Hello! I wanted to share some updates and information with you regarding Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates.
The photos attached to this post are from the spring of this year when the park was capturing the horses. This is Mare Papoose chasing the sled that carried her 1-year-old filly named Betsy that was captured and eventually sold. The photos show Papoose and her then Stallion Arrowhead. Papoose tried chasing the sled and Arrowhead snaked Papoose safely away from the people capturing horses. Betsy is one of the horses that we believe should have stayed in the park because she could have positively helped improve the genetic diversity of this herd. We have no doubt that Betsy has a great forever home. We are thankful to organizations like North Dakota Badlands Horse (NDBH) and Wild in North Dakota (WIND) for helping find homes for Betsy and so many other horses over the years.
While we are thankful for their help in finding homes, we also recognize the problems of “doing whatever the park wants” just because “The Park is going to do whatever it wants anyway.” Partnership agreements were formed (we have NDBH’s on our website: https://chwha.org/library/) that state that the purpose of those partnership agreements were for NDBH to promote the horses so that they could be sold easier every year.
The problem with all of that is now we have a herd of older horses that is dying off and we have sold over 120 young horses, leaving ONLY 8, that were born between 2015-2018. The 8 horses that were left were simply left because they could not capture them – NOT because they were the best horses to keep for the genetic viability of this herd.
COVID last year and the extreme drought conditions this year have given us a much-needed break from the park being able to sell off this herd.
WE HAVE NO DOUBT THAT CAPTURES WILL RESUME AGAIN IN MARCH OR APRIL OF 2022!!
It is fitting that as today is my birthday, I sat with myself last week wondering what the heck I was doing starting a non-profit. As I mentioned last week, Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates hired a well known and very experienced law firm to research our concerns. They have completed their research and we spent well over an hour with them on the phone last week discussing the next steps.
I cannot express the overwhelming feelings within me that WE are doing the right thing! Our law firm’s research not only gave us validation to our concerns, but also unveiled a few new concerns! I have NO DOUBT that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to, and I have no doubt that our non-profit, Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates, WILL be making a difference in the management of this herd!!!
I had valid concerns for years now that in all honesty were based on the fear mongering done by the park and NDBH and our legal team has put those worries to rest! Some of our concerns included:
The park will just take all of the horses from the park and there won’t be any wild horses anymore – LIES!!!!!
A Horse Management Plan could have a negative impact on this herd – LIES!!!!!!
The park will do what it wants to and there is nothing we can do to change that – LIES!!!!!!
The horses are better off outside of the park, so they do not starve to death – LIES!!!!!
It is better for the horses in the park if we take the babies so that they can continue to live in the park – LIES!!!!!
My personal favorite – the mares and other horses in the band do not care when their babies are taken – LIES!!!! And these photos show that!
We are moving forward with a solid plan with the law firm we have retained THIS WEEK!! We know we need to PROACTIVE in order to really make a difference in the spring (4 SHORT MONTHS FROM NOW!!!) when this herd will understandably need to be culled. We do believe that the horses that were born between 2019-2021 that are still in the park have given this herd the gift of genetic diversity that will allow this herd of horses, that has become EXTREMELY inbred under the “advocacy efforts” of NDBH, to begin to heal from YEARS of mismanagement with regards their genetic diversity. We believe that if the park starts using science and genetics – LIKE IT ALWAYS SHOULD HAVE BEEN – this herd can start healing itself WITHOUT bringing in new blood, also tried under NDBH’s watchful eye, which proved to be an epic failure! These introductions coupled with all of the senseless culling, stripped away most of what makes this herd historically and genetically unique. We can thank Marylu Weber and NDBH for that! With their help, through their partnership with TRNP park management as well as turning a blind eye to the park’s poor management choices for the horses, there are a host of issues now facing this herd.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! THE TRNP HORSES NEED YOUR HELP!!!
We have warned many times that you really need to know who you are donating to and what they are doing with the money. We know that there are so many worthwhile non-profits that are really digging in deep to make a difference while others give that illusion while they walk hand in hand with those at the core of the problems.
We hope that if you enjoy the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park – either on ours and other Facebook pages or in person at the park, that you will help support our advocacy efforts as we work hard to make sure this herd continues to survive and thrive for generations to come! We will be sharing the plans we have with our lawyers as they are rolled out to the appropriate people.
We posted last week ways you can help us with our advocacy efforts. We will make a separate post today relisting those and other ways you can help.
It is easy sound the alarms like a 5-alarm fire WHEN the captures are happening. Truthfully, WHEN the captures start, it will be too late to stop them. We need your support now to make a difference.
Thank you!
