sept/oct 2014
magazine Our Buckle Bunny
Katie Cleary Peace4Animals
20answers
Barry Corbin Eric L. Hansen
Blood Rescue Gina McKnight
iView "We are the voices for the voiceless creating awareness and making change to help and protect the magnificent creatures we share this planet with!"
Laura Leigh
Horse Slaughter in America Drea Bowen
Wild Montana Spirit of a Girl
www.wildhorserescue.org
FEATURES 8 Blood Rescue ~ Eric L. Hansen 20 20Answers from Barry Corbin
30 Horse Slaughter in the USA Laura Leigh 36 Our Buckle Bunny Katie Cleary 48 The Wild Montana Spirit of a Girl Drea Bowen 58 Big Nose Kate ~ Charlene Worthy 64 iVIEW with Gina McKnight 70 Good Reads & On the Jukebox
71 “Cowboys” ~ Jeff Hildebrandt Photo Courtesy of Harrison Funk Copyright 2014 Harrison Funk. All right reserved.
Herd roun’ THe waTerin’ TrougH Howdy amigos, I truly love this issue...might be one of our best ones yet!
Gracias & besos to all of the contributing fotogs and wriders, without you we are nothing...gracias & besos to Katie Cleary, Eric L. Hansen, Gina McKnight, Laura Leigh, Harrison Funk, Drea Bowen, Barry Corbin, Christopher Amerouso, Eric Friedman, Kate Chavez, Charlene Worthy, Bristol MacDonald, Jeff Hildebrandt, Wildwood Equestrian Center and the Mighty Raiderette, you’ve rocked this issue! Gracias & besos to all the wild, beautiful Mustangs who have lost their families and lives for FREEDOM during these deplorable BLM roundups. I pray it all matters...you are in our hearts forever. And as far as the BLM goes you have lost all our respect and hope that you might do the right thing...shame, shame, shame on you. Mid-term elections are on November 7th. Do get out and vote to support and pass the S.A.F.E Act to end horse slaughter in the USA once and for all! Gracias & Besos, Calamity Cate Crismani Live, love, rescue!
Publisher Equine Angle Marketing 818-642-4764 Editor & Creative Director Calamity Cate Crismani Featured Fotographers Harrison Funk Eric L. Hansen Fotog Asst to Harrison Funk Eric Friedman Contributing Fotographers Eric L. Hansen Christopher Amerouso Bristol MacDonald Laura Leigh Gina McKnight Contributing Wriders Gina McKnight Eric L. Hansen Laura Leigh Drea Bowen Cate Crismani Charlene Worthy Global Advertising 818.642.4764 Saddle Up, Subscribe PayPal online Apple App www.truecowboymagazine.com VIVO LOS MUSTANGS!
www.returntofreedom.org
Blood Rescue Eric L. Hansen
In early 2012, Artist Eric L. Hansen had begun to explore his personal connection with horses. “All the animals share our collective unconscious,” he says, “but I was beginning to discover, in some deeper way, that horses have a special place with us; a very, sentient high place. I wanted to experience that ancient relationship for myself, for all of us.” Looking back through art history, Hansen felt the cave drawings from 30,000 years ago, in Lascaux and Chauvet, were the most authentic horse art ever made. He was determined and compelled to make a series of “21st century cave drawings”. “Originally, thousands of years ago we hunted horses as wild animals; for food, clothing and shelter, and to make tools. Then around 5000 years ago, somewhere in the Steppes of Western Asia, one of us rode a wild horse for the first time and the world changed forever,” says Hansen. “To honor this change in our relationship to horses, I named my project Blood Rescue and conceived it as an art project. I wanted to explore my own relationship to the horse, perhaps as a proxy for all of us,” he says. Hansen found a ranch in middle Tennessee with twenty two horses, mostly rescues, where he could take photographs and create the images for Blood Rescue. There he made a visceral connection between the days that horses were hunted as wild animals to today when horses are rescued from kill buyers for slaughter and human consumption. The original cave artists mixed horse blood with ochre to make their paints. Hansen does as well. A lot of people were shocked by this and thought, “What did he just say, he does what?” “No,” smiles Hansen, “Of course I don’t murder horses for their blood. But I thought veterinarians doing surgery would give transfusions and maybe there is a Red Cross for horses.” As it turns out, there is and he bought a quarter liter of equine plasma on Amazon. They shipped it to him in dry ice making his paints authentic.
