Submitted by “Ace“, the Twin Peaks Wild Stallion and personal friend of Grandma Greg’s
“I often warmly think about the ‘good old days’ when hundreds of we wild ones roamed free…”
“It’s not only ‘Feel Good Sunday” but for Christmas this will be ‘Feel Good Week’ where we will share original equine related Christmas stories every day until the 25th for you to ponder, enjoy and hopefully allow you to wash your mind out and gain a breath of fresh air; we all need an extended recharge.
Today’s story was sent to me last year by one of the last stallions of Twin Peaks, “Ace”, now safe and out of the BLM’s grasp. On first read it made my eyes leak and a year later it has not only maintained it’s poignant message but it is even, perhaps, more timely at the close of 2013. I thank Ace for his input as I believe this is one of the best things he has ever written, except for the note to the other day reminding me to share it. Thanks buddy and the best to all this holiday season!” ~ R.T.
Dear Santa-
I am an old wild stallion. I am told that I am one of the last Twin Peaks stallions. I have had a wonderful life as Mother Nature planned for me from the very day I was born. I lived the first 22 years free and wild and learned from my sire, dam, siblings and family band what was good for me to eat and where to find the fresh water springs that are hidden in the hills. I romped and played with the young colts and fillies in my extended family. Under the watchful protection of our family members, we young horses frolicked in the snow and creeks and rested in the shade of the old Juniper trees in the heat of the summer. Life was very good. I later grew to be a healthy, robust and compassionate herd stallion with beautiful loyal mares and amusing, vigorous offspring. Although I now have a good “retirement” life in a sanctuary with other displaced animals, my life in the wild was perfect for a wild one like me!
I know you are very busy Santa, but today I am asking you to help all creatures that have not been as lucky as me. I have heard that there are fewer and fewer wild horses and burros that are allowed to live wild and free on their rightful range. I do not understand this but I do know it is wrong. What I am asking from you is for you to watch over and protect all animals and help them to be able to live their lives as Mother Nature intended for them. Do not allow them to be chased, harassed, trapped, caged, starved, abused and slaughtered.
Although I live for today, I often warmly think about the “good old days” when hundreds of we wild ones roamed free. Where are my wild friends that I knew those many years? Where are my mares and foals today? Why was our family torn from each other and our peaceful and natural world destroyed? I have over-heard humans say that our life in the wild was traded for money. Santa, what is money? Could it possibly be more important than our wild hearts, lives, families and land?
Santa, I will continue to dream of my days gone by but I am asking you today to watch over all creatures’ great and small and to teach all human beings to think with their hearts and to reason with their souls.
Thank you, Santa.
– “ACE”
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The Advocate, the Guard and the Force of the Horse® at Christmas — (www.rtfitch.com)
Categories: The Force of the Horse, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
A lovely letter from Ace. Hope the old boy is well. The video of him, his mares and foals is an important document. Thanks so much for sharing.
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lovely Story. Shared
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Dear RT and Ace Thank you for Sharing this beautiful Story I wept through the entire story !!!! I also thought of A Mustang named Freedom , who inspires me everyday, I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHERE HE IS !!!!Some now I just knew this morning Rt That you would share a story exactly like this one, it was one of my thoughts this morning when I awoke, with Christmas only a few days away, I thought of Family Units , and how wonderful it will be to see everyone and share the year of what happened……….My thoughts immediately turned to the Wild ones , who I love so very much and how their Christmas will be, not what I wished for them, this past week I visited a foal named Lee part Thoroughbred, part Frisian, I was there when his Mom foaled him in mid April, his little body still growing by leaps and bounds, his color changing almost weekly , we are hoping he will wind up to be Black, he is so loving and filled with fun and games…..( he gives huge wet warm kisses) I was so happy he is here free with a loving caring owner…… I vowed to him to do everything possible to free the Wild Ones , I tell him about ………. After I told him this he ran and kicked out his hind legs , 2 times……..I think he knew what I said to him !!!!!!!
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Breathtaking! Thanks for sharing. Ace we also pray that the wild ones will remain free and safe as Mother Nature intended.
