Tag Archives: wild horses

Breeds, Wild Horse Sources

Take Easy Action for WY Wild Horses

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Photos courtesy of Living Images by Carol Walker.

Comments Needed for the Divide Basin Herd

With roundup season starting up again, it is imperative, now more than ever, that we all raise our voices in support of our wild horses and burros. BLM is still soliciting comments for their planned roundup in Divide Basin, a larger herd in southern Wyoming near Rock Springs. We ask that you submit your own comments regarding the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Divide Basin Herd Management Area (HMA). There are gross inadequacies and faulty data utilized in the scope of this EA which will come as no surprise. What is a bit more surprising is the rush to create a non-reproducing herd as an alternative, which is what they want to do to in White Mountain and Little Colorado! If a roundup is conducted this summer, the herd will be reduced to only 415 horses on over 700,000 acres with many of these horses being non-reproducers! The Cloud Foundation’s comments for this EA are available online here. Read on for a sample format!

Comments need to be submitted by Monday, June 20th, no later than the close of business at 4:30 PM Mountain Time. Comments can be submitted via mail at:

Divide Basin EA Comments
BLM Rock Springs Field Office
280 Highway 191 North
Rock Springs, WY 82901

Continue reading Take Easy Action for WY Wild Horses →

Wild Horse Sources

AP Story Spotlights IDA’s Fight for Wild Horses

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IDA’s legal challenge to the U.S. government’s “management” of wild horses received extensive exposure in an Associated Press story by Scott Sonner that ran in newspapers around the country this week. Click here to read the story in the San Francisco Chronicle, then please post your own comments!

In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner, San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel. (415) 448-0048 Fax (415) 454-1031
idainfo@idausa.org

Breeds, Wild Horse Sources

Mustang Monument Got Its First Horses!

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Paiute Horses Get Delivered to Mustang Monument!

Dear Friend and Supporters,
Mustang Monument: Wild Horse Eco-preserve made history yesterday! I’m going to try my best to begin to let you know the power of Mustang Monument.

Yesterday, we were blessed with the arrival of the first truckload of the Paiute mares and foals. These are the lucky mustangs that were rescued days from slaughter last December.

During the unloading process there was such a huge windstorm that kicked up. Luckily the dust started to settle as the mares and foals were unloaded into a temporary round pen built with bales of hay. Then, we opened the gates to set them free in one vast, but still fenced off area.

Literally hundreds of acres were theirs for the taking.

As they saw the gate was open, they each were looking around, and very gently the lead mare floated forward with her mane and tail flowing in the wind. Each of the other horses happily followed her lead. They were all now at their forever home. The sight was truly overwhelming. It was so emotional for me with tears of joy and relief streaming down my cheeks.

I cannot aptly describe the experience, but this is definitely a mission driven by God. He has blessed us all with this wonderful gift. I felt that the wind storm was so poignant to this situation, because when God created the earth and man, there was a mighty storm. It’s rather like a birthing. We are so lucky. I am so lucky. I’ve been surrounded by so many supporters and friends and I can’t thank you all enough. I am overwhelmed, speechless, and very fulfilled. It’s a new beginning.

Love, Madeleine and the mustangs

Click here to watch the first horses to set hoof on Mustang Monument!

To Learn More about this issue, please visit our website: www.SavingAmericasMustangs.org
and please join us on Facebook and Twitter!
www.facebook.com/mustangmonument
www.twitter.com/mpickens

Breeds, Wild Horse Sources

Celebrating with Cloud on his 16th Birthday

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Dear Cloud Friends;

We were able to find Cloud this past Sunday on his 16th birthday!

May 29th was a blustery day on the Pryor Mountains as we bounced up Tillett Ridge Road in a gale force wind blowing out of the north. Icy rain fell in intermittent sheets — the polar opposite of the weather on the day of Cloud’s birth.

Sixteen years ago the sun was shining. It was warm. Light clouds floated overhead. I set up my camera and was filming a brash, young stallion who was flirting with his father’s newly acquired filly when I spotted a flash of white moving through the trees and panned the camera.  A pale colt tottered out of the forest beside his palomino mother. The rest of his family followed — Smokey and Mahogany, his sisters; Diamond, his yearling brother; and the other mares, Isabella the pale buckskin, and Grumpy Grulla. Pulling up the rear was Cloud’s stunning father, the unforgettable Raven. The foal struggled to keep up with his mother on their trek uphill to snow drifts under the canopy of Douglas firs.

