“The wild horses inside the park are the most popular living things in our state, including every politician, every coach, every sports team. They’ve got a following like none other. Maybe the NDSU Bison have a similar following. Horses are well supported.”

~ former ND Governor Doug Burgum, to KX News December 2024

Hello and Happy Monday to everyone! We hope you had a great weekend!

That’s quite the quote from former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum!  The wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park are the most popular living things in the state of North Dakota! 

We could not agree more!! 

This is going to be a weird week with Christmas right smack in the middle of the week! 

In spite of the holiday season, there is still A LOT of work being done by Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates.  The 2025 North Dakota legislative session is about to begin! 

My Saturday started with a phone call at 7 am my time.  It was a call I had been waiting for all week from our ND House Majority Leader, Mike Lefor. 

We have been working with Representative Lefor on this wild horse legislation we are currently waiting to come out of legal counsel for months. 

Representative Lefor started the conversation by saying, “God love you for all the work you have done for these wild horses.  Without a doubt, if it wasn’t for you, we would not have any wild horses to be talking about right now.”

When I shared the conversation with my husband, at that part he stopped and simply said, “Wow!”

Wow indeed!  I share that with all of you because it has been all of us that make up CHWHA that is included in the “you” Representative Lefor gave such a great compliment to.

I know this has been a really long road.  Theodore Roosevelt National Park first announced their management planning process in March of 2022.  Remember that?  When they gave us 6 options they were considering, and they asked us what other options we felt that they should include in their analysis.  It seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? 

For us at CHWHA, our fight started long before that.  We officially became a non-profit organization in 2021, but our advocacy has been going on for years prior. 

Our #1 goal from the very beginning has always been to secure federal protection for this herd.  I can tell you that we are closer than ever to realizing that goal, but we do still have quite the road ahead of us!

There are a lot of people, state legislators included, who feel that with Doug Burgum being appointed as Secretary of the Interior that our TRNP wild horses “are going to be ok”.

I will admit that the stars are FINALLY lining up for us, but as with anything, it is what you do when opportunity presents itself that make things actually happen!

If we do NOTHING – we will really have wasted this moment!  We will get NOTHING!

We STILL have to do the work folks!  Our legislators STILL don’t know what we want unless we tell them. 

Our state legislators won’t know why it is important that this legislation passes unless we tell them! As soon as our legislation comes out of legal counsel, we will have a VERY SHORT TIME to educate them and get them to vote for our bill! We will have one chance to make this happen!  Our North Dakota state legislators are only in session for 80 days every 2 years.  We won’t get this opportunity again until 2027!

We have done a lot.  Without a doubt, as Representative Lefor said. Today, I am asking you to not lose sight of the fact that there is still more work to be done. 

I have meetings today (Monday) and more meetings on Friday to talk about this legislation with state officials.  Believe it or not, there is still sooooo much to learn!  I’m learning!  And then applying that knowledge where we can, very quickly I might add, to help get the results we are looking for. 

In-between meetings, we will pepper in some Holly Jolly moments as the year comes to a close. 

We hope that you and your families have a wonderful holiday season, no matter how or what you celebrate.  Take some time to enjoy the Holly Jolly of the season and pat yourselves on the back for all of the great things we accomplished this year.  Make sure you check back in with us.  Our legislation should be coming out of legal counsel any time now.  Once we have a number and a committee assignment, we will all have a lot of work to do!

Thank you as always for your continued support and have a wonderful holiday!

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