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Reblogged this on Paula Todd King and commented:
A moving story for this time of year. I wish all humans understood our link to these majestic animals. If they did, none of them would face the dangers imposed on them today.
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So Wonderful Ace….we all pray for the Wild One’s…
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My eyes are leaking now, too. Merry Christmas Ace!
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Merry Christmas to all.
Sorry guys the bad BLM has rounded up your family and put them in Jail, if we could they would be roaming free like you are still. We will fight for you and all the wild ones who are captive for your rights to be treated with respect, and cared for in the right way. God bless you and yours, may the new Year bring a better year for all of us.
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BEFORE Twin Peaks BLM roundup in 2010
WATCH
Mustang Round Up Aug. 9 2010
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May the wind be behind all your backs,other living creatures ,Good Luck
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http://www.thedesertinde.com/Articles%202010/BLM-Conducting-Bloody-Mustang-Roundup–0815.html
BLM Conducting a Bloody Mustang Roundup
August 15, 2010
“Over 32,000 privately-owned cattle and sheep are permitted to graze annually on the Twin Peaks area. Revenues generated yearly from livestock grazing fees are estimated at $120,000 while the cost of rounding up/processing of 1,980 wild horses and burros would be 35 times the annual grazing revenues -over $4 million.”
SUSANVILLE, Calif – California doesn’t have many wild horses and very few wild burros left but that, along with a public outcry, has not stopped the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from rounding up thousands more of California’s wild horses. The BLM, responsible for managing most of the remaining wild horses and burros in ten Western States, are now running horses ten miles or more over rough volcanic terrain with helicopters. Horses bleeding from their noses in the thick dust, very young foals separated from their mothers, a mare with a broken leg and a colicking mare have been observed by a dedicated team of advocates observing the Twin Peaks roundup.
California has lost 16 of the original 38 wild horse herds designated for protection in 1971 and over 2/3 of the public land tagged for wild horses and burros has been taken away from these celebrated icons of the West. Now BLM is working fast to remove 1855 mustangs and 210 wild burros from the Twin Peaks area, just north of Susanville, California.
The roundup is scheduled to last 45-60 days and BLM aims to leave only 450 mustangs and 72 burros on this 1250-square mile range, larger than the state of Rhode Island. Almost all the mares returned would be given infertility drugs and a mere 72 burros is not a genetically viable population in this beautiful area designated principally for their use.
Over 32,000 privately-owned cattle and sheep are permitted to graze annually on the Twin Peaks area. Revenues generated yearly from livestock grazing fees are estimated at $120,000 while the cost of rounding up/processing of 1,980 wild horses and burros would be 35 times the annual grazing revenues -over $4 million.
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THE STORY OF JOURNEY (captured on Twin Peaks Herd Management Area)
http://www.horsesofproudspirit.com/Journey.html
“We turned him lose within minutes of arriving.
Freedom!”
Journey in the middle – as though he has always been here. (photos on website)
“This is Journey, but that wasn’t always his name. He was once wild and free, living in peace with his family in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (nearly 800,000 acres located in northern CA and western NV). He was just a baby when he endured a brutal roundup orchestrated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Cruelly separated from his dam in the BLM holding pens, he was returned to Twin Peaks to live with what remained of his family. Sadly, as a young colt he was caught in another roundup. He and other members of his close-knit family once again endured the onslaught of the low flying helicopters as the terrifying machines ran them at breakneck speed over dangerous, rugged terrain. Facing captivity for a second time, this boy we named Journey was castrated and branded.
But for reasons unknown, he was once again set free in his Twin Peaks home with his ever diminishing family. In a horrible twist of fate, Journey endured a third roundup as the BLM continued its illegal roundups of this vast area specifically set aside by the US government for free roaming wild horses and burros. Life in the BLM holding pens is horrible for any horse, but even more so for one who has known nothing but freedom. Journey was adopted and transported from the cooler temperatures and higher elevations of his homeland to the oppressive heat of FL. He did not adjust to captivity. He had several homes, with one saving grace: A woman who would keep track of him and make sure he never “fell through the cracks”… She contacted Proud Spirit about allowing Journey to come live out his life with our herd; a life where he would never have any demands on him from humans, a life of freedom
We had a quote of $1000 from a professional hauler. We sent out a plea for help, but donations were not coming in. Several close friends offered contributions, but it still wasn’t enough. And then something amazing happened… I received a note from a long time believer in Proud Spirit. She said she would absorb the entire cost of Journey’s transport!
