THIS WEEK IN WILD BEAUTY : JUNE 4th, 2022

The Wild Beauty Foundation welcomes you to the third edition of our weekly newsletter!

This Week in Wild Beauty

Read the newest wild horse and burro focused headlines for the week of June 4th, 2022

"Save Our Wild Horses" Newspaper Ad

WBF Releases Newspaper Ads for the Horses of Sand Wash Basin

During the public comment period, which ended this past Friday, June 3rd – we created the above ad which ran in the local papers of Craig and Steamboat Colorado, encouraging the beautiful state to promote tourism for wild horses, not bolster wild places like Sand Wash Basin by building infrastructure for off-highway vehicles (OHVs).

These loud vehicles are loud, disruptive, and damaging not only to wild horses, but a variety of species that live in the Basin such as sage grouse. There are also fossils in Sand Wash that could potentially be harmed with off road vehicle misuse, and the risk of wildfires also increase with their presence.  For example, if a motorcycle is laid down improperly in the dry brush, it can incite a potentially devastating fire in the Basin which would be catastrophic.

We hope that these ads allowed our voices to be heard by the local community and the Colorado BLM officials.

We also urge Tracy Stone-Manning to do an internal investigation of the agency especially having released this statement (read it here).  The safety of wild horses and burros is clearly not being prioritized by bolstering South Sand Wash with campgrounds encouraging potentially harassing off-road-vehicle use in their habitat.

“The BLM is committed to the safety of the wild horses and burros entrusted to our care,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “Our gather efforts, handling standards, and fertility control work are guided by our compassion for these animals and our desire to protect their well-being, as well as the health of our public lands.”

A Wild Foal Stands Proudly on the Range

This Week’s Call To Action

Unfortunate news has come out of Nevada’s Little Fish Lake herd. In a new report by the Bureau of Land Management, 251 wild horses are slated to be removed from the already microscopic herd, leaving just under 100 horses on more than 117,000 acres of public land.

WBF maintains these numbers are not genetically sustainable.  

We feel this is a path toward eradication for these horses.

The BLM plans to implement irreversible sterilization, IUDs, and other contraceptives to eradicate the remaining horses left on the land. This is the same land that is continuing to be used for livestock grazing; a leading cause in greenhouse gas emissions.

You can oppose this plan by sending a letter to the Nevada BLM expressing your disapproval of the roundup, as well as call to reduce commercial livestock numbers in the HMA.

Please contact Eugene Gilseth with the Nevada BLM immediately:
[email protected] or (775) 635-4020

Wild Horse Trivia Night Graphic

WBF Trivia Night!

We have been hoping to find new ways to connect with our community, and bring some fun and positivity into the wild horse advocacy world.  Too often we find ourselves sinking into sadness with the accelerated roundups, or other tragic news, and it is healthy to find joy and celebrate our wild horses too.  And so, The Wild Beauty Foundation is partnering with our friends at LaLa Horse to bring you a fun wild horse themed trivia night on Tuesday, June 28th, 2022!

WBF founders Ashley Avis and Edward Winters will be joining wild horse champions Marty Irby, Scott Beckstead, Kimerlee Curyl, and Erik Movlar for a night of wild horse education and fun!  The event will be one hour live via Zoom, with the game played on your phones.  There are five rounds of ten wild-horse related questions, and fun giveaways for the top three who reign supreme! 

The trivia itself will be about forty-five minutes, and the last fifteen (and perhaps a bit more) will be a Q&A session with these speakers, all featured in our upcoming documentary WILD BEAUTY: Mustang Spirit of the West.

This event is open to all ages, and anyone is welcome to come learn about our nation’s wild horses or show off your knowledge on these special equines!  Invite your friends, and forward along our newsletter.  The sign up form to participate will be released next week so watch for it!

WBF Wild Horse Trivia Night
June 28th, 2022
7:00pm EST
Signup link will be live next week!

Bangor Daily News Logo

Rescued Mustangs To Run Free Once More

 

In an article released by The Bangor Daily News, three wild horses found neglected at a farm in southern Maine will be returning to the Western United States to gain back some of their freedom. These horses lack the human socialization that is needed to provide basic health care, so vets advised that they be transferred to Skydog Ranch, an Oregon sanctuary for wild horses and burros.  This organization does phenomenal work.

