by R.T. Fitch, author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“
“Mommy, Mommy, it’s Christmas time, you should not be crying. Why are you crying, Mommy?
You have been crying since Christmas eve day, the day you read something in the newspaper about the wild ponies. It was something about a judge saying OK to round up the wild ponies but I don’t understand, Mommy.
You and daddy never let us run our ponies in the snow, you say that it is bad for them that they might trip and fall. When it is deep they can work too hard and hurt themselves so how come the bad men are chasing the wild ponies through the snow, Mommy? I don’t understand.
Why are they attacking our wild ponies, I asked everyone and no one tells me anything? I ask my teacher and she just shakes her head, I ask daddy and he says, ‘Whatever you do don’t ask your mother’ and when I ask you, you cry. Why Mommy?
I only asked for the ponies to be left alone for Christmas, honest, that’s what I put on my list to Santa by he brought me a little Cloud model, why did you cry when I opened up the present, Mommy? “Cloud of the Rockies”, remember Mommy, you went there right after school started and tried to stop the bad men. Why did they chase Cloud and take his wives, children and grandchildren, why Mommy? You told me that the bad men said that they were hungry but the pictures you took sure don’t make them look hungry, they looked fatter than our horses. Why don’t you tell me why, Mommy?
Late one night, I heard you and daddy talking about the bad men and when you asked them why they chased the wild ponies they said ‘Because we can’, why Mommy, why can they? This is America, we have rules, I know because I learned that in school. If these bad men are government then why are they doing this, Mommy? Don’t they work for us? Don’t they follow the rules? Don’t they have little girls who ask them why they chase the wild ponies, huh, Mommy?
Where is the President, Mommy? Shouldn’t he be stopping the bad government men? I remember he promised to be a good President. I remember he used the word ‘change’ a lot. Is this what change is Mommy?
Doesn’t the President have little girls like me, Mommy? Do you think they ask their daddy why he is letting the government hurt the ponies, Mommy? I know that this is bad, Mommy.
Please stop crying, I have a lot to ask; there is so much that I do not understand. The horses are hurting and I know you want to help. Are you crying because you are not going out west next week, to watch the wild ponies? I thought that you said they were going to let you watch and now you say no, what went wrong, Mommy? I was looking forward to staying with Grandma, what happened Mommy?
The computer shows me some scary things about the wild ponies getting hurt, Mommy. I know you don’t like it but I am a big girl, now. I can see it, I have my own ponies to take care of but I don’t understand about the wild ponies, Mommy.
Please don’t cry, I need you to tell me, Mommy. Why Mommy, what did the wild horses do? There are hundreds of big ole cows there, much more than the wild ponies; why not chase the cows, Mommy? Why bother the horses? Please don’t shake your head cause I need to know, Mommy.
Mommy, can I ask you a big girl question? I am not stupid and think that I am pretty smart but I can’t figure this out. Mommy, will you take my hand when I ask you this question, please? I am really pretty smart and I need to know this more than anything else in the whole wide world because I do not understand, okay?
Mommy, why are they killing our wild ponies?”
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Categories: Horse Slaughter, The Force of the Horse, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
We all cry and have screamed so as to be the voice for these beings who are not heard when speaking in their own language. There seems to be no answer to the question “why?” We certainly are not getting it from those who are making us all cry. A wonderful piece Mr. Fitch. May the entire world realize peace. May all peoples awaken to the possibility that peace can be carried in our very being when we hear and take heed of what all animals are saying; when we allow them all to live as they were meant to live – without enemies; with respect; with no fear of the predator that is mankind. From my lips…
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I haven’t stopped crying for days but it’s not about me, it’s about our lovely, gentle, noble wild friends and how we are incapable of saving them from the horrors that inevitably await them tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Fitch, for expressing what we all feel about the wild ones. I pray God will watch over them and protect them from harm and fear. For all of us who love the wild ones, I reach out my arms to hold all of you in this very troubled time.
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I have never in my life heard such crap… you all need to get a life.
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YOU NEED TO GET SOME COMPASSION AND STEP OUT OF YOUR LITTLE SELFISH WORLD.
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What do you people think the horses are going to eat when the grass is gone (not like there is much now) if the horses are not taken down to a better number then there will be nothing but dead horses.
oh ya i know you all think that there is nothing but room out there but get off your butts and go take a look.. just because someone tells you something then omg that has to be god’s own truth. and if someone does not like something that someone else says then rip them apart… all you people are doing is making it harder for people to believe a word you say… the judge did not believe you in your quest to stop the roundup’s. Only I wish they would just put the horses down that they remove.. it would be so much better on the horses.. to bad you people can not research someplace else other then the internet where anyone can say anything they want.. truth or lies.. just like here.
