Winter’s aching fingers pinched my ears as I hurried to the barn. My toes, cozy and padded by woolen socks in a new pair of work boots, bent with each chunk of frozen mud beneath them and sent fluffy, mindless snow bouncing away on my path. A shepherd amid his flock of sheep, or a farmer in a cloud of white chickens, might have centered himself in such a universe. I was on my way to the horses that had become the center of my life.
Over the years, I had studied our purpose in the big picture. I had studied yoga and philosophy and had enjoyed the teachings of many interesting thinkers. I had traveled with them on their lecture circuits and to their book signings. I had been a guest in their homes, at their hotels and at their universities. Authors of books such as “Cosmic Consciousness”, “As a Man Thinketh” and “The Magic of Believing” became personal acquaintances or intellectual friends living through their works in my private library. Walter Russell, HH Swami Rama, Col. Arthur Burkes, and the like, were writers and observers of thought whom I was lucky enough to know and ask almost anything I could imagine. Thinking back, I usually wanted to know where I belonged in the grand scheme of things – and what meaningful purpose I was living for. I stopped asking those questions as time went by and life took its course. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9935
We told you this was going to be a long, hard fight – thank you for sticking with us to take action on each and every unacceptable assault by the Obama Administration on our wild horses. We are up against deeply entrenched special interests who want wild horses removed from public lands so they can conduct business as usual. That means cheap usage of our public land for their private profits at the horses’ and taxpayers’ expense.
It’s time to get public comments in on another large removal of wild horses planned by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This time the BLM intends to remove over 500 of the estimated 645 horses living in or near the “Eagle Herd Management Area” in eastern Nevada outside of Ely. While 500 individuals is fewer than the 2,500 horses currently being rounded up and removed from the Calico Complex in northwest Nevada, the Eagle roundup is even more ludicrous because it is 125,000 acres larger than Calico, but the government will only allow 100 horses to remain! In Calico, by contrast, 500-900 horses will be left behind in the approximately 500,000-acre public land complex.
The proposed Eagle HMA plan puts these wild horses at great risk because the BLM is reducing the number of horses to dangerously low numbers, which could threaten the viability of the herd. Many horse advocates believe this is the BLM’s method of systematically dwindling horse population numbers down to untenable levels in order to ultimately eradicate these American living legends from public lands.
The Obama Administration is continuing the Bush Administration policy of targeting wild horses in order to serve special cattle and other industry interests. Under President Obama’s oversight, the BLM is actually accelerating the pace of wild horse removals, with 12,000 horses targeted for capture from our public lands in Fiscal Year 2010 alone. The majority of these horses will be sent to government holding facilities, where they will join the 35,000 wild horses already stockpiled at taxpayer expense.
In Defense of Animals, located in San Rafael, Calif., is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA’s efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi, Mumbai, India, and Cameroon, Africa.
In Defense of Animals is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We welcome your feedback and appreciate your donations. Please join today! All donations to IDA are tax-deductible.
In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner, San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel. (415) 448-0048 Fax (415) 454-1031 idainfo@idausa.org
Wellington, FL – January 22, 2010 – Last proved to be the best in today’s exciting Spy Coast 1.40m Speed Challenge at the 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival. Marie Hecart of France rode Ryan Star du Rezidal, owned by Ashland Stables, to a very fast win in today’s speed class, posting a time just four-tenths of a second faster than the second place finishers, Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA) and Palouchin de Ligny.
This is the second week of the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival, and the week two title sponsor is Purina Mills. Competition this week runs through Sunday, January 24. The 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival has 12 weeks of competition that conclude on April 4, 2010, and the circuit will be awarding almost $6 million in prize money through the circuit.
Today’s course, designed by Steve Stephens of Palmetto, FL, had 11 numbered obstacles, including two jumps on the horseshoe bank and two on the table bank, which was an option to a taller one-stride combination. There were 13 clear rounds out of 42 entries, and the early leaders, Sarah Wayda and Faroukh, watched their time (61.502 seconds) be cut down by Pessoa and Palouchin de Ligny, who sped through the course – using the taller one-stride option at fence 8 – in 55.619 seconds. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9930
Wellington, FL – January 23, 2010 – Dressage trainer Todd Flettrich and his mount Otto, owned by Cherry Knoll Farm, had an exciting victory in Friday afternoon’s FEI Grand Prix de Dressage at the Gold Coast Opener Festival in Wellington, FL. Competing in the main arena at the Jim Brandon Equestrian Center, Flettrich and Otto completed their Grand Prix test with a score of 67.8% for the overall victory, and qualified to compete in Saturday’s Grand Prix Special following the win.
Otto, a 13-year-old Danish Warmblood, was purchased by Cherry Knoll Farm in 2009, and Flettrich has worked on forming a good partnership with the horse over the last year. Flettrich was very pleased with his test and thought that Otto was great for his first show back since Devon. “My goal truly was not to make any mistakes and I was a bit nervous myself because I haven’t shown since Devon and I didn’t have any kind of practice run,” Flettrich noted. “I felt a little bit ill prepared, but I really was very happy with him. Otto definitely has more in him than I did today, but he did everything that I asked and I achieved my goal.”
Flettrich and Otto will compete in the Grand Prix Special Saturday afternoon and Flettrich explained that he would like to work out the little kinks and be more confident in the test. “I thought that Otto was a bit conservative himself actually in that indoor today. The weather kind of changed and he certainly kept pressing on and performing, but I thought that he wasn’t quite as good as he is at home, so that is my goal for tomorrow,” Flettrich stated. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9928
Green Cove Springs, FL – Saturday’s Marco Family Foundation Grand Prix proved to be full of nail biting excitement as Wilhelm Genn and Chantal posted the faster of only two clean jump off rides to clinch the win.
The featured event was preceded by a gala dinner provided by Cedar River Seafood restaurant. All proceeds for the evening will go to benefit H.O.R.S.E. Therapies, Inc. a nonprofit therapeutic equine program to aid people with special needs as well as military personnel through the Horses for Heroes and Wounded Warriors programs.
Taking on a field that included the likes of Aaron Vale, Hugh Graham, Tony Font, and Mary Lisa Leffler to name but a few, Genn knew he’d have his work cut out this evening. Add to this an intense Meter 1.50 course by California’s Buddy Brown and you have the makings of a thrill ride even Disney can’t compete against. Round one’s layout quickly became a case of looks being deceiving despite the first three horses going clean nearly 3 seconds below the allotted 85. “When I walked the course I thought it wasn’t too big as much as scopey, but it had to be a careful ride,” Genn said. And it was scopey but with one particularly challenging obstacle, the green plank vertical [#11 fence] heading into the corner – the somewhat dark corner facing into the VIP tent. “That was my main concern, try to be smooth as I can and allow him [Chantal] to focus on the jump,” Genn said, offering up an analysis of the “green bogeyman jump”. Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=9926
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