Equine Photographer Makes Connection with Tibetan Yaks | Straight from the Horse's Heart

Equine Photographer Makes Connection with Tibetan Yaks | Straight from the Horse's Heart

Last summer my wife, Terry, and I trekked across Outer Mongolia on horseback in a quest to view and observe the re-introduced, primitive wild horse, the Takhi. (As featured in the May issue of Horseback Magazine. and in TrueCowboy Magazine)

This summer we are in Tibet, the second largest horse culture in the world behind Outer Mongolia, where we have spent a week on horseback and another week in a 4-wheel drive in an effort to reach Base Camp at Mt. Everest.  (Which we finally made on the 27th, another “Bucket List” quest completed)

Horse Slaughtering for Food Set to Resume With USDA OK | Straight from the Horse's Heart

Horse Slaughtering for Food Set to Resume With USDA OK | Straight from the Horse's Heart

“The administration has requested Congress to reinstate the ban on horse slaughter,” USDA press secretary Courtney Rowe said today in an e-mail. “Until Congress acts, the department must continue to comply with current law.”

Straight from the Horse's Heart | A Spiritual Ride through Love, Loss and Hope

Straight from the Horse's Heart | A Spiritual Ride through Love, Loss and Hope

USDA Bucks Administration, Sec of Ag, Congress, Senate and John Q Public in Embracing Predatory Horse Slaughter

Press release from Equine Welfare Alliance.  DO NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT TO SAVE THESE HORSE AND BURROS!

Study of Equine Abuse and Neglect Patterns Produces Surprising Findings | Straight from the Horse's Heart

Study of Equine Abuse and Neglect Patterns Produces Surprising Findings | Straight from the Horse's Heart

EWA (Chicago) – The Equine Welfare Alliance today released a statistical study on the rates of equine abuse and neglect across the US since 2000. The research examined equine abuse statistics from Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Maine and Oregon.

Historical records of the number of cases of equine abuse and neglect from these states was correlated with three potential causes; the rate of equine slaughter (or lack of it), unemployment and the cost of hay.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that the rate of abuse has been in decline in four of the six states since 2008. Five of the six states had shown a spike in abuse and neglect around 2008 and two have shown a significant increase in the past two years.

BLM’s Pick-Up Truck Wranglers | Straight from the Horse's Heart

BLM’s Pick-Up Truck Wranglers | Straight from the Horse's Heart

On May 23, 2013, several wranglers at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Palomino Valley facility seemed to be too lazy to saddle up their horses, so all 3 of those big boys crammed themselves into a pick-up truck and drove it around inside a pen of wild horses like they were in a Monster truck event, and what may be a government owned vehicle even fishtailed – yee haa!!  Apparently, this was supposed to have been an effort to separate out a paint horse from the other horses.

New BLM LTH Contractor Wants Horse Slaughter | Straight from the Horse's Heart

New BLM LTH Contractor Wants Horse Slaughter | Straight from the Horse's Heart

n an article on JournalStar.com written by Art Hovey (link above, and copy of the entire article at the bottom of this comment), a new BLM Long Term Holding Pasture contractor (Stan Dobrovolny) in Atkinson, Nebraska, made a public comment advocating the re-opening horse slaughter plants.

Video: Battle with the BLM over Burros | Straight from the Horse's Heart

Video: Battle with the BLM over Burros | Straight from the Horse's Heart

Public criticism of roundups is not limited to wild horses. The Bureau of Land Management also conducts annual “gather” operations to remove “excess” wild burros from herd areas in the West.
In this video, advocates for the wild burros document “aggressive” roundup practices, including a helicopter hitting and flipping over a burro in the California desert in 2009 and a BLM contract wrangler manhandling a reluctant burro during a 2008 roundup in Arizona.

BLM Whines in Response to Documented Abuse and Neglect in Mismanaging US Wild Horses and Burros | Straight from the Horse's Heart

BLM Whines in Response to Documented Abuse and Neglect in Mismanaging US Wild Horses and Burros | Straight from the Horse's Heart

The 14-member panel assembled by the National Science Academy’s National Research Council, at the request of the Bureau of Land Management, (BLM) costing over 2 million dollars and almost three years in production calls the BLM out onto the carpet for officially mismanaging the few remaining wild horses and burros left on public land and what does the BLM do?  They call out their “WAAAmbulance”!

2 Million Bucks: BLM is Mismanaging Wild Horses and Burros – ‘DOINK’ | Straight from the Horse's Heart

2 Million Bucks: BLM is Mismanaging Wild Horses and Burros – ‘DOINK’ | Straight from the Horse's Heart

The long anticipated National Academy of Science‘s National Research Council’s multimillion dollar, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) commissioned, pre-publication report was released, yesterday, and instead of being the death sentence for protected wild horses and burros, as we all expected, it turned out to have a grain of insight while missing the point in most major areas of concern.

Although the panel of experts noted that the BLM’s helicopter roundup assault on the wild horses and burros is not working, DOINK, they totally missed the destruction to public lands by private, BLM favored welfare cattle who out number wild horse hundreds to one.  Ginger Kathrens of the Cloud Foundation summed it up in a recent interview with USA Today;

 ”How can you worry about a herd of 100 horses when you might have 10,000 cows grazing in the same region?” she asked.

There are an estimated 8.9 million private cattle and calves on public lands with only about 18,000 – 20,000 wild horses and burros still remaining with OVER 50,000 captured equines in corrals and on BLM funded private holding areas.

Video Report: Equine Family and Livelihood Lost in Oklahoma Tornado | Straight from the Horse's Heart

Video Report: Equine Family and Livelihood Lost in Oklahoma Tornado | Straight from the Horse's Heart

BARTOW COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -Things just aren’t right at Jon Ellis’ stables.
“Now there is no one in here to take care of,” Ellis said.

Ellis and his wife Jennifer Short raised and trained eight race horses at their Bartow County horse farm. But seven of them were with Ellis in Oklahoma last month when a tornado ripped through the area.

“I was just praying as I ran, praying that it would miss our barn and it just went right down the middle of our barn,” Ellis said.

Ellis was on his way back to the barn when the tornado hit. He said he’ll never forget what he saw when he got back.

“Just dead horses laying everywhere. The most awful deaths you can imagine, I mean it wasn’t like walking in a pasture and finding one died of old age, they died horrific deaths,” said Ellis.

More than 100 horses died that day. Ellis and Short said it was like losing a family member.