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The Angle Bentlys of the world now are trying a new tactic, its all over PBS blogs, the newspaper blogs, and YouTube too – to say we are romanticizing the wild horse, that the 1971 Act was based on emotion. HELLO – everything, EVERYTHING, about our country is based on emotion and romanticism – Angle, try reading the constitution, the bill of rights, and the declaration of independence. Have you ever heard our national anthem? You apparently have a computer – they are all on-line – tell me where there isn’t “emotion” and “romanticism” – Angle, tell me you aren’t also waving the flag, chanting “country, mom and apple pie”, and listening to country western music (talk about emotion and romanticism!).
Angle – GIVE IT UP – you know it doesn’t feel right, it does not ring true, you know it deep down inside! I’m from frontier people, cattle, horse ranchers, I know where you are coming from and you can venture into the truth.
Speaking of the constitution, just watched the original “Born Yesterday” (the newer one is just as good). I suggest this for all as a lesson in where we are today, especially the Angle Bentlys of the world (I might buy it and send it to Obama and Salazar too). The lesson is we have, by and large, become a country of advertizing “numb heads” and “corporate government” has become “the pusher”.
And, Angle, I have read you on other sites, and yes, I had a mustang as a child, but I don’t see that as empirical to having an opinion about our public lands – Texas rid thier state of all wild horses, oh yeh, and ruined thier grazing land with cattle and oil wells – A CLUE?
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you do romance the horses.. When i lived in Nevada i was going after hay one day in Prump there was some wild horses on the side of the road.. one was just standing there so i stopped… i walked right up to this old mare.. she was on that someone turned out… she was blind.. so after i got my hay i went back to the place where she was with the trailer to pick her up before she got hit.. to late.. so many horses in Nevada are off spring from horses turned out by people that could not or would not feed them any more… I know of so many that i could not even try and guess a number it would be so high of horses that were turned out.. so how can anyone say that the wild horses in Nevada are anything other then offspring from peoples cast offs… there is not a thing more special about them then the one in a back yard.. and more and more are being turned out with them.. someone has to cut the numbers… and someone is.
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From the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database:
Quarter Circle Z Corp received payments totaling $98,303 from 1995 through 2006
Same person?…welfare rancher? It all seems to fit…talking about the “constitution”, freedom, independence, etc. out one side of her mouth while the other half is getting stuffed at the public feeding trough….
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Good research but I don’t believe that it is the same group.
Ms. Bently identifies herself to be from the Quarter Circle ZW Ranch but her last name does not match up with that of the principles. Although, a lot of it makes sense as it is a Quarter Horse Breeding operation, in Montana, that is affiliated with the lead supporter of horse slaughter, the AQHA. So it could all be wrapped up as one in the same.
The Quarter Circle ZW Ranch is for sale, by the way. If you are interested in living in Polaris, MT it might be the perfect pick for you. If you can stomach the poor politics and lack of qualified leadership Montana is one of the most beautiful states in the lower 48 and regardless of the issues listed above, Montana has some pretty fine people living within it’s boundaries. We owe it to them to lend a hand whenever we can.
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Your right about one thing fitch… montana is one of the most beautiful states there is… but as for the ranch you listed above.. nope do not know it.
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i think she is talking out of an entirely DIFFERENT orifice…..
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(this was meant in reply to a. dillenbeck’s comment #30 up above)
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Ha ha, glad you figured out the sequence of the posts; I didn’t know my post would end up there. Time to call the White House, again. I am going to do it every day until this gather stops, one way or another. Bad, sleepless night thinking about all this.
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Angle, again, you show yourself – you need to read the court documents – you, like all anti wild horse people, never get your stuff straight. Now, we all make hasty conclusions and remarks on occasion that are not correct, but really, you all are so consistent about it.
And, I ask you again (again, and again) put links to your proof so you can change our minds!
And what does a dumped blind domestic horse or any abandoned domestic horse have to do with the designated American Wild Horses, which are almost entirely not even near roads, they are fairly to extremly isolated.
Though good for you to try to go back and get that one off the road. Most of you all would just take a picture, leave the poor thing, and post the picture for the next 20 years as proof that you are right. Like the pic of the horses at the dry water hole – why didn’t, whoever took that picture, report that to someone (now that is a stiulation where I think the intent of the 1971 Act would have called for the assistance of BLM), and the picture of the supposedly starved horse, that when seen from a differnt view, is beside a fence with cattle, green grass and water on the other side.
Yes, I do romance the wild hroses – so what? Why is my interest so offensive to you? Do you have anything you love? I would not bombard you for that, why do you all rampage on us? And better than romancing money! But maybe I’m lumping you with Rob. And that is part of the problem, looking for division instead of looking for how to work together. Yes, many of us want the wild horses left in accordance with the 1971 act – and you don’t. I don’t know why though – just a few days ago even Don Glenn said that there are no starving horses (but after he said in a neews spot before Pryor that they were all starving, but he couldn’t keep lieing about the proof any longer).
