Hello and HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!
The horse in this photo is 2020 Bachelor Stallion Bokel. He was born to Mare Dolly and Stallion Flax. I remember when he was born! We found the band very shortly after his birth that day. Dolly was still working on getting the afterbirth released.
Bokel is a bachelor stallion and last week, we found him hanging out with Bachelor Stallion Apex (Ruby x Teton). There is no shortage of beauty in the ever-changing landscape of the Park! On this day, the crooked cottonwood trees made for some fun photos with these two! Our advocacy in 2020 helped keep horses like Bokel in the Park! Prior to that, every young horse aged 4 months old to 3 years old was rounded up twice a year and sold to the highest bidder. It is amazing to be able to FINALLY witness these horses growing up and playing their important role within the herd.
THANK YOU to everyone who let us know that they enjoyed our new video series. If you missed it, we talked about Stallion Nicols and his band last week. All of our videos are available to watch on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeyTpwa2Y1yUsTaJ4TU-eNw We plan to release a NEW video this week so be sure to check back!
2023 was pretty amazing! Together we accomplished A LOT in our fight to save the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park!
Are you ready to move some more mountains in 2024?! We still have more work to do! We are just at the beginning of what promises to be a long fight for the freedom of the 200 wild horses that call the Park home.
Superintendent Angie Richman in her interview with The Wall Street Journal stated that she expects to have a decision by the end of this year on IF they will be getting rid of 150 of the horses or ALL 200!
We can’t sit back and wait for their decision! Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates has been and will continue to be as proactive as possible in this fight!
We have been working with an editor on a NEW article for another NATIONAL newspaper! I think we are close to having a finished piece! The photos to accompany the article have been selected by the visual editor. We hope to have more news to share on this with you this week so stay tuned!
The media – ESPECIALLY the National Media is incredibly important in getting the story of these horses out in front of the public! We know that Joe from The Wall Street Journal found us through Patrick Springer’s articles in the Fargo Forum. The editor I am working with now let me know that she found us through the AP articles by Jack Dura.
EVERY media contact is so important!
Last week we met with a local Billings County news reporter. She is working hard on what promises to be a very in-depth article!
We are also meeting with another NEW reporter tomorrow. We are excited that there is a continued interest and are willing to talk to anyone who will listen so that we can continue to gain support as we continue to Fight for the Spirit of the Badlands!
Now that the holidays are officially over, we will be reaching out to our state legislators and continuing talks on how we can work together to save these horses!
We are also communicating with Bill Peterson, the State Historic Preservation Officer. He has confirmed that he received our petition and supporting documentation requesting that the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park be classified as historically and culturally significant to the state of North Dakota. He let us know that their Section 106 Review Process is still in progress. We will share any updates we receive!
We are also grateful to our friend Frank Kuntz. As you know, Frank has been advocating for these horses since the 1970’s! It is heartwarming to know that while he continues to fight to save the Nokota breed, he also sends people our way to help us in our fight! This has led to us meeting some incredible people! Like our NEW National Geographic friend who is talking to her editors about including us in a current Nokota story she is working on along with people like Dr. Castle McLaughlin, Steve Martens and another news reporter who contacted us recently. Frank has also passed out our brochures and flyers as he travels. It’s heartwarming to see how much can be done when people can truly put their egos aside and work together for a common goal!
Speaking of people working together…
Giving Hearts Day is February 8, 2024!
We just increased our matching fund’s goal to $15,000!!! We are sooo close to meeting this goal! Please take a moment to help if you can! https://chwha.org/support-chwha/
We will have information very soon on how you can schedule your Giving Hearts Day donation. Remember, every donation you make during this campaign is DOUBLED!!!!
We are blessed to be part of the Southwestern Giving Hearts Day Collaborative! This group is made up of some pretty incredible non-profit organizations that serve our community. You can learn more about these groups on our collaborative’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/swndgivingheartsday
One of the things that Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates did last year was join North Dakota’s Newspaper Association. This allows us to put out one press release every month that is then distributed to every newspaper throughout the state. For January and February, we are donating our press release to our collaborative to help raise awareness about Giving Hearts Day and our awesome nonprofits serving our community.
In the midst of total insanity last year right after the Park announced their plans to eliminate ALL of the wild horses from their boundaries, for me personally, working with this amazing group of people was truly one of the highlights of the year.
Talk about the impact of putting egos aside and working together….
Our collaborative raised over $960,000 last year! $12,095.82 of that was raised for Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates!
So much goes into making this event a success and the nonprofits involved have proven that working together for EVERYONE means that we ALL win and so does our community!
This year promises to be another roller coaster ride for sure! We hope that you will all buckle up and continue this ride with us!
Thank you again for your continued support and we hope you have a WONDERFUL 2024!
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