Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech “Citizenship in a Republic” on April 23, 1910, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.  This is the passage that made this speech famous:

The Man in the Arena

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again.

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he failed while daring greatly…”

I cannot tell you how many times over the last 2+ years I have read and re-read that quote.  I should say, read and re-read that quote and cried my eyes out! It is so fitting that the quote comes from Theodore Roosevelt, the man that our beloved park was named to honor.  The park that is home to 201 wild horses who need our help now more than ever. 

Brene Brown has a whole book dedicated to Daring Greatly.  This is from the introduction of her book:

“Perfect and Bulletproof are seductive, but they don’t exist in the human experience.  We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be – a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation – with courage and the willingness to engage.  Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgement and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability.  This is daring greatly.”

Yesterday was a complete and total gut punch.  For those of you on the “Let’s wait and see what the park does” train – I hope you see clearly what their plans are. More than that, I hope you are ready to get off that train!

In the last 24 hours, I have been mad, sad, angry, infuriated, sick to my stomach, crying on and off uncontrollably and just about every other emotion you can imagine.  Yesterday literally brought me to my knees (again).

I cannot ever fully express how much fighting for these horses has taken of my time and energy and how much this fight has taken out of me. 

Yesterday, I sat several times and simply cried – asking the Universe – WHY?  Why do we have to do this again?  Why do we have to keep fighting so hard? 

You know…

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME!

I gave myself a full 30 minutes today before I once again gave myself to the TRNP wild horses.  I took my dogs for a walk with my husband and let the tears flow throughout our walk.

“How the hell are we going to save them this time?” 

We have 2 weeks!

Then I went home and put on my “No Excuses” shirt.

In life, I have been raised to believe we either find a way or we find an excuse. 

I can tell you that the CHWHA “way” will NOT include coming to a place that we disagree with the complete and total mismanagement of the wild horses that call the park home but say its ok to benefit anyone.  Nor will we come to a place that we disagree with what the park is doing but allow ourselves to “tolerate” insanity like this.

Yes, that is what acting Superintendent Nancy Finley asked of me yesterday.

To Superintendent Finley:

I am sorry, but no thank you.

I know that my face may be “marred by dust and sweat and blood” from our last fight, but this afternoon, I realized something else:

WE NEVER LEFT THE ARENA!

Since April of this year, if it is humanly possible, my life has been even busier as we work on legislation and work to keep the plight of these horses front and center.  We fought our asses off for Alluvium, because just like these 15 horses now being slated for removal, to CHWHA: EVERY LAST ONE OF THESE WILD HORSES MATTERS! And we will continue to fight for the freedom of each and every one of them with the same tenacity we did the last 2+ years.

Between yesterday and today I have:

• Sent a detailed email to our state and federal legislators sharing our concerns and the outright deceit from Theodore Roosevelt National Park as they continue to work hard to eliminate this herd of wild horses.
• Wrote an Op-Ed and sent it to newspaper contacts.  It will appear in at least one newspaper (still waiting for responses from others)
• Spoken with members of the press and also set up interviews with local press for stories that will come out this week.
• Spoken with our lawyers to see what legal recourse we have.
• Reached out to all of our advocate contacts for help with different aspects of things we are working on, feedback on steps we can take and asking for their help to spread the word about the parks latest attempts to eliminate this herd.
• Prepared a one-click Call to Action that will be shared in the next post.

I am sure there are other things I did that I simply can’t remember.  Then I took a much-needed lunch break. 

Still left on my Advocacy To-Do list today is:

• Post this and one other post with Calls to Action
• Make a bullet point list that can be sharable exposing the full scope of the park’s plans
• Meet with Holly at Bice Policy Group to go over the first draft of state legislation for the 2025 ND Legislative session
• Answer calls and emails for anything else that might come up today

Does it matter?

It ALL matters! 

Will it make a difference?

For the sake of mares like Dolly, Democracy, Papoose and others AND their offspring – I sincerely hope so!

One thing we have learned over the last couple of years is that silence means agreement.  This is NOT a time for silence and complacency.  Actually, there is no place for being complacent if you claim to be an advocate for any person, animal or cause. 

Sadly, complacency and accepting, as Superintendent Finley said, a tolerance for things the park does that we do not agree with, has set a VERY dangerous precedent by individuals and organizations that have come before us. 

Dr. Blake McCann told us yesterday:

“We have reduced 70 horses under the 1978 EA in the past and the impact analysis hasn’t changed.”

What does that mean?

We did it before UNQUESTIONED and we can and will do it again.  It was ok before – so by default, it must be ok now. 

My gut punch from yesterday is healing up nicely.  Today is a new day and there are new sights we are set on. 

I want to thank all of you who have emailed and PM’d me with so many great and wonderful ideas!  THAT is how we find solutions!  I will ask you to remember that I am truly just one person – with a VERY full plate already.  If you have Willie Nelson’s number (or any other famous person) or even information readily available that can help, please pass it along.  What I cannot do is engage in something that will take me down a rabbit hole of research.  That is where I am asking for all of you, as pivotal members of CHWHA, to help bring your great ideas – along with any necessary research – to life.  Remember: we can’t be “sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgement and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen.” Saving this herd, in two short weeks, will take every single one of us showing up and DARING GREATLY.

If you are ready to meet us in the arena and stand with us as we become “marred by dust and sweat and blood” all over again over these next two weeks as we race against the clock to save these horses, we ask that you do two things:

1. PLEASE consider making a donation to help us with this fight.  As a 501(c)3 organization based in North Dakota, every $1 will help us fight for these horses and get this round up stopped. You can make your donation here: https://secure.everyaction.com/cBmDbRA6cUuzERpShcQOCg2
2. Please meet us in the next post shortly as we give you a few things that you can do to help us in the arena. 

Are you ready to continue our Fight for the Spirit of the Badlands with us?

To quote one of our followers…

LET’S GOOOOOOO!!!!!

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