Chincoteague Ponies and the Feather Fund

As I prepare for the Mustangs on the Hill Rally tomorrow, I have been thinking a lot about wild ponies in general. I want to share with you an organization that helps children buy Chincoteague ponies each year at the round up made famous by Marguerite Henry in her book Misty of Chincoteague.

Take a look at their web site and read the touching history of how the organization got started in honor of a woman named Carollynn Suplee. Since its conception, The Feather Fund has been led by a woman who critiqued my pony novel, The Tugboat Chronicles ~ Confessions of a School-Pony at a writers conference several years ago. Lois Szymanski is the author of many children's pony books, including a non-fiction work on the Chincoteague ponies.

You can go to the web site by clicking here: Feather Fund.

Who Was Wild Horse Annie?

One day in 1950, a tiny secretary from Reno, NV named Velma B. Johnston was driving on a highway and noticed a truck in front of her with blood dripping from the back. She followed the truck and discovered that it was carrying injured, but live, wild horses to a slaughter house.

Repulsed and distressed, Johnston began researching how wild horses were rounded up by "mustangers"—ranchers and hunters that captured wild horses for slaughter. When she became aware of the inhumane methods used to round up the mustangs, and their horrific journey to be slaughtered, she became determined to make a difference in the lives of these horses who represented the pioneer spirit of the American West.

Johnston began a grassroots campaign that involved mostly school children. Young people from all across America sent letters to newspapers and legislators and attracted enormous attention that outraged the public and made them aware of the issue. As public attention grew, some of Johnston's critics snidely began to call her "Wild Horse Annie." Over time there was no louder outcry from the American public over this issue than any other with the exception of the Vietnam war.

Annie and her supporters continued the fight—and newspapers continued to publish articles about the exploitation of wild horses and burros. In January 1959, Nevada Congressman Walter Baring introduced a bill prohibiting the use of motorized vehicles (helicopters and trucks which were used to chase down the terrified mustangs) to hunt wild horses and burros on all public lands. The House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill which became known as the Wild Horse Annie Act. The bill became Public Law 86-234 on Sept. 8, 1959.

This law did not include Annie's recommendation that Congress begin a program to protect wild horses and burros. Public interest and concern continued to increase, and with it came the realization that federal management was needed. In response to public outcry, the Senate unanimously passed a law on June 19, 1971. It became known as The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971.

The federal statute calls wild horses "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West" that should be "protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death." But the same law also requires the government to achieve "appropriate management levels" of roaming horses so they don't overwhelm federal lands -- and that's the part that has been vexing for bureau officials.

Unfortunately, something has gone terribly wrong and there are over 30,000 wild mustangs who have been incarcerated in holding pens, standing rump to rump, without shade, in Nevada, for over three years now! There are people who want to help, who are willing to help and have the financial resources to help.

For more information, click here: Mustangs On The Hill

The Wild Horses of Bay Head

There is a lot across the street from my parents house at the ocean where I spent many happy hours as a child, galloping along twisting paths of grassy sand dunes, pretending I was a wild stallion protecting my herd. For whatever reason, 40+ years later this little piece of earth is still untouched. Whenever I am in Bay Head, the first thing I do each morning is look out my bedroom window, across the top of those same sand dunes, to see the sun rising over the ocean.

Like all good horse girls, my imagination allowed me the power to tame many a wild stallion purely through my gentle nature, or to become that wild stallion, or a mare who had strayed from his herd with my newborn foal. But never did I ever imagine capturing the wild horses in my mind, forcing them into work, to live in a stall, away from their native land where they ran so wild and free.

I think I first read Black Beauty about the same time I saw the movie Born Free. I was nine years old (and I did not read an abridged version) and very moved by the words on those pages. It was reading Black Beauty that made me decide I wanted to be a writer, and I wanted to write about horses. I wrote several stories as a child, which ~ thanks to my sentimental and thoughtful mother ~ I still have today. Little pages stapled together, complete with illustrations, all about wild horses resisting being tamed and a girl who sets them free.