Part way through the making of Blood Rescue, Hansen was contacted by Terri Jordan, Chief Curator at the Customs House Museum in Clarkesville, Tennessee, about anchoring a museum-wide themed exhibition called Season of the Equus. He immediately agreed to participate. “This will be the largest museum exhibition of equine fine art in recent memory”, says Hansen, “it opens at the Customs House Museum this November 14, 2014 and runs through January 4, 2015.” Consisting of twenty-two pieces, Blood Rescue will be shown in the Museum's Crouch Gallery. A collection of equine antiquities called My Kingdom for a Horse will be exhibited in the museum's Orgain Gallery. In the Kimbrough Gallery a selection of paintings will be exhibited from the American Academy of Equine Art. There is also the museum's Planters Bank Peg Harvill Gallery that will showcase another equine exhibit while The Hand Gallery will feature art depicting the Tennessee Walking Horse. The museum's Memory Lane gallery will showcase a tack shop and horse-drawn carriages. The entire equine art exhibition will occupy 35,000 square feet of space. About this time, Blood Rescue won the People’s Choice Award in the Prix de La Photographie Paris winning both first and second place.
“Some of the Blood Rescue images explicitly reference the original cave drawings in Lascaux and Chauvet. Others allude to the mammalian organic and skeletal structure of the horse, identifying horses as potential prey for carnivores. Still others show the horse as a beast of wonder: powerful, swift and mystical. With Blood Rescue, I invite you to re-imagine your own understanding of who these equines really are”, says Hansen. “I can only imagine what it was like mounted on a prehistoric horse going faster than any human ever had. From that day forward, horses became our companions”, says Hansen, “they’ve helped us with the hunt and worked for us. They even carried us into battle. They became our friends. We began to experience each other in new and different ways. And in the end, we loved each other”, he says.
All Photographs Copyright 2014 Eric L.Hansen. All rights reserved.
But then in the middle of everything, the horse meat scandal broke in Western Europe. Horse meat was found in Taco Bell’s beef tacos and in Ikea Swedish meatballs. Interpol investigated and local police seized the tainted meat products. “When the horsemeat scandal broke in January 2013, my world changed. I was outraged,” says Hansen. “One of the major occupational hazards for an artist is falling in love with their models,” he says. “I was no different and fell in love with my twenty-two rescues.”
“It was at that moment I decided to dedicate Blood Rescue for the purpose of banning horse slaughter and the transport of horses to slaughter. I’d had a powerful visual experience exploring our relationship to these animals. The horses’ ancient story is compelling and I wanted to expand that experience, make it really big. Big enough to raise public awareness about what needs to be done.” says Hansen, “I love these guys.” In the United States, within forty-five days, the S.A.F.E Act was introduced into both Houses of Congress. It quickly gathered legislative support from more than 200 co-sponsors. “Since then, and every day, new stories roll in like thunderheads: a stunning constellation of events to make the perfect storm, enough power to raise public awareness and to finitely change the way we perceive our ancient relationship to the horse”, says Hansen.
In early September, Hansen launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $8,000 he needs to produce his part of the museum show opening in mid-November. You can find his campaign on www.kickstarter.com under Blood Rescue. The centerpiece of this campaign is aimed squarely at Hansen’s personal bull’s eye; the S.A.F.E Act. Every supporter at five dollars or more will have their name inscribed on the Blood Rescue Banner Role. This is a twenty-four inch wide piece of Blood Rescue art with the winning grand prix image across the top and every supporter’s name inscribed below. Five copies of this banner will be presented, one each to five different Congressmen just days before the November 7 elections. With enough funding, Hansen will personally present these banners to each of their five home district offices. Two copies will go to the bill’s two sponsors in Congress. Three more copies will be presented to each of the House committee chairs where the S.A.F.E Act sits currently. In addition, Hansen will run advertisements in each of their three House districts urging voters there to demand their representatives support the S.A.F.E Act. “I realize Blood Rescue alone won’t get this bill passed,” says Hansen, “but with enough signatures and a shift in public awareness driven by a powerful visual story we can be part of making this happen.” November’s opening of Season of the Equus will be the largest museum exhibition of equine fine art in recent memory. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, a constellation of events gathering to make the perfect storm, the kind that changes everything in its path,” says Hansen. “The S.A.F.E Act is pending in the House and mid-term elections are coming up on November 7. Please do your part and vote to pass the S.A.F.E. Act. Season of the Equus featuring Blood Rescue opens on November 14, The National Day of the Horse is on December 13”, he says, “and this year is The Year of the Horse .” “There is enough energy here to put this over the top,” says Eric L. Hansen, “We can do this!” www.ericlhansen.com www.kickstarter.com search Blood Rescue
