Hello and Happy Wednesday to everyone!
The first full week of 2025 is proving to be just that – FULL!
We have been on the run all week with meetings and that schedule continues through the end of the week! We will have some updates this weekend, so be sure to check back!
The North Dakota 2025 Legislative Session has begun! We will have some updates this weekend on where things are with our legislation.
One thing we DO know is that we will need EVERYONE to testify during the legislative session! Do you know HOW to testify? I know I had no idea what I was doing in 2023 when I personally testified! We will be holding a Horse Talk on January 22nd at 6 pm Mountain time to show everyone how to testify! We will also have time to answer your questions, so you feel confident about making your voice heard for the TRNP wild horses!
As always, these Horse Talks are FREE, but we do ask that you register in advance: https://secure.everyaction.com/c6_951Iv7kCr9Vg6JpVBxA2
NOTE: Once you register, you will be given a Zoom link for the Horse Talk. This link will also be emailed to you.
Giving Hearts Day is coming FEBRUARY 13, 2025!!! Our meetings this week have been a mix of legislative meetings and raising awareness about Giving Hearts Day and our SW North Dakota Collaborative. You can learn more about our collaborative on our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/swndgivingheartsday
Giving Hearts Day has been our biggest fund-raiser every year! We need your help once again to make this event a success! We are required to raise a MINIMUM of $3,000 in matching funds! So far, we have raised $3,960 in matching funds! Our goal is $5,000! We have until January 27th to raise the additional $1,040.00 we need to meet this goal! If you can help us with our matching fund, please make your tax-deductible donation here: https://secure.everyaction.com/KrELigjJckyX7vqDTjTdzg2
There will be an option for early giving again this year for Giving Hearts Day! Early giving starts on January 13th and we will make sure to let you know when it starts and how to donate!
You can learn more about Giving Hearts Day on our website here: https://chwha.org/giving-hearts-day/
The money we are raising for Giving Hearts Day will go to help with our expenses for the legislative work we are doing to make sure that the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park NEVER have their freedom threatened again! The last 3 years have taught us A LOT and the biggest thing we have learned is that we NEVER want to repeat this threat again!
As a reminder, NO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS are working with us on our work for state and federal legislation. All of this legislative work is expected to cost us $20,000 over the next few years! As a very small nonprofit organization, that is a big price tag for us! We need your help to finish this critical work we started 3 years ago when the park made their intentions to eradicate the ENTIRE herd of horses known!
We are a little over 3 weeks away from our FIRST virtual educational summit: Putting the “A” in Advocacy – Arming Yourself with Knowledge to Effectively Advocate in 2025 Virtual Summit! This summit will be held January 31st – February 3, 2025! We have updated the speaker list and bios on our website and have also added most of the presentation titles to our website! We are finalizing the schedule and will have the schedule and signup info for you next week so be sure to check back! You can get more info about the summit on our website here: https://chwha.org/2025-wild-horse-summit/ You can sign up to get updates for the summit here: https://secure.everyaction.com/CddPB23A7k2uHPKwsNSzNA2
34 different speakers will be giving 30 different presentations over this 4-day weekend! We think we have just about every topic you can think of covered! OVER 300 PEOPLE HAVE SIGNED UP TO BE A PART OF THIS AMAZING EVENT!!!!
The best part?
THIS EVENT IS FREE!!!!
Our goal is to help educate as many people as possible on a variety of aspects of advocacy so that we are all ready to be the best advocates we can be as we continue to raise our voices for wild horses and burros!
We have been sharing posts on our social media pages highlighting the “GonaCon Stories” of the mares of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. GonaCon is such a hot topic with this herd that we decided to dedicate a full page to it! On this page, you will find all of the GonaCon stories we are sharing on social media as well as references for you to learn more about this known sterilant that continues to be used aggressively on the TRNP herd. You can view this page here: https://chwha.org/gonacon/
We also have a Call to Action for you asking the park to STOP the use of GonaCon on this herd. You can send this email EVERY SINGLE DAY if you choose – even multiple times a day if you wish! You can take this one-click action here: https://secure.everyaction.com/7exTfk62vU6c0On_NDNIfA2
While you are on our website – feel free to browse around! Jen is almost done with our website update! IT LOOKS AMAZING! THANK YOU to all of you for your donations that helped make this incredible update possible!
We are so honored to have so many people who come to help us in different ways! I wanted to talk about 2 of the many people for a quick moment!
We have a NEW person helping us with our grants! Paula is an amazing person AND I just also learned that Paula also conveniently was a market researcher! As we are talking about grants and even in our legislative work, quantifying the TRNP horses always comes up. I am sure many of you have seen the post about The Banker horses in North Carolina and their estimate to quantify the value of these horses. We took that formula and applied it to the TRNP wild horses! What we came up with is below. Paula said that this will always be an estimate, but with all of her knowledge and experience, she felt that this was a great way to quantify the value of these horses! This is something we will be using in a lot of areas of our advocacy!
How much is a Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horse worth to the local economy of Medora North Dakota?
Theodore Roosevelt National Park had approximately 900,000 visitors to the park in 2023. Please note, this number is expected to increase significantly every year, especially in 2026 with the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
The wild horses are always within the top 3 reasons why people visit the park. That means an average of 300,000 people come to Medora every year just to see the wild horses.
The average visitor spends $50 for day trippers; $200 a day for overnighters: making the average 125/day/person
$125/day times 300,000 visitors = $37,500,000 per year
$37,500,000 divided by an average of 200 wild horses in the park = $187,500 per horse, per year
Take that number times the average life expectancy of around 18-20 years and that brings it to $3,375,000 – $3,750,000 per horse in their lifetime! They are a true natural treasure to the state of North Dakota in every sense!
These numbers do not include visitors that drive across the state to see the horses. Those visitors only increase the amount of money that the horses bring to the total economy in the state of North Dakota.
The second person I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to is a VERY talented artist named Trish Bonnette! Trish has generously donated several of her paintings to us to help us raise money for our critical advocacy work for the TRNP wild horses! We are excited to start 2025 with a NEW donation from Trish!
This BEAUTIFUL 18×24 pastel painting is titled “The Majesty of Pyrite and Adonis”. Trish gives thanks to Harry Furey for allowing her to use his photo as reference.
You can see more of Trish’s amazing work on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/trish.bonnette
You can enter to win this amazing photo by making a donation to Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates. Every donation you make to our organization is 100% tax deductible and helps support our critical advocacy work as we fight for the proper management of the wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home.
You will get one entry for every $10 you donate between today and January 20th! We will announce the winner on January 21st!
You can make your tax deductible donation by clicking the donate button any ANY of our social media posts or by clicking here: https://secure.everyaction.com/wnK6YjHlTkCC2Aq57_7srQ2
Thank you again for your support and THANK YOU to Trish for this awesome donation!
That’s it for now for our “mid-week” update! Be sure to check back as we move through the rest of this week that ends with the FIRST Coffee with the Legislators hosted by the Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce this weekend!
Have a great rest of the week and be sure to check back this weekend for another update!
Leave a Reply