Back in 2004 our sanctuary was still located in FL. I was sitting in my office working on my second book, Hoof Prints: More Stories from Proud Spirit when the phone rang. It was a young lady who was just about to release her first novel. She had some questions about horse rescue and asked if I had time to talk. I did, and she and I had a terrific chat about all things equine. She told me that she was in Sarasota doing research about circuses for her next book. I invited her out for a tour of Proud Spirit. She thanked me but doubted she would have the time. Over the next few months we would exchange emails and have a few more terrific chats about horses and books and writing. I was always struck by her gentle kindness and genuine love of all animals. The young lady? Sara Gruen. The book she was researching? Water For Elephants…
Sara! Our sincere and heartfelt “Thank You” for your generosity and kindness. You made it possible for Journey to complete his journey and return to a life of freedom. I will never look at him without thinking of you.”
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Thank you Ace, Grandma Gregg and Louie C. I pray 2014 will bring a miracle to save our wild horses, burros, bison and predators. What is happening to their precious lives is a crime against the Creator of all life, and man has no right to desecrate His creation.
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So wrong that Ace and his band and his herd were taken away from the spectacular and awesome Twin Peaks Herd Management Area! Such a crying injustice, and so good to hear that he cares for those his fellow horses who don’t even have a sanctuary to go to, which are the great majority of the removed horses and burros there. — There’s a better day a comin’ for you and your kind, I promise you, Ace, a time of freedom in which people will have learned that all-important lesson of how to share the land and freedom with such wonderful freedom as yourselves. You have learned this lesson and this is the great virtue of Horsekind, but, lamentably, our backward and selfish species only continues to prove itself a dismal failure in this regard. But I promise to you as a blood oath that my human kind will change and that your kind shall be restored to the land that is your rightful home and where you shall enjoy your beautiful freedom and come again to grace the land of your ancient ancestors and to heal this land and make it so beautiful again, as only you can do. God Bless You, Ace! God Bless You, Horses Everwhere! Your Bright New Day, and Year and Century and Millennium, etc., is about to begin again!
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Beautifully written Mr Downer, i know and believe every word, Thank You for putting it into words ………..The Promise made in 1971 will prevail !!!!!
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R.T. asked that I tell where ACE is today. I will take this opportunity to thank ALL of you have dedicated a big part of your lives to our wild ones – and believe me when I tell you that although ACE is only one wild one out of thousands – he thanks you too.
– GG
ACE is alive and well and lives with other wild horses and burros at DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary near Ravendale, CA – about 20 miles from where he lived his entire life in the wild on the Twin Peaks HMA. Here is a video of the day we released ACE at DreamCatcher:
We were also able to find and save ACE’s palomino mare and his bay colt and they live at DreamCatcher at SheepRock near Mt. Shasta, CA. You can see Barbie and CC in the Twin Peaks video – CC was only a weanling in the video – they are doing great and are living with other wild horses and burros.
More information:
http://www.dreamcatcherhorsesanctuary.org/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/DreamCatcher-Wild-Horse-and-Burro-Sanctuary/131590973559936
https://www.facebook.com/pages/DreamCatcher-at-Sheep-Rock/347541368621106
DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary
PO Box 9
Ravendale, CA 9623
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Dear Ace:
The logic of humans is mostly faulty and although they may have dominion over your body they cannot quell your spirit. Live n the moment, so that you are unimpeded by grief and past sorrows. But remember the liberty of those you loved and they will not have lived in vain or be silenced..
Perhaps it is sill not too late for humans to learn to put compassion before their mercenary and venal concerns.
Show them the way with your inner nature.
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