www.ahdf.org
www.equinewelfarealliance.org
20Answers from
Barry Corbin was bor n in Lamesa, Texas, south of Lubbock and was named for J but soon moved to the arts, including acting and ballet classes. Corbin studied theatre where he served two years. Corbin began his career as a Shakespearean actor in the 1 other authority figure, though on occasion, he has effectively portrayed murderous vil John Travolta's uncle Bob Davis in “Urban Cowboy”, co-starred with Clint Eastwood “Lonesome Dove”. From 1979 until 1984, he appeared in several episodes of “Dallas miniseries “The Thorn Birds”. Corbin played Merit Sawyer in the NBC television seri Minnifield on CBS's “Northern Exposure” for which he received an Emmy Award nom Corbin played Whitey Durham on the television series “One Tree Hill”. He also had a currently on the hit TV show “Anger Management”, opposite Charlie Sheen and Shaw saddle is no act. Corbin competed in and won many cutting-horse competitions before was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. In Septemb Festival in Estes, Colorado. Calamity Cate of trueCOWBOYmagazine wrangled this
trueCOWBOYmagazine: When and how old were you when you got on your fir s Barry Corbin: I didn’t have my own horse till I was 21 or 22 in Texas. Then I mov experience I’ve ever had on a horse.
tCmag: Who taught you how to r ide? BC: My Gr anddad. But I really was a natur al. I can handle most hor ses, and th
m Barry Corbin
J .M. Bar r ie, the author, by his mother. He played football, br iefly, in 8th gr ade, arts at the University in Lubbock. At 21, he joined the United States Marine Corps 1960s, but is better known for his roles of the local sheriff, military leader, or some llains as well. Corbin is well remembered as General Beringer in “War Games”, d in “Any Which Way You Can” or Roscoe Brown in the acclaimed western s” as Sheriff Fenton Washburn. In 1983, Corbin co-starred in the famed television ies, “Boone”. From 1990 to 1995, Corbin portrayed former astronaut Maurice mination. In 1994, Corbin narrated the acclaimed TBS documentary “Moon Shot”. a role in 2008's Oscar-winning film “No Country for Old Men”. Corbin can be seen wnee Smith. Many of his films have been westerns and Corbin's proficiency in the e breaking into film and has an avid, genuine enthusiasm for horses. In 2009, Corbin ber 2011, Corbin was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Estes Park Film cowboy long enough to be interviewed here!
st hor se? ved to New York and got on a horse in Central Park and that was the most boring
hey can handle me, sometimes.
tCmag: What was the name of your fir st hor se? BC: A smar t Quar ter Hor se mare named Topsy. We did some cutting and roping. Topsy was sold when she was 12 years old to a man that wanted a riding horse for his daughter. I told him unless his daughter knew how to ride this wasn’t the horse for her. I could ride her for two hours or so and she was fine with me but she wouldn’t put up with people that didn’t know horses or how to ride them. This man insisted and paid me $500 for Topsy. A few days after that, I was driving down the strip past the ranch where Topsy was and she was out there with the young girl on her spinning like a top! I got out of my truck and yelled “Topsy” and that ole mare straightened out and just walked with the young girl on her. One day I saw her new owner beating on her with an inner tube to make her submit to him. When I told him to stop he replied, “Not your horse anymore.” I told him, well, we can fix that and I went to the office and gave them $100 to buy Topsy back. So that man lost $400 in the end and a great horse. I bought a saddle for $30 and a bridle for cheap and went out and saddled her up and rode her home . tCmag: What is your fondest memor y of cowboying? BC: Oh well, they’re all pretty good. I still like to get out on the big ranches and help them round up the cattle. Fresh air and good joking. Drinking some whiskey before bed with good friends. It’s really the companionship between me and my horse that I love the most. tCmag: I under stand you r aised cattle as well. Is that something inher ent to being a Texan? BC: No, no that was more of an accident really. I had a fr iend with some longhorns and he sold me three steers mainly to eat the grass. More like ambulatory lawn ornaments! tCmag: You ser ved in the US Mar ine Cor p as a young man. Do you still consider America to be the land of the free and the home of the brave these days? BC: Unfor tunately, we are going through a rough patch and we are giving up what I thought we would never give up; our freedoms and our independence. I don’t see any way to back out of it now. I can say there will be some voices protesting it, mine amongst them. We’ve gone so far in fear and panic since 9/11 and that’s what they wanted. Our government, unfortunately, wants us to be fearful and mistrustful of each other. Go to the airport, if u can stand to. You are manhandled, pushed and shoved. If I took my lariat trick rope with me the airport security fellas would confiscate it. I can’t travel with a pair of spurs and my pocket knife, these are things I use every day. No, sadly, it’s not the land of the free and home of the brave. I am not sure if we ever were.
