R.T. Fitch’s life has been anything but ordinary. Straight out of high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force Band during the Vietnam era, and while stationed in Hawaii, he spent weekends at Sea Life Park training penguins, sea lions, and whales. His path through life has taken many unexpected turns—including more than a few lessons in love—until meeting his wife, Terry, brought a lasting partnership and a shared passion for animals.
Over the course of his adult career, R.T. worked internationally in multiple countries, gaining a broad, global perspective that colors both his worldview and his writing. Now rooted in Texas, he and Terry live on a small farm surrounded by four-legged companions with paws, claws, and hooves. Together, they have devoted years to equine rescue and wild horse protection.
An ordained volunteer chaplain and professional Santa Claus for a local historical society—with Terry by his side as Mrs. Claus—R.T. brings warmth, wisdom, and joy to every season. His work reflects a life of service, wonder, and connection to both people and animals.
He is the author of Straight from the Horse’s Heart, a moving collection of true rescue stories and spiritual reflections, and Fangs of Light, a supernatural tale steeped in symbolic and metaphorical storytelling. The first in a planned trilogy, Fangs of Light blends myth and mystery to explore themes of identity, redemption, and the power of empathy—offering readers not only suspense and intrigue but a deeper look at the light and shadow within us all.
In 2007 the world was appropriately outraged when Michael Vick, an NFL superstar, was convicted of running an illegal dog-fighting ring. Dog fighting is widely considered the sport of thugs, and perpetrators are rightly rounded up and imprisoned. Americans have a somewhat different opinion of the “sport of kings,” however: Last year some 14.54 million people tuned in to what they did not realize were two of the most brutal minutes in television.
CORVALLIS, MT — His baby pictures are hanging on the wall at the arena.
There are plenty of other pictures too: photographs of him performing in front of the grandstands, some of him walking in a parade.
As nice as those are, though, they aren’t what catch your eye.
That’s reserved for the pictures of children with smiles that stretch wide across their faces. Some hoist blue ribbons. Others beam pure joy.
Equine therapy has certainly been popular for autism, developmental disorders and now veterans with PTSD, but for clinical therapists, the bulk of cases have to do with relationships. The question then becomes, can equine therapy help improve relationships?
It was back in 2008 when a Kentucky Derby horse named “Eight Belles” broke two ankles on national television during the race, and was later euthanized. Thus, it’s no surprise that both fans and the media are interested in the treatment of these high stakes race horses.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is under fire from a source very close to him. We’re not talking, of course, about his inner circle of advisers or political allies, but rather … his bolo tie.
Salazar’s Western neckwear has been expressing its frustration with its owner, who it feels has grown distant of late, on its Twitter feed @kensbolo (described in its bio as “a stylish, jetsetting accessory on exciting adventures within the federal government. Oh yes.”)
The New York attorney general Thursday sued the directors of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, one of the largest nonprofit organizations devoted to retired racehorses, saying they had driven the foundation into insolvency and failed to provide money for the basic care of the more than 1,100 horses in their control.
Few causes are able to unite people such as Lorenzo Borghese from ABC’s The Bachelor, actors Bo Derek and John Corbett, school children and animal welfare organizations, but all of these people and groups got together last week to participate in the “Horses on the Hill” event on Capitol Hill. The ASPCA was proud to co-host, along with the Animal Welfare Institute and The Humane Society of the United States, this event in which we publicly urged legislators to stop our nation’s horses from being slaughtered at home or abroad.
It surely cannot be easy these days being Joan Guilfoyle, the (relatively) new director of the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. On the one hand she works for a federal agency, the Interior Department, which is largely beholden to the powerful industries it is supposed to regulate. And on the other hand, she is responsible, under federal law and policy, for ensuring the survival and management of the nation’s wild horses at a time when relentless political and economic forces threaten to decimate the herds.
A federal judge will require further evidence before deciding if federal management of wild horses has harmed threatened steelhead in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest.
Dayville ranchers Loren and Piper Stout contend that the U.S. Forest Service has violated the Endangered Species Act by allowing too many wild horses to “take” the federally protected fish by harming its habitat.
The small northwestern Illinois town of Dixon took another body blow Tuesday as federal authorities charged that its longtime comptroller stole nearly double what prosecutors originally alleged.
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