These horses are victims of a flawed federal system where many wild horses fall into the slaughter pipeline after being rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management. Due to being older, adult, horses, the BLM put them up for adoption for less than $200 each. While they were saved from entering the slaughter pipeline directly by the Maine farm, their unpredictable and untamed nature led them to severe neglect due to the uneducated buyers. Unfortunately, this shows that even wild horses adopted directly from the BLM with good intentions, are still subject to neglect.

Thankfully, these horses were rescued once again and will return to freedom in Oregon at the end of this month. To read the full article published by The Bangor Daily News, follow the link below!

https://bangordailynews.com/2022/06/02/news/portland/rescued-mustangs-return-to-the-wild/ 

Monty Roberts #istandwithwildhorses

WBF To Attend Monty Roberts’ “The Movement”

 

WBF will be attending Monty Roberts’ yearly event “The Movement: Happiness, Health, and Horses” on June 17th and 18th!  We will be joined in Santa Ynez Valley, California by a very special eleven-year-old WBF Youth Ambassador, Jocelyn M. who spoke out to save the Onaqui in 2021, rallied her entire Girl Scout Troop to stand with wild horses, and is featured in our upcoming documentary!  This special event at Flag Is Up Farms in Solvang, CA showcases demonstrations in natural horsemanship, wild horse gentling, and holistic healthcare for horses. 

Demonstrations by Monty Roberts’ show the positive effects of non-violent, gentle, training practices for both wild and domestic horses. Through his natural communication with these majestic creatures, he is able to create lifelong partnerships between humans and horses. His non-violent methods are commonly used in gentling adopted wild horses, and we look forward to learning techniques we can introduce to our own rescued mustangs.  We are proud to have Monty as a WBF Ambassador.

Monty Roberts and hid Beloved Horse Shy Boy
Monty and his beloved wild horse, “Shy Boy”

WBF will be live streaming the portions of this event we may be able share, and we will be posting plenty of photos as we take in all the informative demonstrations of the weekend. Be sure to keep an eye out on our social media platforms for content!

The Wild Beauty Foundation Logo

Our 2022 Goal


We are building our team right now, and we are grateful that you are on this journey with us.

As you know, we are doing all we can to help wild and domestic horses. We want to maximize our effects in rescue, education with children, creating videos for the community, and more.

Our goal is to bring on a WBF Program Director by the end of this year to bolster what our small, passionate team of volunteers is already doing. If you can help, or wish to aid in this goal in a significant way, please email [email protected].

You can also learn more about our hopes for WBF by joining us for a Zoom discussion about our journey during a live Q&A when we debut our WILD BEAUTY documentary trailer in just a few weeks! More news on that exciting event soon.

We cannot perform rescues for horses without your help. If you are interested in donating toward our Rescue Fund, please click the link above. Any amounts are greatly appreciated and will be put directly toward helping rescued wild horses and burros.

Glimpse of Wild Beauty


A Headshot of a Black Wild Horse with a Large Star by Chad Hanson
(Photo Credit: Chad Hanson)

Our friend Chad Hanson of The Wyoming Mustang Institute shared this beautiful photo taken of a wild stallion in Wyoming to promote his new novel, “In A Land of Awe: Finding Reverence in the Search for Wild Horses”

"In a Land of Awe" by Chad Hanson Book Cover

A Quote to Graze On

 

“Near the middle of my life story I discovered, if you wander the prairie long enough, the prairie starts to wander you.”

An exceptional excerpt from Chad Hanson’s forthcoming book “In A Land of Awe: Finding Reverence in the Search for Wild Horses” 

This new novel is now available for preorder on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Broadleaf Books, and Indiebound.

Thank you for being a supporter of wild horses, and protecting the wild beauty of our world.
– The WBF Team

#istandwithwildhorses #wildbeautyspirit

Have an idea for a story or a tip for us?
Email [email protected]

Are you a wild horse photographer who would like your work featured in our newsletter or social media pages?
Email a ZIP or link to your photos, along with a short written approval to [email protected]!

Other Ways to Help WBF

Vote for us once a week on MyGivingCircle so we can hopefully partake in a share of grant money!  Vote with just two clicks here, we are currently #69 and must get into the top #10 with just a few weeks to go.

Join Us On Our Journey.  We’d love to stand beside you.

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