tCmag: When you see all the unrest and r ioting in our neighbor hoods, do you think our values as a nation and our national pride have just gone to hell in a hand basket? BC: I am by nature an optimist. I think we are going to pull through this and the only way to do that is to education our children, our future. Children have been taught to be xenophobic because their parents are. The whole power of a totalitarian government or individuals like Hitler or Stalin is basically fear. Most wars are fought for either land, religion, greed or out of fear. If you look at old pictures of a KKK rally you will see, and very prominently, children with guns and in white robes. If you get to the children early enough you can indoctrinate them into anything. We have to teach the children love and inclusivity. If we can teach our children and our citizens to be inclusive and loving then we got something. But, sadly, we have not been able to do that. Nowadays, the idea is if you don’t agree with me you are my enemy till death and that is where we are currently here and around the world. We’ve got to be alert but unfortunately most of us are asleep. Education is key. I had a Texas public school education and I knew everything about Texas from 1945 on but absolutely no idea about the rest of history. Thomas Jefferson said, “History is the fiction written by the victor’s”. tCmag: As a hor se lover, what’s your take on the Bureau of Land Management’s roundups and efforts to eliminate an American Icon, the wild mustang? BC: I’m not a big fan of the BLM. I was talking to a Lakota Native American and he said now you folks can see what the government has done to the land and its people. There are some ranchers that are ready to go for a gunned rebellion. This won’t work and that tactic will come to no good end. We can’t be these bad guys on the range. But you can fight for justice in the courts sometimes. As far as the mustangs go, I believe there should be management of the herds on the ranges, where the mustangs belong. Not in BLM long term holding facilities. I think the BLM adoption programs alleviate some of that but we should go in and do what we do with domestic horses; geld some and leave most of the stallions viable under a controlled environment. Management of the herds on the range is what’s needed. If that were done then we could have free roaming wild mustangs, burros and bison. tCmag: When, why and how did you ever decide to become an actor as opposed to a lawyer and politician like your father or a school teacher like your mother? BC: I’ve always wanted to be a movie actor. By the time I was seven, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I think from a very early age my parents doubted my sanity. My father said, “Very little of what Barry does surprises me, shocks me, yes, but doesn’t surprise me”.
tCmag: Who were some of your ear ly role models and heroes of the Old West that shaped your life and you subsequent career? BC: Oh, there are so many. J ohn Wayne, Will Roger s, it’s a long list.
tCmag: You’re a pretty big, burly guy, known for strong, tough roles. Is it true you studied ballet? BC: I did. It helped my movement incredibly. But here’s the real truth, there was an oil man in Lubbock and his daughter wanted to be a ballerina so he went to Russia and hired the best ballet teacher there, brought him back to Lubbock to teach his daughter ballet. Problem was he was having a real hard time finding boys who would take lessons and he needed boys to lift the girls. There was a girl I was interested in in the ballet classes and I ended up in her ballet class. Come to think of it, a lot of my decisions usually involved getting the girl! tCmag: Your ear ly career was pr imar ily theatre; Shakespeare, classic plays and one man shows. Did the theatre experience serve you well as you moved into film roles? BC: I star ted studying Stanislavsky and Chekov ver y ear ly on in my career and I still love theatre and live performance. It also improved my voice and posture. I didn’t like to get hurt so I didn’t want to play football. All the boys that took theatre classes were interested in the girls taken theatre classes and that seemed like a good enough reason to me. tCmag: What was your first film? BC: “Urban Cowboy”. I am still friendly with John Travolta and that film was a great experience for all of us. After I did that movie I was immediately cast in a reoccurring role in “Dallas” then the warden in “Stir Crazy” followed by “Any Which Way You Can” with Clint Eastwood and so on. “No Country For Old Men” was probably my favorite, most recent role. Although I was only on film for two scenes, those two scenes with Tommy Lee Jones defined that movie. All these guys had no idea I was doing Shakespeare in NY for twenty years. tCmag: How has the industry changed since the time you started your career in it? BC: It’s being run by teenagers. Teenagers who don’t know who I am!
