Archive for April 3, 2011

Obama’s BLM to Return 10 Wild Horses after Stealing 1,700

Posted: April 3, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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(The News as We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director of HfH Advisory Council

Too Little Too Late

BLM Security at Twin Peaks to guard against 2 female reporters and one male ~ photo by Terry Fitch

SUSANVILLE – (SFTHH)  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced that it plans to release this week a very small number of wild horses and mules into the Twin Peaks area, where over 1,700 of the federally protected animals were cruelly and unlawfully removed last year.

Returning 10 horses, 11 mules and a burro to the range northeast of Susanville California is part of the agency’s work to maintain “a sustainable population with desirable animal characteristics,” said Jeff Fontana, a BLM spokesman in Susanville.  In reality it is little more than a joke and a slap in the face of concerned taxpaying Americans.

The Twin Peaks wild horse management area was the site of a controversial late summer roundup that attracted national attention and lead to the exposure of the BLM’s inequitable and unlawful violation of the public’s first amendment rights.  Witnesses at Twin Peaks documented that the inhumane helicopter stampedes left virtually no wild horses on the range while thousands of privately owned cattle and sheep remained.

In February, during another controversial and inhumane BLM helicopter stampede, BLM Director Bob Abbey repeated that the agency would increase fertility controls and reduce the number of horses it removes from the range for at least the next two years while the Obama Wild Horse Harvesting Machine will continue to consume thousands of federally protected wild horses and burros from their rightful land based on junk science, arbitrary numbers and bad math.

All of the mares scheduled for release in the nearly 800,000-acre area, which extends into northwestern Nevada, have been treated with a fertility control drug, Fontana said, which ensures that the herd will not survive.  The mare release will achieve the agency’s target of 60 percent stallions and 40 percent mares, said Ken Collum, manager of the BLM Eagle Lake Field Office which adds to the BLM’s target of zero herd population growth.

The stallions selected for release have the horse conformation and size to maintain the characteristics of the Twin Peaks wild herd, he said, yet with the released mares unable to conceive it seems unlikely that this statement makes any sense.

The mules and burro are being released because they are over adoption age. They will not contribute to population growth, Fontana said, just as the released horses won’t, either.

The wild horse releases are open to the public. Those interested should meet at 8:30 a.m. at the BLM corrals, 21 miles near Litchfield on Highway 395 east of Susanville. A high-clearance four wheel drive vehicle is required along with a good understanding of BLM double-talk.

Bad weather will postpone the release, Fontana said, and, as usual, BLM security will be present to intimidate and threaten the public

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Beer Saves Aussie Horse

Posted: April 3, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse Health, Horse News
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Article Info.from Multiple Sources ~ Commentary by R.T. Fitch

The Power of the Brew Came Through

Apache will tell you that there is some KICK in that Bock Beer ~ photo by Terry Fitch

An Australian horse struck down with a bout of potentially deadly colic was saved after drinking beer, according to Australian News agencies.

Six-year-old Diamond Mojo was fed a bottle of popular Australian brew XXXX Gold by his owner Steve Clibborn, who turned to the desperate measure after giving the animal up for dead.

“I had pretty much kissed him goodbye,” said Clibborn, from Jiggi, a country town about 136 miles (220km) south of Brisbane.

“I had spent 23 hours straight with him but nothing worked and then I remembered an old bush [country] tale that said you could feed them beer.

“I don’t know whether I really believed it or not but it was worth a shot and as soon as he had that beer, he burped and perked right up. So I gave him another couple.”

Over the following days, Clibborn repeated the dose until his prized endurance horse rediscovered his mojo.

Colic is a medical problem common in humans and horses resulting in acute abdominal pain, which can be caused by factors such as stress. Diamond Mojo had a leg injury that could have triggered the ailment.

Colic is often fatal to horses and opinion is divided on how it can best be treated. But Clibborn thinks he is on to a winner with the amber nectar. “It worked,” he said.

R.T. ~ “Now before you laugh and think that this may have been an April Fools joke let me tell you a true tale, which makes me believe that this story is valid.

Some years ago, when we lived in Louisiana, Terry’s horse, Apache, developed an allergy to a mold that grew in the local grass and began to have breathing difficulties during the summer months.  He would wheeze and struggle to breath and the local vet said he had COPD and I felt otherwise.

I told this story to Jerry Finch of Habitat for Horses who paused for a moment and then said,

“Don’t laugh, you aren’t going to believe it but we had a horse at the ranch that we had all sorts of troubles attempting to relieve his painful breathing condition until I found a miracle cure in a magazine article…and it WORKED!”

“What was it?”, I asked.

“It might sound strange but a couple of bottles of beer each night and the ole boy is doing just fine.” he said, “And it can’t be just any beer, it has to be Bock beer?”

Being a home brewer I gave him a quixotically look.

“Don’t ask me why, but only Bock beer works.”

So without further adult I went out and purchased a six pack of Texas’ pride “Shiner Bock” and started to add two 12 ounce bottles to Apache’s feed every night.  I am not making it up, hand to God, within a matter of days Apache’s breathing problems abated and within a few weeks he was back to normal.  Another marked change was that Apache was no longer at the back of the line when we let the horses in the barn in the evening at feeding time, he would be right up front licking his lips.

It all got to the point that when I would stop at the little corner convenience store on the way home and the girl behind the counter would ask,

“Is the six pack for you our your horse?”

I would simply counter,

“We intend to share it”

And that usually was pretty close to the truth”


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