Memorial Day Weekend (a volunteer poem)

By Laura Leigh on May 30, 2021

Loading stallions from temporary corrals on the range to ship them hundreds of miles into the system of holding. Last dawn on the range.

“Decoration Day” began during the US Civil War to remember all soldiers that died on the battlefield. In modern times the day honors all soldiers that died in the service of our country and is now known as “Memorial Day.”

A piece we honoring America’s war horses for Veteran’s Day can walk you through the history of our equines that gave their lives in war side-by-side with their human partners.

A WHE volunteer has created a poem that honors wild horses and burros that died in todays conflict in the American West over public resources and private profit lines. Each stanza is accompanied by an image or video captured by Wild Horse Education field team. Many of the instances noted in the tribute have been documented multiple times. We chose one example to illustrate each stanza.

Just days after his mother was run in a brutal winter roundup this foal was born in the wet ground of a holding facility. He died hours later.

MOURNING OUR WILD ONES AND THEIR WILD PLACES MEMORIAL DAY 2021 (BY PAM CHANDLER)

The stallion escapes being trapped. He bolts up the hill and turns sees his family and cries out as they are loaded into a contractor’s trailer. It’s the death of a family. We grieve deeply and mourn.

Access to water deliberately denied, BLM management nonexistent or turns a blind eye as wild horses lay down and die. It’s unjustifiable death of families and their land. We grieve deeply and mourn. (images graphic and can be found here)

A helicopter pushes a mare to fast toward a trap. It is configured wrong. She crashes into it breaking her neck. We grieve deeply at yet another wrongful death and we mourn.

The BLM helicopter contractor relentlessly pursues a pregnant mare She flees in fear aborting as she is chased by the beast in the sky. It is the death of her baby! We grieve deeply and mourn.

Wild horses and burros adopted then dumped at kill auctions. Terror in their eyes as they are sold and transported to be slaughtered. It is a horrific death. We grieve deeply and mourn

Once proud wild horses with heads held high stand in holding facilities. Now broken in spirit days turn into months and years as memory of home fades. It’s the death of their way of life on the range. We grieve deeply and mourn.

The Bureau of Land Management continues roundups as they cater to livestock, mining and oil industries who take more land. It brings death to public lands and wild herds. We grieve deeply and mourn.

Is this part of a “thriving natural ecological balance?” Is this “humane livestock production?”

Yes, we each grieve deeply and mourn, but not without hope. That hope is in each of us and the actions we take. The spirit of our wild ones lives in our hearts and veins and we will continue moving forward into the future fighting for what is right and just.