This idea that wild horse herds are robbing the land is rediculous – look, there were 1 to 2 million of them running the same range as millions of buffalo, and there were millions of elk during that time too, deer, and all other wildlife as little ago as the late 19th century – thats just a little over 100 years ago, and those wild horses were there up to 400 years before that. How is that possible based on your “sky is falling, sky is falling” not enough food chant?
Your right, one horse is just as special as another, but no one is coming into your backyard with a helicopter and taking your horses are they?
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I made a hasty conclusion about elk with wolf control and riparian conditions – somehwere. My point was that wild horses do a good job at keeping down wild fire fuel load – better even that goats (which have been tested), because the horses just eat the tops of the forage and they spread seed to keep the soil in place, again keeping fuel load down.
Apologies for miscommunicating.
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They lie, mismanage, harass, kill, maim, secretively sell to slaughter/bad adoptions, ship and overall abuse the mustangs and burros because they can.
Angle Bently: WE do have lives; full, caring, thoughtful and productive. Our lives frequently involve equines, more importantly respect for all life (and sometimes that might include the likes of you). I think you need to find an occupation that doesn’t include whacking lower life forms for convenience and profit. Maybe someday, you might be considered a lower life form and will need our help and knowledge.
I don’t cry. I get angry; especially at our government to include the judicial system. BLM does what it does becasue it is allowed to. Everyone, pray for the worst weather that Nevada has ever known.
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I’m praying for malfunctioning choppers.
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Ohhhhm Catherine, I like that one!
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I think we need to establish a fund and go to all the mustang auctions and bid on every one. Then transport them back where they came from and let them loose so the government has to spend another $2M to round them back up so we can do the same thing. Hopefully they will breed by the millions again and overwhelm the money changers. Then in 20 or so years when all the oil is gone we might have a chance at survival by still having horses to help us. Why are some peoples rights and opinions more important than others?
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I live in WELFARE CATTLE RANCHER country. They graze their destructive cows for $1.35/month while I must spend $100/month each to feed my rescued mustangs and burros. This is ridiculous! http://www.journeysendranchanimalsanctuary.org
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BLM= Federal criminals in my opinion.
Officials in Gov. need to check every single BLM employees bank accounts and see how much money above their regular pay they have taken in kick-backs.
must be millions of under the table income and gifts from their slaughter-house buddies by now. And the millions the BLM pays to the helicoptor contract (the criminal run company)how much of that contract is kicked back?
What are you going to do now BLM? you have removed ALL the mustang herds….oh yeah thats right..you’re going to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to place mustangs on Nebraska grass lands..like a big zoo!!! what then BLM grass-fattened mustangs for sending to your slaughterhouse buddies in crime?
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And be sure to check out the BLM Advisory Board and their “conflicts of interests” too!
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Please speak up for the wild horses. If we lose them, we lose a huge part of ourselves. Stop welfare ranching. Protect the wild horse as the NATIVE SPECIES he is. Stop forcing people like me to have to step up to the plate and take in abused and abandoned wild horses which should have remained in the wild. This is an American disgrace and we must not allow it to continue. Catherine Ritlaw, http://www.journeysendranchanimalsanctuary.org
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Everything judicial and legislative regarding these animals is comprimised by our “democractic” system and/by the humans involved for same. As long as the 13 states (plus or minus) that influence BLM budgets and their co-conspirators, we will flail in the system they manage, fund and allow to excute.
Congress and others won’t check bank accounts and the nuiassances that creative finance and subtrefuge has become in 2010. They would have much explaining to do. Remember, we still can’t get true campaign finance reform or intelligible truth/disclosure statements. It’s always about the money…always. Scratch my back? I’ll scratch yours. Yeah. Right. All the while abusing America and her beautiful resources….one of the best? The American Mustang!
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We’ve been entirely too polite – so far – with these pirates lapping at the public trough.
Our country was founded on rebellion of the highest order, and the circumstances were not far from the disgracful plunder we’re witnessing this week in the Calicos. What’s happening now may be worse, because the whole world knows, with the speed of media.
Horse thieving a mere 100 years ago was a hanging crime. Now Federal employees, with the best taxpayer-funded health insurance in the country, steal our horses and our land in full view of our elected representatives.
ENOUGH!
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Apologize for the spelling errors. I still think this is the greatest country in the world. We will overcome. In the meantime, it’s painful to say the least, watching the current situation. I don’t compare horses to humans in equality. I compare ethical behavior or the lack there of for all. Many people have stood by to watch humans get treated this way for money and other unethical reasons. If they’ll do it to horses, animals…when will categorized humans be that so much far behind in similar treatment? It’s a simple line that humans have crossed in perpetuity repeatedly; ’til those that stand up and say…STOP!
