I first met Sandra Elmore just a few days after our first book hit the stands.  Sandra was one of it’s first readers and we began to exchange emails while becoming friends.  Sandra lives way out in Montana with her wonderful family, beautiful horses and surrounded by a very scenic vista.

The issue of horse slaughter was up-front and personal to Sandra as her home state was being bullied down the road of clearing the path for the construction of a horse slaughter plant.  Montana’s Rep.”Red” Ed Butcher was shoving useless legislation down the throats of Montana’s fine residents and Sandra was not going to sit still for it.  All on her own she began to produce YouTube videos decrying the practice of horse slaughter and tried to turn the tide against “Red” Ed.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t thwart “Red” Ed’s stupidity but she did become a lightning rod and focal point for pro-horse activism across the U.S..  I promptly dubbed her our pro-horse “YouTube Queen” as our email conversations flourished.

Then while out to the Pryor Mountain round up, last September, my cell phone buzzed to life and low and behold it was Sandra Elmore on the other end.

“R.T., what’s going on?” her urgent voice implored.

“Nothing yet”  I replied as we were waiting to see if the injunction was going to hold.

“I have to be there, I just have to.  I am about six hours away but I have to be there, I can drive all night.”  (Montana is a big state, too.)

“Why don’t you just sit tight and let’s see what’s going to happen.  It’s the holiday weekend and your safety is important.”  I answered.

“Ok, but keep me informed.’  and that was that, for the moment.

Minutes later we found out that the roundup was going to proceed and the next day it began in earnest.  I failed to call Sandra.

The second day we were waiting to be escorted by the BLM security people up to our designated observation area and my phone lit up, again.  It was Sandra.

“Where are you?”  Sandra asked.

“We are at the BLM holding area about to go up on the bluff, where are you?”

“In the parking lot.”  was the prompt reply and that is when I dropped my phone.

Sandra had driven all night, told none of us and was in our group only seconds later.  It was an emotional moment but no more emotional than when Terry, Sandra and I sat along with the other advocates on the bluff and I whispered to Sandra;

“Why did you come, why did you put yourself at risk by driving all night?”

There was a short but obvious pause and she lifted her head to look me square in the eyes,

“They wouldn’t let me sleep, the screams, I could hear them R.T., I could bloody well hear them.”

I heard Terry’s camera begin to click off shots behind me as I inhaled deeply and replied,

“Better buckle up, baby, because if you thought you heard screams yesterday you haven’t heard anything, yet.”  and with that the three of us held hands and watched the mean helicopter drive a band of former wild horses up the valley and into the trap.

There was not a dry eye amongst us, nor is there to this day.