National Horse Protection Day

“Strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others.”
~ Suzy Kassem

Hello and Happy Saturday!

As we all start our Saturday, the divide in our country continues to grow. Some of you woke up very proud to be an American this morning, while others are far from feeling the same pride.

I am not bringing this up to start a political debate. I think it is safe to say that these days there seem to be so many things happening, so quickly, we have whiplash trying to keep up with the news.

I know I question myself a lot. “What are we doing?” “Is this the fight we should be involved in, with so much going on in the world?”

Everyday when I have this talk with myself, I always end up saying yes.

I may have mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again.

I had a conversation with my friend Erik Molvar soon after Doug Burgum was nominated for Secretary of the Interior. We talked in hypotheticals (because really, that is all we have) about the possibilities of what Burgum may or may not do if he was confirmed with regards to wild horses and burros.

I told Erik, he will “Drill baby drill” for sure. I told him I was concerned that he might help wild horses, but will the trade off be our public lands?

What Erik said next is something I go back to on difficult days.

He said, “That is not your fight, Chris.” “Your fight first and foremost is to get whatever help you can for your Teddy Roosevelt wild horses and then whatever you can do to help other herds.”

He went on to tell me that there WILL be public land battles. But those are not CHWHA’s battles. There are other organizations that are better equipped for those battles.

I felt a huge weight lift in that conversation.

It helps me when the weight of the world gets so heavy.

That does not mean that we should not help support these other organizations that are doing the work for so many other important issues.

It means that we have to remember what we are fighting for.

Today is National Horse Protection Day. A day to raise awareness and speak up for our wild horses and burros.

Maybe this “Hallmark Holiday” will help bring some new people to the table. Maybe they will hear from people like you about the injustice being done to our wild horses and burros on our public lands. Maybe they will even take some time today to click on some Calls to Action and feel like they performed their civic duty for the day.

For those of us who are wild horse advocates, it’s just Saturday!

We should do what we have been doing every other day – speaking up for our wild horses and burros!

I also want to share a comment from a participant at our virtual summit. They said they were disappointed that there were not more people that attended the virtual summit. Their disappointment comes from looking at the number of people who voice their opinions on social media vs who showed up to get educated and find ways to help.

That is disappointing and we understand the frustration.

There is also another way to look at this….

If you talk to Heather, she will tell you that attendance for our virtual summit was significantly higher than the attendance at the in-person events she helped host in the past.

I wish every person complaining on social media would take action in a meaningful way too. I wish each and every one of you would work on establishing relationships with your state and federal legislators.

None of us can make anyone do anything – but as an organization we can try to make doing those things as easy as possible.

If you are looking for something to do on this National Horse Protection Day – CHWHA is asking that you do the same things we ask you to every day! Here is a list of our Calls to Action – ways that you can speak up for our wild horses and burros:

We are getting ready to present our petition (again) to some of the powers that be to get these collars taken off the TRNP wild horses. This petition will remain open until the collars come off. You can sign the petition here: https://secure.everyaction.com/x-5WrjPo20Cb4LGbj5PD-A2

We also have an email action you can do to email North Dakota’s state and federal legislators asking that the collars be removed. If you get what you feel is an automated response, don’t be afraid to respectfully respond. You can send this email as many times as you like! You can send this email here: https://secure.everyaction.com/mFnS9JcvoEypRJBKdpxK_w2

Please send an email asking that the use of GonaCon on this herd be STOPPED! You can send this email as many times as you like! You can take this action here: https://secure.everyaction.com/7exTfk62vU6c0On_NDNIfA2

Our friend Mary is still fighting for the Devil’s Garden wild horses. You can sign the petition we will be sending to Governor Newsom next week here: https://secure.everyaction.com/87uDjixP1kWh6aLAT3dePw2

You can also send an email to YOUR members of Congress asking for help with the Devil’s Garden Wild Horses here: https://secure.everyaction.com/TUGd9WmX4EqyNwsH08Wnww2 You can send this email as many times as you like!

I know many of you were upset about Secretary Burgum’s land transfer in Utah this week. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. He talked about this in great detail during his confirmation hearing. This leaves the fate of Utah’s wild horses with some big question marks. If you are upset about it, and especially if you are a resident of Utah, please make sure you are letting your state and federal legislators know that wild horses have to remain protected! We created a one-click action for you to take here: https://secure.everyaction.com/BU1SxBcD0E2PdnBu4G9xuw2 This action will send an email to Secretary Burgum, your elected members of Congress, the President, Vice President and First Lady. If you live in Utah, it will send the email to your state legislators as well. You can send this email as many times as you like!