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A forensic investigation into possible money laundering and bribery here, along with who are the shadow investors in corporations standing to profit – might yield some interesting answers. The dollars are high, and when the BLM refuses to be observed, that’s a sure sign they have something to hide.
Remembering it was the tax man who finally put Al Capone behind bars; follow the money!
We can’t allow this cruelty, this disrespect for the law and our horses to continue. ENOUGH!
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Not only would I like to buy them all, but I would love to see some of these people investigated and prosecuted while the horses run free, all of them. Do all you can and then do some more; legal protests, the Nevada quarter campaign, legal funds, suits, letters, emails and calls. Write your editors and tell them this movement to free our mustangs is everywhere and under their noses, too.
mar
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Tomorrow I’m going on a minimum one year “non-party resgistered voter” protest, right after I send my Nevada Quarter to George Knapp and my demands to Obama to stop Calico and all other roundups!
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This is going to be another very difficult event to endure, similar to Labor Day Weekend when sleep was all but impossible. When you did finally fall asleep, you awakened to the nightmare of these pure souls in the hands of some of the most evil and corrupt people any of us has ever known. Since we cannot get it stopped, maybe the opportunity will come to rescue some of the bands and get them back together, like Conquistador. I will search for that opportunity rather than pick up my rifle. But this is way over the top.
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I know I have not been the best at offering grace, but I am going to try now. I, for one, am glad Ms. Bently remains a reader of R.T.’s blog and other organized mustang/burro freedom fighter blogs. How else would she become completely removed from the uneducated opinion she holds dear? We all have been wrong on something in our lifetimes. We diligently clung to our righteous attitudes even when the unraveling began of our warped sense of right and wrong. If anyone claims to be perfect and without sin, they are lying to themselves. Sometimes those who oppose us can become our greatest allies in the end.
R.T., I do hold respect and admiration for you and your tireless advocate work always. Be assured of this. However, I am going to submit a counterpoint this time. You know I do not speak from ignorance or lack of experience.
Confusion and pain may be our soul’s companions at this time. However, better companions must be allowed to take greater hold of our heart, minds and spirits. It is true that God counts every tear shed by the believer. He holds them in a bottle for a purpose and a certain time frame. Tears wrought during prayer are precious. Then it’s time to rise up off our knees and set our faces like flint unto the battle before us. Like Esther, we have been put upon this earth at this time of history for such a time as this. Like to Joshua, God speaks the words “Why are you on lying on your face? Get up and fight.” The enemy will never cease from the name calling of ’emotional romantics’ and ‘fairy tale seekers’ if we do not give them a cause to stop. Our advisary is cunningly sly at every single turn and depends upon our blindness. No more. I depend NOT upon my own strength, wisdom or plans. How about you? Reality is beckoning.
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Hi Morgan, I too am attempting to temper myself. I notice that when I gat a response to a comment on the press or YouTubes and the person insults me right off the bat, I just don’t read any further, nor do I pay much attention to other attacks to other commenters, whether they agree with me or not.
So I have been attempting (emphasis on attempting) to respond less emotionally, with facts and links. If I don’t sway the Robs or Angles or Jodys, I may sway other readers to want to find out more.
There are a lot of people out there like I was 8 or so months ago, and I’m a fairly skeptical and analytical personality, but it only took a short time to determine the truth about BLM, and even if one does not give a hoot about wild horses, the tax dollars spent is rediculous, and so obviosly unnecessary.
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Angle, not quite. There was more room for the horses before the welfare ranchers added millions of their private livestock and turned our public lands into a feedlot.
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Hi, thanks for clearing that up. I guess we all know the type. Unfortunately, it is a common MO. Montana sure is beautiful, and like most western states has many awesome people coexiting with all the scary rednecks. Wasn’t there legislation to reopen the slaughterhouses in Montana this past year? Ms. Bently’s probably bitter that didn’t pass, too.
Thanks for the post. Let’s keep the pressure up on BLM. I can’t believe this is happening, it’s like a nightmare in real life. The extermination of our wild horses is happening right now as I type. Stop the madness!
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I am glad you are going to call the White House every day until “this gather stops” — and all gathers! We can be like Joshua circling around and around the Jericho wall blaring our trumpets until it … falls. Good rules!
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Reblogged this on Straight from the Horse's Heart and commented:
A long time advocate emailed me to a link to a story that I wrote 8 years ago, after Christmas, and relayed to me that it brought tears to her eyes, so I hit the link and read it, myself. My eyes leaked too. All these years later the story carries even more power and impact as the horses are not only STILL in danger but they stand on the brink of total destruction…this is relavent and never published anywhere but here, please share and make your calls. We need to stop the madness. ~ R.T.
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