A second chance for Chon-Teh

It was the night of Thursday, December 2nd, 2010, and Carol Poole couldn't sleep.  The Facebook image of a frightened black mustang mare who had landed in the "kill pen" at the New Holland auction haunted her.  The forlorn mare, whose neck brand identified her as one the BLM had taken from the wild, was destined for a one-way trip to a slaughterhouse unless someone stepped in to save her.  When nobody else did, Carol realized it was up to her.

Even though she wasn't really thinking about adding another horse to her band of three at her 10-acre Almosta Farm in Oakham, Mass., Carol knew she had to intervene to save the mare's life.  Carol is a devoted wild horse advocate who has been working passionately to end the relentless spate of BLM roundups.  With fundraising help from a bevy of like-minded supporters on the PA Kill Broker Owned Facebook page, a chunk of the $595 "bail" money was chipped in to cover the costs of the mare's purchase price, as well as the coggins certificateand health exam that she would need to make the interstate journey from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts.  And by the morning of Tuesday, December 7th, the mare was home free.

But how in the world did she find herself in harm's way?  Carol made it her mission to find out.  She contacted the BLM's Steve Meyers, who looked up the brand and discovered that this horse had been trapped and removed from the 65,000-acre Three Fingers Herd Management Area in eastern Oregon back in 2002.  She had been adopted in 2004 by a person who was identified by Meyers as Amish.  We don't know what happened to her in the interim, but we do know that the New Holland auction is often used as a dumping ground for horses owned by members of the local Amish community.  According to the BLM's records, the mare is 10 years old.

When she walked off the trailer onto Carol Poole's farm in early December, the little mustang mare appeared to be sweet, serene, and surprisingly easy to handle.  But her eyes were "glassy and watery," Carol recalled, signaling that all was not well.  And within a day or so, the mare's demeanor changed so dramatically that Carol is convinced she had been drugged prior to the sale.  By the day before Christmas, Carol admitted that "we still can't get near her" to touch her, pet her, or to remove her halter, which has obviously been attached to the mare's head for a long time.  "She doesn't want anything to do with humans," Carol said, sadly, and "she shies away if you move your hands.  I think she's been abused."

But Carol has no intention of giving up on this shy, gentle creature whose fearfulness cannot hide a quiet dignity and nobility of spirit.  To honor her, Carol determined that the mare should have a name befitting her wild heritage, and after consulting with William Firecloud, Jr., she has chosen to call the mare, "Wash-Ah-Kah Chon-Teh," which is Dakota Teton dialect for "Strong Heart."

For now, "Chon Teh" (pronounced "Shon Tay") has a roomy paddock across from three other horses (including another mustang), access to a run-in shed, fresh water, and as much hay as she can eat.  Slowly, she is allowing herself to get closer to people, and she seems to understand that she is finally in the arms of people who have no wish to harm her.  

Carol dreams that she will one day be able to return Chon Teh to a western reserve where she can roam in wide open spaces with other mustangs.  "I personally don't think any wild horse belongs to any person," Ms. Poole emphasized.  "The only reason we took her was to save her life."  And in doing so, she has given Chon Teh the most precious gift of all: a second chance.

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Laura Leigh seeks injunction to immediately halt wild horse roundups

Barely 18 hours before BLM-hired helicopters are scheduled to lift off in pursuit of almost 600 wild horses in the Silver King Herd Management Area south of Ely, Nevada, advocate and journalist Laura Leigh went to federal court in Reno yesterday in an effort to ground them.

And Ms. Leigh's far-ranging motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) wouldn't stop there.  She seeks nothing less than an injunction to cause the immediate cessation of "all helicopter operations wherever situated," all "transporting, whever situated or intended, of captured wild horses, feral horses," and other BLM-managed horses, and all "bulk shipment of horses from long-term holding facilities, short-term holding facilities, or sale horses outside the regular BLM adoption program."  Ms. Leigh wants to impose these prohibitions not just on the proposed Silver King Gather, but on all ongoing and planned roundups under BLM jurisdiction in every state in which they are occurring or are expected to occur.

The implications of Ms. Leigh's suit are huge, and potentially ground-breaking.  If successful, her motion would not only halt--at least temporarily--the anticipated BLM roundup at Silver King, in Nevada, but a host of other previously scheduled roundups, including the controversial Wyoming gather of almost 2000 wild horses in the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek HMAs, which is due to start at the end of next week.
Ultimately, when these roundups resume, Ms. Leigh wants access, and she wants transparency.  In the wake of the disastrous Calico Complex roundup earlier this year, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 horses, the BLM has gone to extreme lengths to restrict public observers from witnessing its wild horse chases, entrapment methods, and stress-filled holding sites, hoping that by hiding what actually happens when wild horses are forcefully wrenched from their ranges, it would silence the outrage of an impassioned American public.

Instead, the voices of protest have only grown louder.

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Thoroughbred Mare Stolen in Dead of Night in Pennsylvania is Still Missing

It was unusually windy on Wednesday night, September 8th, so Tracy Twarkusky didn't think much of it when she thought she saw the motion lights come on around 8:00pm, out by the barn within 200 yards of her home.  She thought the vibration of the wind gusts was responsible, but still, something seemed vaguely amiss, so she pulled out a pair of binoculars to see if they would reveal something out of the ordinary.  They didn't.