In thinking recently about the wild mustangs plight happening right now, and watching the videos posted on the internet of the "gatherings" as the BLM gently refers to them, I remembered a poem I wrote one day after I came in from the sand dunes. I found it in my box of childhood treasures and thought I would share it with you. Following is how it was written when I was 9 years old:

Wild and Free
This one shall never feel the pain
Of stinging whip or bearing rein,
For he is born so wild and free
Just like all others were meant to be.

Out on the prairie, his mother near,
He doesn't yet know the meaning of fear,
But soon he will learn to run like the wind,
When man comes after day out and day in.

For if they catch him (the thought is ill),
They will teach him to go only at their will,
And never again will he ever be,
Running and living so wild and free.

Nanci Tuner
Age 9

Mustangs On The Hill Rally

HELP RESTORE OUR AMERICAN MUSTANGS!

Attend and submit comments at Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board Meeting on the SEPTEMBER 28th at Hyatt, 1325 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington ,VA 22209 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Attend "MUSTANGS ON THE HILL" gathering on the West Front Lawn of Capitol Hill on SEPTEMBER 29th from 8a.m. - 4 p.m. to support the ROAM Act (Restore Our American Mustangs, S. 1579) and urge Congress to preserve and protect OUR wild horses. We encourage people to bring signs and stand with us united, for OUR wild horse’s future and preservation of OUR heritage and history.

For more information, please visit http://www.thecloudfoundation.org or Mustangs On The Hill Web Site Flier.

Thank you to all for your support!

The Art of Successful Training

I read on Facebook today about an old student of mine who is going for her C3 Pony Club rating this weekend. Chrissy is one of the hardest working kids I have ever known. From the time her little feet didn't even reach the bottom of her saddle flap, she has had a work ethic that would make a grown man tremble. Chrissy probably studied more books than any other student I have ever had, spent more hours at the barn watching and learning, and kept her eyes and ears open. She is now in college and is finally achieving her C3. Finally, after years and years her hard work is paying off.

I also read on my brother Jamie's web site (http://60secondmarketer.com/blog) an interview with an old high school classmate of ours who is one of the nation's leading commercial photographers (www.ellisvener.com). Jamie asked Ellis for his tips on succeeding in business. Here is his #1 piece of advice:

1. Persist and prepare. It takes time to refine a craft. Eric Clapton spent a year or two in his room in his mother’s house practicing learning how to play different styles of blues guitar. Adobe says it takes 10,000 hours to completely master Photoshop’s tools. Andy Warhol said just do the work. All these things prepare your mind to see the right opportunities and go through those doors when they appear. And the process of practice and preparation should never stop if you want to keep on growing. Warren Buffett still does his homework, shouldn’t you?

My point is, hard work and humility pay off. Whether you are trying to perfect a dressage test, increase your precision and speed in barrel racing, or struggling through fitness training for endurance riding, it all takes work. Hard work. At times grueling work. And it takes studying. Watching other riders perform, standing behind the judges box to hear their comments, watching videos, asking question after question after question, reading, reading, reading, followed by practice, practice, practice.

But the reward is simple. Success.

Wild Mustangs' Trail of Tears

"Are they still real?" a young girl asked. She wasn't talking about Santa Claus, she was asking about the wild mustangs of the west. And the answer is "Yes!" for now they are real. But maybe not for long.

Currently there are thousands of wild mustangs being rounded up by the BLM with the intention of sending them to slaughter, or sterilizing them. The most famous wild stallion alive, Cloud, is part of this plan.

Cloud is a pale palomino stallion living in the Pryor Mountains of Montana, a range the Crow Indians call the Arrowheads. Cloud has been documented from the day of his birth by Emmy-winning filmmaker, Ginger Kathrens. Her films about Cloud, “Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies” and “Cloud’s Legacy: The Wild Stallion Returns” air on PBS’s Nature series and represent the only on-going documentation of a wild animal in our hemisphere. Ginger’s Cloud chronicles have been compared to Jane Goodall’s work with chimpanzees in Africa. Ginger has written two books about Cloud.

