do not provide that easy to achieve record to adopters (in the digital age this is easy to do, all you have to do is care).

One of the things that fills our “spiritual gas tank” is when we people send us pictures of wild ones that have found new homes that we have documented wild and during capture. So many people have taken a wild one into their lives and really want to understand “who” has become part of their world and honor the life the horse had before it lived in a pen. Those stories are simply amazing.

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This is one of the main motivations for creating the magazine “Triple B.” The magazine will cover the history of the area, this roundup, and include as many images of adoptable wild horses in holding and before or during capture as we can squeeze into it.

The other motivation is explained HERE. Our wild horses and burros live on public land. When living wild they are subject to protocol and policy changes in public land management. The system is extremely vulnerable to politics. Politics, all sides, rule the reality our wild ones live. The system can be confusing and has been made more confusing through propaganda, all sides, that have at the core a profit driven goal. The consequence to the individual horse or burro can be disastrous. We hope these magazines begin to shed some light into the unique journey in each unique HMA. If the deeper issues are not addressed we will repeat history, lose precious progress, and, in the end, continue to make our wild ones pay the ultimate price for ignorance exploited for profit.

(We sit at a time where the federal budget for both this year, and the next, are debating language that includes killing tens of thousands of wild horses in holding facilities. If we fail to manage them “wild” they are literally standing in line waiting for us as a nation to decide if we are going to put a bullet in their heads. You can take action HERE)

As time allows we will do a magazine for as many of the roundup operations that we can. The next magazine on offer will cover the Owyhee roundups, focusing on the 2016/2017 operation (we have the vast majority of requests to find wild horses from that operation).

If we can not find (or do not have time to look at that moment) a specific wild horse that has been adopted, at least an adopter can have as comprehensive a record as we can provide.

If you are simply someone interested in all of our wild ones these magazines will give you a glimpse into the unique lives of the wild ones that live in different areas and how/why they were captured.

The contribution made to us helps cover the costs of the miles made to document, and keep documenting. The documentation is used to inform the public, engage escalating issues for each herd, and to compile a record that allows us the ability to fight to protect our wild ones and the resources they need to survive.

The magazine is an E-Zine that you can print or read on a tablet, computer or E-reader. Going digital keeps the cost of production minimal and the funds on the ground where they are needed. We thank you for your interest in our wild ones, they need as many voices and hearts as they can get in these dangerous times. (The magazines are geared for a young adult/adult audience. If you see an image that you want to pass to a young child there is contact info provided in the publication and we will provide you with information appropriate for a young child about the horse in the image).

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UPDATE: you can now get a free digital view at: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2019/01/24/one-hma/)