Speaking of Secretary Burgum….

To our knowledge, he has not made any official statements about wild horses and burros – yet. His focus, as we knew it would be, is energy. We created a one-click email to send to him thanking him for his advocacy for the TRNP wild horses and letting him know we hope we can count on him to continue to be an advocate for wild horses and burros on our public lands. You can send this email to Secretary Burgum here: https://secure.everyaction.com/GuOzbPXiQ0iBQRW4lI7Nww2

You can also email Secretary Burgum through the Department of the Interior website here: https://www.doi.gov/contact-us#no-back

I know many of you will say that it won’t do any good to send emails to some or all of these people. We elect them to be our voice. If they don’t hear about our concerns from us, then we can’t complain that they are not doing anything to address our concerns.

We held an online virtual summit a little over a month ago. We had over 30 speakers talking about different topics to help us all become better advocates in 2025. 97% of survey responders said that the summit made them want to be more engaged in wild horse advocacy in 2025.

Along that line, I am going to ask a couple things from you:

Please take a moment to do the actions listed above
Please ask your friends and family members to do the actions listed above
Instead of listening to the news that is weighing everyone down, listen to and re-listen to the speakers from our virtual summit. Take the time to educate yourself on wild horse and burro issues so you can be a better advocate for them! ALL the presentations have been added to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChasingHorsesWildHorseAd-vj8hm
Two speakers from our virtual summit, Britta Hesla and Linda Greaves are holding a lobby day at the end of this month. This can be done in person or virtually. This is a great way to start establishing a relationship with your federal legislators! You can get more information on their website here: https://www.saveourwildhorsesandwildlife.org/
Yesterday we shared an article written by Sabina Pierce about North Dakota’s wild horses. You can read the background on this story in yesterday’s blog: https://chwha.org/2025/02/28/news-to-share-2/ Sabina received a grant from National Geographic to research this topic. She is getting ready to pitch it to her editors with the hopes that they will print it in their National Geographic Magazine. Please be sure to read and share her amazing article! WE NEED TO KEEP WILD HORSES AND BURROS IN THE NEWS!!! Many of you have emailed us letting us know how much you enjoyed the article! THANK YOU! Please continue to send those emails to us! We are forwarding them to Sabina. She said it will help as she has conversations with her editors. You can email us at info@chwha.org You can read her article here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/dc1afeb601d641c296ff0d8f5e5af9fc Please share this article!

I mentioned on social media yesterday that I took a day away from my desk to enjoy the 100 degree weather change from the previous week and enjoy the wild horses in TRNP that we are fighting so hard for.

While I was in the park, I came across 2013 Mare Mischief (pictured above). I will share Mischief’s GonaCon story Monday but in short, she hasn’t foaled in 9 years. We all know she wants a baby and more than likely will never have one again. My husband and I were in the park when they took the ONLY baby she ever had out of the park in 2016. She and Stallion Flax had separated and were frantically running through the park crying out for their baby. It was one of the most heartbreaking moments I have had in TRNP.

Mischief was rounded up during the October 2024 helicopter roundup. She is one of the 15 mares that had a GPS collar placed on them.

Yesterday was the first time I seen Mischief since the roundup.

I cried.

How much more do we need to experiment on these amazing wild horses? We already know there is no need for these collars. The park already put out a report talking about the land use of the horses within the park. We are also talking about 200 wild horses in just under 50,000 acres of fenced land. If they want to know the land use, there are more than enough volunteers that would be willing to share that information with them.

This is nothing more than another experiment on these horses. The park plans to keep these collars on the horses for AT LEAST 2-3 YEARS!!! While you are on our YouTube channel, make sure you watch Laurie Ford and Kathy Jenkin’s presentation – they talk about how well that “remote release” HAS NOT worked on the burros!

Mischief can’t speak up for herself. That collar will stay on, and they will keep pumping her and the other horses full of GonaCon unless we keep making our voices loud enough to get things changed.

I left her promising that I would keep doing all I could to change things for her.

On this National Horse Protection Day can you commit to being a voice for our wild horses? They need us now more than ever. As wild horse advocates, the other advocates I mentioned at the beginning of this blog are counting on us as much as we are counting on them to keep pushing forward.