Here is a copy of a letter written by Ginger Kathrens, who witnessed the capture and release of Cloud. This letter and more information can be found on The Cloud Foundation web site: www.thecloudfoundation.org.

"Dear Friends of Cloud and his herd;

On September 9th six of us stood atop a low hill near the corrals where the Pryor wild horses would be set free. The first band to be released was Cloud’s. But, the family was missing the young members of the band and Cloud knew it. Instead of racing to freedom as he has done twice before, he dashed in a circle around his mares and lone foal, Jasmine. Again and again he tried to snake them back toward the corrals where part of his family was held captive.

It is the stallion father’s job to keep the family together and we saw a display unlike anything I have ever seen as Cloud swept past his band trying to keep them from returning to the mountain top. The whole time wranglers on horse back drove the band and yelled at the horses, trying to get them to leave. Cloud paid no attention to the riders on their tall horses. Instead he tried in vain to reunite his splintered family. In the end the mares won, racing away with Cloud grudgingly following. With tears in our eyes, we watched him disappear into the desert.

Two days earlier we had stood on high hill over looking the corrals watching as bands were driven in from the mountain top through the desert. My heart dropped as I spotted the pale horse in the distance with his band. It was Cloud. The helicopter pilot dipped and swerved, doing its best to bring his family in through the desert foothills. With the Black in the lead, the band broke back time and again, as if knowing what lay before them. Finally, the helicopter was able to press them into the wings of the trap and Cloud took the lead.

The Judas horse was released and raced past him. What happened next was a first for me. Cloud completely ignored the lure of the Judas horse! When the corral came into view he slowed and the band pushed in around him, trying to run away from the helicopter. Dust swirled around them as Cloud stopped and turned to face the chopper and stood still for a few seconds. Then, he turned following his family into the corral. I have never seen this kind of defiant courage . . . ever.

And so, I ask that we take his lead. Courage is what we need now. Courage and tenacity.

We must keep up the fight."

Haflingers

Although we were never really positive about Tugboat's breeding, we always believed he was at least part Haflinger. The photo to the left was taken during his first two weeks at the horse center when we couldn't catch him. Seriously, once we unloaded him from the trailer and got him into his paddock, it took two weeks and five grown men to finally get a hold of him again.

You'll be able to read all about that when my book, The Tugboat Chronicles ~ Confessions of a School-Pony, is published. It's right there on page one.

Below are two photos of current day Tugboat. First, you can see where he has calmed down quite a bit. A few years as a lesson pony, followed by getting his own human who takes him to shows, will calm anything worth calming.

But if you look closely you can see his mane and tail, over time, have turned dark. No longer the light cream color that stood out so from his deep chestnut coat. In fact, he is beginning to look like a bay pony.

What does this mean as far as his breeding? Well it means he is certainly not 100% Haflinger because they are always chestnut with light mane and tail. But the fact that he is built the way he is, and his coloring, or his previous coloring, suggests a Haflinger cross.

The breed origin can be traced to medieval times when writings told of an Oriental breed of horse found in the Southern Tyrolean Mountains of what it now Austria and northern Italy. Many of the villages and farms in the Tyrol were accessible only by narrow paths requiring agile and surefooted horses for transportation and packing. Artwork from the region in the early 1800s depicts a noble chestnut horse with riders and packs traversing steep mountain trails.

During World War II there was a shift in breeding practices because the military needed a packhorse that was shorter and stockier. Consequently, the breed ended up as large ponies or small horses. Regardless of their size, characteristics of a Haflinger are a strong constitution, a solid conformation with substantial bone, and an uncomplicated personality.

Haflingers are considered "easy keepers," and can carry a lot more weight than other ponies or horses their size. Currently the American Haflinger Registry reports they are ridden in almost all disciplines, including dressage, western riding, driving, eventing, and especially trail riding.