tCmag: You are also a wr iter and co-wrote, among many others, a one man show about western trailblazer Charlie Goodnight but have portrayed all kinds of characters; drunks, sheriffs, rich men, poor men, soldiers, cowboys, astronauts, winners and losers, and even acted in video games! How much of your own personality and real life experience do you bring to your roles? BC: Heck, I don’t know. Some I guess. I’m not quite sure who I am and where my acting starts and finishes. When I read a script I can see how much of a character is like me and I can use that much of me so it appears to a lot of people that you are playing yourself, not the case. When I look at John Wayne’s movies I can see he was always in his own persona but he makes the role someone else. John Wayne reinvented himself for “True Grit”. That’s a lesson that’s very hard for an actor to learn. You tend to loose confidence in yourself, and a bit of yourself, when you try to be what you think they want you to be. tCmag: And now the TV hit show “Anger Management”, not a western, but a great sit-com with Charlie Sheen and Shawnee Smith. How did the role of Ed come about for you? BC: I’m not sure. I think they called me and asked me if I wanted to do it. I didn’t know Charlie but I knew Shawnee Smith. I love Charlie. He’s really a great guy. Whatever the media makes him out to be, he is who he is. You either accept him or you don’t and he doesn’t really care. I told Charlie I am crazier than he is but no one knows that because I’ve got more practice flying under the radar them him, that’s all. tCmag: How do you stay so grounded in an industr y filled with egos? BC: I talk to hor ses and dogs, they don’t care who I am. tCmag: So do you get along with this new-fangled technology called the internet, social media and cell phones? BC: Yes, I’m kind of forced to because it’s the only way you can communicate with anyone under 40 these days. It’s going all right.
tCmag: Your life has been an amazing jour ney filled with love, ar t, family, compassion, lightness of heart, a joie de vivre and élan vital few ever find. Your bio and resume is five pages long and probably the short version. I gleaned from it that you believe and trust in your decisions with the intention of making your dreams happen and that you are very aware of who you are, holding the reins of your life loosely as you go along its trails fully knowing that the rest, the things of survival: food, clothes, shelter will follow. Would that kind of sum up Barry Corbin? BC: Well, yes, pr etty much. My sur name, Cor bin, is a bastar dazation of an old French name meaning “raven”. Our family crest, in Latin, means, “God Feeds the Raven”. I tell my children and grandchildren, don’t worry about anything cause things always work out, so far. tCmag: When the time comes, how do you want your tombstone to read? BC: Oh heck, I don’t want a tombstone. Just toss my ashes in the ocean cause I am already gone. tCmag: Thank you Mr. Cor bin, you are a tr ue cowboy and a helluva of a fella. BC: Well, I appr eciate that! Foto’s of Barry Corbin courtesy of Harrison Funk. Copyright 2014 Harrison Funk. All rights reserved.
A percentage of sales proceeds will be donated to the International Society for the Preservation of Mustangs and Burros. www.ispmb.org
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www.bristolmacdonaldequinephotography.com
Bristol MacDonald
Horse Slaughter in the USA By Laura Leigh
Many Americans are still unaware that American horses are slaughtered for human consumption. Our horses cross our borders every single day and are brutally killed through a captive bolt supposedly stunning an animal before it’s throat is cut or literally being stabbed through the spinal cord and then hung upside down to have it’s throat cut. You constantly hear “belly aching” by those that over breed, or are looking for a way to make a greater profit off of America’s horses, that the “horse industry” is in trouble because Americans can’t slaughter horses. They claim that people are “forced” into starving or paying to euthanize a horse and this is “unfair.” It is also not the truth. The United States is very much “horse country.” Over 900,000 horses are die every year in the United States. That should give you an idea of how many Americans own horses. In 2008, the last year we had horse slaughter in the US, about 100,000 horses were slaughtered. Most Americans that own horses do so responsibly and euthanize, rendered or bury their horses. But proponents for re-opening horse slaughter facilities in the US would have you believe that distraught poor people, that can no longer keep their horses, are starving them or turning them loose on public land and the slaughter brokers are here to “help” Americans with the “humane disposal” of beloved horses. This is so far from any truth and is, in reality, akin to insanity. Today, any American can sell a horse to a “kill buyer” that ships animals to Mexico or Canada for slaughter. About the same number of horses are shipped to slaughter as they did when facilities, like the one in Kaufman, Texas, were in operation.