Tracy reasoned that her two dogs would bark if anyone had approached her 23-acre farm in rural Columbia Cross Roads, Pennsylvania, but the dogs hadn't made a peep.  She could still see the lights outside the barn of the 80-acre farm next door, which housed several thoroughbreds, including an imposing eight-year-old thoroughbred mare, Hero's Home, and her three-month-old colt, "Little Man."  But she never heard a sound.

The next morning, as she rushed to bring her daughter to the school bus, Tracy thought it odd that Little Man was standing alone by the fence outside the barn, whinnying as if to tell her something was wrong.  Hero's Home was nowhere in sight, but Tracy hastily thought she might just be resting in her run-in stall.  But when she returned.  Tracy's heart sank.  The big, 17.2 bay dark bay mare wasn't in her stall.  She was gone.  Only her halter and lead rope remained.

And now, more than a week after her unexplained disappearance in the middle of the night, there is only one conclusion to be drawn:  Hero's Home was stolen.

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Death on the Track

Just minutes before she fell and died in the stretch of the second race at Saratoga yesterday, Forest Whip was looking beautiful and seemingly relaxed in the paddock. The elegant bay daughter of Forestry walked calmly, gently swishing her tail. There wasn't a clue that anything was wrong. She didn't seem to have a care in the world, and I was impressed with her easy demeanor. She was making only her second start.

I happened to be watching Forest Whip because when I'd handicapped the race, I thought she could win it: a $60,000 maiden claimer against other two-year-old fillies going six furlongs. She was stepping down in class, and switching from turf to dirt: she looked interesting, both on paper, and as a pretty presence in the paddock. The last time I checked the tote board, as I stepped up to the window to place a modest bet on her, I realized that lots of other people liked Forest Whip's chances, too. She went off the favorite, at 9-5.

I could see through my binoculars that Forest Whip balked slightly as she was led up to the gate. With a little bit of coaxing, she went in without much fuss. In hindsight, it would have been better if she hadn't.

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Who is the BLM Kidding?

The BLM has just announced that it intends to pay $1.5 million to the National Academy of Sciences for a two-year study that would purportedly determine how best to count, control, collect, and ultimately manage America's wild horses. The agency claims it wants to use "the best science available" in managing wild horses and burros on public lands. Who are they kidding?

How can we possibly take this initiative seriously while the BLM is moving at literally breakneck speed to round up every wild horse it can find? It doesn't want a study, it wants a mandate. I don't buy it, and neither should anyone who truly cares about the future of the wild horses who are still roaming free on their appointed ranges.

The BLM's sudden interest in science is nothing more than an attempt to placate the Inspector General, whose office recently reported that the Department of Interior "has no comprehensive scientific integrity policy." Heck, wild horse advocates could have told them that.

Calls for a comprehensive scientific review are meaningless in the absence of a concurrent agreement to suspend the wild horse roundups pending the results of the investigation. If the BLM is so concerned about the need for an updated evaluation of how it calculates wild horse numbers and determines herd management areas, why is it in such a hurry to grab every horse in sight before such a study is even conducted, much less made available?

But if the National Academy of Sciences is to conduct a review, it should seek the answers to some hard questions. For example. . .

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King, the New York City Carriage Horse, Goes on to Greener Pastures

When Elizabeth Forel heard that the license of the elderly New York City carriage horse, King, would be allowed to expire when it came up for renewal on August 31st, she was concerned. She knew that King was owned by the same operator who had sent another of its carriage horses, "Billy," to the notorious New Holland auction earlier this summer.

The founder of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, Ms. Forel had been instrumental in securing Billy's safe passage from slaughter to a safe, permanent home at Equine Advocates, and she hoped that when King was released from service pulling cabs for the West Side Livery, he'd be able to go to a peaceful retirement, rather than find himself in harm's way. Certainly, King had earned it. Through her contacts, Ms. Forel had learned that the big chestnut, believed to be in his mid-20s, had been working seven days a week, without a vacation, for years. What would become of him now?

She had reason to worry. Between 2008 and 2009, 94 carriage horses had vanished from the New York City Department of Health's rolls, their whereabouts unknown.

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Academy Award, one of Secretariat's last surviving sons, dies at Old Friends

Barely seven months after his heralded arrival at Old Friends, the 24-year-old stallion, Academy Award, died peacefully at the Georgetown, Kentucky thoroughbred sanctuary on August 24th, succumbing to laminitis and other infirmities. He was one of the last surviving sons of the great Secretariat.

Academy Award raced with distinction, notching five victories, including the Grade II Early Times Manhattan Handicap on the Belmont turf. He retired with earnings of $226,943.

Affectionately nicknamed, "Oscar," by a member of the Old Friends staff, the diminutive chestnut's retirement had been made possible through the efforts of actress Angie Dickinson and Boston-based TV producer Barbara Bowen, with additional support from Secretariat's owner, Penny Chenery, through the Secretariat Foundation. Prior to his arrival at Old Friends on January 29th of this year, Academy Award had been on the stallion roster at Win Row Farm in Lebanon, Ohio.

Though he had barely settled into his cushy life as a pampered retiree, Academy Award touched the hearts of those who cared for him, and today, they deeply mourn his loss. Barbara Bowen had first met Academy Award in 1994, when she visited Claiborne Farm, where he was then standing at stud. She'd lost track of him in the intervening years, but in the spring of 2009, she happened upon an ad in the Thoroughbred Times, in which the then 23-year-old stallion was being offered for sale for $6000. . .

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