Sixteen years later, here I was again, bumping up the road and emerging onto the ridges of Tillett. We spotted Cloud and his family nestled in on the south side of a cluster of firs — sheltered from the cold wind and rain. By the time we set up the camera, Cloud had raced out of the trees and disappeared over a hill. When we began filming, I could just see the top of his head bobbing up and down and I could hear the screams of the stallions. Then Cloud trotted into a clearing with a trio of bachelors, including Jasper, the nearly two-year-old son of Flint. He is the little grullo you see with the big mark on his face. The other two are Galaxy, the black, and Gringo, the bay — both five-year-olds.

Continue reading Celebrating with Cloud on his 16th Birthday →

Breeds, Wild Horse Sources

Congressman Honors Cloud!

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Adelina as a yearling, 2010 - named in honor of Congressman Grijalva's granddaughter (the filly is the granddaughter of Blue Sioux & Red Raven)

Updated News

Dear Friends of Cloud and the Mustangs;
Our apologies, Congressman Grijalva represents Arizona’s 7th District in the U.S House of Representatives, not New Mexico. Congressman Grijalva has always been a great friend of wild horses and burros, and we sincerely thank him for introducing the House Legislation below which honors Cloud and all wild horses and burros. We encourage you to contact Representative Grijalva, thanking him for his support of all mustangs and burros with legislation that costs the taxpayers nothing, but does much to encourage their protection on our western landscapes.

We strongly urge you to contact your Congressional Representative and urge them to co-sponsor Congressman Grijalva’s Resolution!

Below you will find the legislature, which was submitted to the House of Representatives on May 27, 2011:

Continue reading Congressman Honors Cloud! →

Breeds, Wild Horse Sources

Cloud’s Birthday! Plus Other News

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Cloud on day of his birth with his Palomino mother. Photos copyright (C) The Cloud Foundation.

Help us celebrate Cloud’s 16th!

Dear Friends of Cloud and our Freedom Fund horses;
As many of you may or may not know, Cloud’s birthday is fast approaching! On May 29th, he will celebrate his “Sweet 16th.” It’s hard to believe that so much time has elapsed since I first saw him totter out of the trees with his mother! He has endured a lot over the years – harsh winters, predation, three helicopter roundups, bait trapping, and the loss of many members of his family. But he has survived and is still one of the top stallions in the Pryor Mountains, just like his father, Raven, was years earlier, and like his son, Bolder, is today. We hope you’ll take the time to wish him a “Happy Birthday” this Sunday!

Sierra in the Pryors with a young foal

On a separate, less celebratory note, our sweet Freedom Fund mare, Sierra, was injured and is now at the vet’s office in Billings. A tiny, quarter-sized puncture wound just above her hoof slowly turned infectious, and Sierra began limping. She had an operation two weeks ago to clean out the infected area, but she will need a second operation in order to clean out necrotic cartilage. She’s a smart girl and has been very calm throughout the whole experience. The vet techs are in love with her, and have taught her how to lead and to stay calm while the veterinarian changes her bandages. We’re very proud of how she is handling all this. As you can imagine, the cost for her treatment is quite high.

Continue reading Cloud’s Birthday! Plus Other News →

Benefits, Community/Charity, Equestrian Aid Found., Products/Services, WHIN, Wild Horse Sources

Rhythm and Hooves Benefit to Save the Horses

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Nashville, Tennessee – The Women’s Horse Industry Association will be hosting a benefit to save horses during their annual national Networking Expo October 6-8 in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to the exhibitors and speakers from the equine world covering all types of products and services, this year there will be a benefit auction the evening October 6 at the Radisson Hotel Opryland which will benefit the Cloud Foundation, The Equestrian Aid Foundation and Net Posse.

Auction items will include autographed items from country music starts and products and services from some of the members of the WHIA.  There are also plans for some “meet and greets” and live acoustic musical performances from Nashville recording artists.

The Cloud Foundation, named for the charismatic wild stallion Cloud, works to preserve wild horses on western public lands.  “Mustangs are safest with their families in the wild,” states Ginger Kathrens, Emmy Award-winning producer, Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation, and producer of the acclaimed Cloud programs for PBS’s Nature series. “When they’re rounded up by the thousands, they lose what they value most — their freedom and their families. And many make the ultimate sacrifice when they are sold to slaughter. Better and kinder management must be implemented if the few thousand mustangs remaining in the wild are to survive.”