The idea that anyone is inhibited from sending a horse to the most brutal death imaginable is absurd. The exact opposite has happened. Many people are actually afraid to take horses to a sale as they know killers are waiting to buy horses. An option to sell your horse at auction has actually been inhibited.
The claim that having horse slaughter in the US will somehow make this practice “safe and humane” is also insanity. First you need to actually look at the “product” produced by an “industry.” The product is produced in a non-regulated fashion that involves the use of known carcinogens wrapped in the final package. Medications including “bute”, a widely used pain killer akin to “horsey ibuprofen”, wormers, vaccines and even shampoos that clearly state “not for use in animals intended for food” are butchered and packaged for “human consumption.” Even our wild horse population held in captivity has been given wormer and vaccines prior to shipping into government warehousing. Using the term “humane” is also a joke. A captive bolt is used to supposedly stun a horse. In truth, often dozens of attempts are made and even if successful animals regain consciousness. Then the horse is hoisted by a rear leg to have its throat cut. If you think horses waiting in the slaughter line are unaware of what is happening, then you simply don’t know horses. The market for horse meat is drying up abroad as the European Union recognizes horses coming from the United States literally represent poison. Recent discoveries of horse meat being passed off as beef in frozen food products has rocked many European countries. Yet in spite of horse slaughter being seen as unacceptable by 80% of Americans; the meat being poison, possibly carcinogenic, and the shrinking market, states like Oklahoma and New Mexico are pushing to begin slaughtering American horses within weeks. This flawed business plan is supposedly supported by the “horse industry” through assertions made by those that have a potential to reap a profit. However the American “horse industry” is actually the vast majority of Americans that act responsibly, and do not support horse slaughter. Horse slaughter is an ugly business filled with violations of basic morality and passing off poison meat, butchering pregnant mares, shipping crippled animals, polluting the environment all while extolling this horrific practice as “humane”. For the horse owners who truly love and care for their horses, the slaughter industry leaves more than a bad after taste in theirs mouths.
Attempting to create a consumer market for horse meat has failed in the United States. Grocery store shelves carried horse meat for a time in the 1970’s, it failed. Even US pet owners, either afraid of the health risks or disgusted by the concept, refuse to buy products containing horse meat for their cats and dogs. The “Moran Amendment” to appropriations passed the House Agriculture Committee and was included in the 2015 Appropriations language. This language would “defund” inspections on horse meat effectively shutting down horse slaughter plants on US soil until 2016. Until, 2016, and then, if gone unchecked horse slaughter plants will re-open in the USA. In 2004 a program called, “Sale Authority”, became a brutal reality for our wild horses. Simply stated, this program allowed the bulk sale of wild horses for as little as $10 a head. Many of these horses were sold to known kill buyers. They are called “kill buyers” because that’s what they do; they buy horses with the intent of killing them for human consumption or feed. If you weren't aware, lions and tigers in zoo’s are fed horse meat. In recent news an investigation we participated in uncovered 1,700 of these wild horses going to one man, Tom Davis. We have still not been updated as to any ramifications for such a sale approved by the BLM. Since that story broke BLM claims to have “tightened up” their sale program allowing only four such horses to be purchased by one individual. Believe me, kill buyers can get around this one as well. Yet if you read the fine print , additional horses can be obtained through “permission” from the BLM. BLM denies it sells wild horses to slaughter, although selling to a kill buyer is essentially selling the horses to slaughter. Politicians operate on semantics and hidden agenda’s; that’s called politics.
