Hello and Happy Saturday to everyone!

We have been getting a lot of emails with questions from all of you so we thought we would add them into a new blog as a way to answer everyone at once. 

The biggest concern people have is that it has been stated that the park will revert back to their former management plan.  That plan calls for 35-60 horses.  We understand your concerns.  #1 – the park has NEVER kept the horses to that number since 1978.  #2 – Senator Hoeven’s office told us that they abandoned all three alternatives.  Senator Hoeven also keeps saying that a GENETICALLY VIABLE HERD must remain in TRNP.  35-60 is not genetically viable. 

Senator Hoeven has been talking to local press and here is a quote from yesterday:

“If you’re going to make a change and/or reduce numbers out there, you better have a very inclusive, thoughtful, careful process,” said Senator Hoeven. “You take input, you work with everybody, you make sure there’s enough horses there for genetic diversity, you make sure there’s enough horses so people can see them when they come out to the park, and that it’s based on science.”

I can’t tell you the number of times in the last 8 years that we have heard “The park is going to do what the park wants to do.” Or “The park knows what they are doing.” As they continued to go unchecked in their actions. 

The WORLD is literally watching now. Congress is watching.  Our Governor is watching.  Our state legislators are watching. ALL OF US are watching.

While the future management of this herd I still uncertain, I believe that Senator Hoeven has not given us any reason not to trust him so far.  We plan to continue our partnership with his office.   

Someone else asked:

“I thought there were options given to the Park Service about forming a volunteer coalition, much like Salt River Wild Horse Management Group in Arizona and McCullough Peaks FOAL group in Wyoming and then the Park would not have to devote resources to their care. But they have rejected this help, is that correct?”

There was talk about all of the organizations that advocate for these horses to work together and/or form a new group that would help manage these horses.  That fell apart pretty quickly so that will not be happening.  There are other things we are working with our state legislators on that will help.  We will share more as this continues to develop.

There are also a lot of questions about the use of GonaCon.  Yes, they are still using it.  There were mares that were recently darted when I was in the park on Thursday.  When we had our meeting last year, they did state and change their website information.  They are NOT darting ALL mares with GonaCon, that is an impossible undertaking.  This is an issue that needs to be addressed as the future management of this herd continues to evolve. 

Other questions about GonaCon:

The question I have is how many mares from each band have been shot with GonaCon for permanent sterilization? 

Chris, do you have any statistics on the percentage of mares/fillies that have been permanently affected?

No, we do not have any of this information.  The park does not share this, and we are still waiting for answers to our FOIA requests for years now.  ANYONE can ask questions like this through the park’s horse portal: https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/nature/feral-horses.htm

We have also had a lot of comments and PM’s about other people/groups/organizations taking credit for all of our hard work:

“Y’all have worked yourselves to death to save those magnificent horses and them jumping on the chance to exploit your sacrifice and dedication was to much for my inner bitch to ignore. Again Chris and Gary YOU DID IT shoe string budget and 1 governor and one want to be governor, both saying no you aren’t taking the TRNP. Innovative thinking, strategic planning YOU DID IT, the horses you both love like your own are safe thank you so very much”

We appreciate everyone who feels a need to jump to our defense.  The truth is anyone can go back and look at any of those pages or groups and see who has actively been fighting for this herd over the last 2 years.  You can also see who the press is calling and quoting.  We expected this and there is nothing we can do about it.  We appreciate the dedication of our followers.  We know what we accomplished and who helped make this happen.  Save your energy – we STILL have A LOT of work to do!

And another reoccurring question:

Can you take what you did here and replicate it to help other herds?

YES!  We certainly hope so!  There have been a number of groups that have reached out to us over the last year asking for help.  We are also working with Heather from Save Our Wild Horses to hopefully do just this!  You can join our Facebook group for more information on ways you can help wild horses everywhere! https://www.facebook.com/groups/398665996232440

A few people have also asked for our postcard update – I am waiting for tracking information from the printer.  We are hoping to have the postcards in the next week or 2.  We will share updates as we have them.

We hope this helps answer some questions and help ease your minds a little.  Please feel free to email us your questions.  We are also working with our friends at ECI to set up a zoom to talk about what happened with the Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses and what is coming next.  We will share details when we have them.

Thank you for your support and enjoy this moment and enjoy your weekend!

DON’T FORGET!  OUR ONLINE SILENT AUCTION ENDS TOMORROW (4/28/2024) at 8 PM MT!  You can bid on some great items here: https://chwha.betterworld.org/auctions/chwha-spring-2024-silent-auction