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.
At water rights hearings at the Nevada Department of Water Resources, farmers and ranchers of Eureka, Nevada seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Several articles have been written about their plight (links below).
It is July 4th, 2011 and I am allowed the brief respite of reflecting upon the past, some forty years ago, when on the 4th of July, 1971 an exuberant, healthy young man was contemplating what the future would hold for himself, his country and the world. Fresh out of High School and fully enlisted in the United States Air Force this novice to the realities of life was only two days away from shipping out to boot camp and the vast mystery of military service in the United States Armed Forces.
A CONTROVERSIAL ancient, Spanish festival where wild horses are rounded up to be sheered and tagged has kicked off.
Last night, July 3rd 2005, I entered Terry’s office to shut down the computer prior to heading for bed. Everyone else was tucked away and I was just doing the last minute security sweep when my eyes caught the bright glare of a fireworks rocket heading for the stars in the northern sky. When it reached it’s predestined point of suicide, it erupted into a brilliant display of red and blue stars cascading downward across the acres of millet that separate us from a distant subdivision. I walked closer to the window when, suddenly, the noise of the explosion reached our farm. BOOM! As the sound trailed off, another took its place -the thunder of hooves. The horses were freaked.
In a video commentary, George Knapp nails an elected official who says that wild horse advocates suffered abuse from their parents.
Money, like religion and politics, is an extremely personal and intimate commodity; as well it should be. We, as humans, come to terms with an employer and offer to sell segments of our precious time, here on this earth, in return for money; but it is what we do with that money that makes the difference in the quality and significance of our lives.
Story of Sgt Reckless, a horse so heroic during the Korean war she was promoted to Staff Sergeant by the Commandant of the US Marine Corps, and is listed alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and John Wayne as one of our all-time heroes.
WASHINGTON — The Humane Society of the United States commends Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., for introducing S. 1281, the Horse Transportation Safety Act of 2011, an important measure to improve safety for horses during transport. The legislation would prohibit the interstate transportation of horses in a motor vehicle containing two or more levels stacked on top of one another. This bill is backed by organizations in the veterinary medical community, the agriculture industry and animal welfare groups, and is supported by a recommendation in a new Government Accountability Office report released last week which stated that a ban on the use of double-decker trailers for transport to slaughter would “protect horses through more of the transportation chain to slaughter.”
A federal court rejected the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) request to dismiss or limit a suit brought by a consortium of wild horse advocacy groups and concerned citizens to save the West Douglas wild horse herd. Although the BLM withdrew their 2010 plans to decimate this northwest Colorado wild horse herd early in 2011, the advocacy groups have remained vigilant in their stance to have the Court decide whether BLM has the legal authority to zero out a herd. By her ruling, Judge Rosemary Collyer agreed that Plaintiffs could proceed with this claim and stated…
Upon arrival at the Southwest Livestock auction premises, investigators noted that there were approx. 500 horses in the pen area. Several trucks and empty single & double deck trailers were parked in front of the pen area. A sign next to the driveway advertised the auctions weekly cattle and horse sale, held every Saturday at noon. Several of the horses in the pen area had auction tags still attached to them. Some of the horses were thin. According to owner/shipper papers recently obtained via Freedom of Information Act Request, Chavez ships close to 400 horses every month to slaughter in Mexico. Records also indicate that many of the horses in his shipments end up at the municipal slaughter plant in Juarez, which is not approved by the European Union and still uses the Puntilla knife.
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