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.
LAST Sunday evening Buck Brannaman strolled the High Line, two stories above the streets of Manhattan and hundreds of miles from his native habitat, the ranch country where he runs clinics in enlightened horsemanship. The documentary “Buck,” which won a Sundance audience award this year and will open on Friday in New York and Los Angeles, details his shamanlike skills around horses and the people who ride them.
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the motives behind the defunct and degenerate Wyoming state Representative Sue Wallis’ motives to eat horses; it’s all about the money. But we can live with that as she is not that much different than other politicians BUT this piece of vile and uneducated crap continually crosses not only the ethical boundary of an enlightened human being but the legal boundaries required of an elected public official. (Read Horseback Magazine Article on Leaked Federal document (HERE) and more, (HERE))
The Problem: Somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 horses/year are exported from the United States each year with the intent to slaughter for human consumption.
Despite a not so rosy weather picture, Lauryn and I started out from Colorado to Montana, encountering sleet, snow and rain on our way to Billings. Luckily, the rain stopped overnight, allowing us to access the road to the Freedom Fund horses. It was a windy, but lovely, day to visit. Because of all the moisture, the huge 1,000 plus acre pasture is beginning to explode with new growth, the cottonwoods have all leafed out, and the creek is running high. I could see where it had flooded during the past few weeks of near constant rain.
A bill to ban horse slaughter was reintroduced in the United States Senate yesterday. Sponsored by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the “American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011” will end the slaughter of American horses here and, most urgently, will stop these horses from being exported abroad for slaughter. The sponsors, who have long championed the cause, have the bipartisan support of 14 colleagues who are co-sponsoring the bill.
Horse and burro protection occupies a very special place in the big idea known as “animal welfare.” Wild horses embody the Western spirit that has animated our national conversation about protecting animals and open spaces. Horses and burros form some of the strongest bonds with humans found anywhere in the animal kingdom.
It seems like poetic justice — or at least good karma — that novelist and wild-horse advocate Terri Farley ended up living in Nevada.
As a girl in Southern California, the future author of the 24-book Phantom Stallion young-adult book series learned to ride despite a severe allergy to horses. By the time she was 8 years old, she was writing about horses, pecking out her first story — about a wild pinto named Pagan — on her grandmother’s Selectric typewriter.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) -Utah has dozens of wild horse and burrow herds but now some say the mustangs and burros, along with those nationwide, are in danger. Two Bureau of Land Management roundups are planned in July. There is growing fear taking more animals from the wild could lead to the western icon’s extinction.
We reported that a GAO spokesperson had confirmed that the report had been leaked, allegedly to former Texas Rep. Charles Stenholm, now a lobbyist for the meat packing industry. The report is allegedly titled The State of Horse Welfare in the United States Since the Cessation of Horse Slaughter in 2007, according to a document sent to Horseback by Senior Public Information Specialist Laura Kopelson. We quoted the document, describing the methodology for the story and named our source.
Animal welfare groups are pressing a case in federal court maintaining that wild horses roamed the West about 1.5 million years ago and didn’t disappear until as recently as 7,600 years ago. More important, they say, a growing stockpile of DNA evidence shows conclusively that today’s horses are genetically linked to those ancient ancestors.
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