Continue reading Rhythm and Hooves Benefit to Save the Horses →

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

How You Can Help Wyoming Wild Horses

1 Comment

Submit your comments by May 6th!

Bachelors in the White Mountain HMA. Photo by: Rachel Reeves

Dear Fellow Wild Horse and Burro Supporters;
Wild horses in Wyoming currently need your immediate help! With Congress fully funding the BLM, the summer roundups are slated to take off starting in July. Thousands more horses are slated to lose what they value most… their freedom and their families.

The BLM has issued an Environmental Assessment (EA) that attempts to justify the roundup of two herds in that area: White Mountain and Little Colorado. The area comprises over 1 million acres. With a roundup, these two herds will be decimated to a mere 274 horses!  Meanwhile, nearly 6,000 head of cattle or 30,000 sheep are allowed on these same herd management areas (HMAs).

The EA contains inaccurate data and faulty science. For example, two completely different numbers are given for the acreage of the HMAs within the same document, and the BLM website provides yet another entirely different number.

The EA itself also provides impossible and conflicting rates of reproduction (including 100% reproduction!) and census data which does not match within the EA or with the BLM website.

Please help these wild horse herds by taking easy action and submitting your own comments! You can view The Cloud Foundation’s comments here.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can read the BLM’s full EA here.
For a sample of what you can write, click here.

Remember: Comments are due by 4:30 PM (Mountain Time) Friday, May 6th. Always be polite in your comments and present the facts.
Comments can be submitted via email to WhiteMountain_LittleColorado_HMA_WY@blm.gov with “White Mountain/Little Colorado EA Comments” in the subject line.

Thanks so much and Happy Trails!
Ginger

The Cloud Foundation
107 South 7th St
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
719-633-3842

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

Horse Haven ‘Coming Soon’ Pickens Still Seeking BLM Partnership

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By ADELLA HARDING Elko Daily Free Press Staff Writer elkodaily.com | Posted: Friday, April 22, 2011

SAM Billboard Photo generously donated by Mark Terrell

ELKO – Wild horse activist Madeleine Pickens said her Saving America’s Mustangs organization is applying to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to operate an eco-sanctuary on her land in Elko County.

The BLM is accepting proposals for two types of eco-sanctuaries that would be public-private partnerships with the agency. One of them is for a horse sanctuary on private land only and the other is for a combination of private and public land.

“We just filled them both in and will see what happens,” Pickens said.

The deadline for applications for the private-land eco-sanctuaries is May 14, and the deadline for the public-private combination is May 24, BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said Wednesday from Washington.

He said he doesn’t know yet how many have submitted proposals.

“We’re just in the process of receiving solicitations,” Gorey said. “Certainly, I can say there has been quite a bit of interest. We’ve received at least 20 phone calls. We’re looking for the best proposals for the good of the animals and taxpayers.”

Continue reading Horse Haven ‘Coming Soon’ Pickens Still Seeking BLM Partnership →

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

Wild Horse Advocates Ask Obama to Stop the Roundups

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New wave of protests begins with San Francisco

San Francisco, CA (April 20, 2011) — The Cloud Foundation and Americans who value wild horses roaming free in the West are gathering on the steps of Grace Cathedral (1110 California Street) at 3:30 p.m. to march to the Masonic Auditorium at 4:00 p.m. where President Obama is speaking during a campaign fundraiser. The Foundation and members of the public ask President Obama to Stop the Roundups and Stop the Cruelty.

“With the country in the throes of budget cut-backs for essentials like education — tax dollars used to unnecessarily remove and warehouse wild horses is wrong,”  states Bay Area resident, Anne Novak, spokesperson for The Cloud Foundation. “We ask the President to stop the roundups now and use that money to help Americans in their time of need.”

“Current government policy is breaking up our public lands for exploitive development and resource extraction — one colossal land grab,” says Lise Stampfli, Bay Area environmentalist and open space advocate. “We want the President to bring true balance and sustainability back onto our public lands as well as into the Wild Horse and Burro Program.”

Continue reading Wild Horse Advocates Ask Obama to Stop the Roundups →