Currently, our wild horses are under threat of a mass sale. One of the provisions that the Nevada Association of Counties (NACO) has brought into a federal courtroom is an attempt not just to remove wild horses from public land but to allow all provisions of the original sale authority; horses going to slaughter. Another way our wild horses find their way into the slaughter pipeline is “jurisdiction.” Only wild horses and burros found on BLM or Forest Service land are afforded any protections. Wild horses found on tribal land, like the McDermitt horses, went to auction in August 2013 or those found on other federal agency lands, called USFWS mustangs, like the Sheldon Wild Mustangs, are routinely in jeopardy of the kill auction sale yard. We must shut down transport for export to stop our US horses from being slaughtered abroad and in Mexico and Canada. Over 100,000 US horses meet this horrific end each year. The practice is also “predatory” in nature and creates, literally, a hostage situation where “kill buyers” and their brokers engage in the an extortion of sorts by screaming “the truck is coming” and charging as much as ten times market rate for horses they label “slaughter bound.” Horse owners may be keeping their horses that they can no longer care appropriately for to avoid such an horrific end for them. Mid-term elections are on November 7, 2014. Do your part and vote to push the S.A.F..E. Act , H.R. 1094/S. 541 through to protect our horses both wild and domestic from this gruesome end. Because there is nothing humane about horse slaughter. http://wildhorseeducation.org http://wildhorseeducation.org/1700-wild-horses/ http://wildhorseeducation.org/2014/01/27/wild-horse-education-files-to-stopsuit-to-destroy-nv-wild-horses/ Photographs courtesy of Laura Leigh. Copyright 2013 Laura Leigh. All rights reserved .
Available at www.rtfitch.com
Our Buckle Bunny
Katie Cleary Born and raised as an only child by her mom on the North Shore of Chicago, our Buckle Bunny Katie Cleary knew she wanted to be an actress at a very early age and her mother’s encouragement was only one attribute that the single mom bestowed on Katie. “My strength, confidence and drive comes from my mom,” says Katie, “if it weren’t for her hard work, love and unending support, I wouldn’t have had the e confidence to move to Los Angeles and pursue my dreams and a career in acting and modeling.” Katie’s first big television hit Next Top Model” while still in that she landed a NBC’s hit show, hosted by Howie was model #11 for Katie is an camera host with the TV Guide, Now, and the
break came from the show, “America’s with host Tyra Banks college. Shortly after modeling role on “Deal or No Deal” Mandel, where she over four years. accomplished on credits that include Channel, E!, News travel show, “Get Out”, on HDTV.
Katie’s career landing roles in Break Up”, Lake Man 2”. Her TV and she has New York”, of Engagement”, Class” and many continues to grow.
began to explode films including, “The House” and “Iron credits grew as well appeared in “CSI: “Entourage”, “Rules “Chuck”, “Working more. Her resume
Always an animal lover, Katie began early on in her life to advocate for all animals including the wild mustangs. Katie has helped to find homes for hundreds of abused and abandoned animals. She has volunteered her time at numerous animal sanctuaries and rescues including Tippi Hendren’s, Shambala: a sanctuary for exotic, big cats and the Wild Life Way Station. Fotographs courtesy of Harrison Funk. Copyright 2014 Harrison Funk. All rights reserved.
“I look forward to the day when I can open and run my own sanctuary. Animal abuse and neglect runs rampant around the world and they need all of our help�
Shot on location at Wildwood Equestrian Center, California Fotog: Harrison Funk Fotog Asst: Eric Friedman Make up: Kate Chavez Cover vest provided by Kippy’s Creative Direction & Styling: Cate Crismani Uber –horse: The Mighty Raiderette
" crea help
"We are the voices for the voiceless ating awareness and making change to p and protect the magnificent creatures we share this planet with!"
“I started my radio/tv show, "World Animal News”, as a way to help all animals on a global scale. The only way we can save our world's species is to raise awareness to their plight and educate the public on what is happening so we can better protect and be the voice for the over 8.7 millions species we share this planet with”, says Katie, “my goal is to main stream animal these atrocities to our innocent animals around the world”, she says, “and this is how we will help to save not only our world's most important species but our environment , our planet and, ultimately, ourselves from extinction.” When asked about the plight of the wild mustangs, Katie becomes visibly upset. “The wild horse roundups that are going on right now, and for a very long time, has to do with the federal government using low flying helicopters to stampede thousands of wild horses into pens and clear them off public lands so that commercial interests can turn a profit”, says Kate, “all of these roundups are far below the standard of humane treatment of animals that most Americans will tolerate, yet these tactics have been used for decades against public outcry to stop them and in violation of the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse & Burro Act”, she continues, “As a consequence, there are now more wild horses stockpiled in government holding facilities than live free in the wild. If we don’t act to stop these cruel practices, our wild horses will soon be gone fore ver.” Always the top of her game, Katie Cleary has the courage and tenacity to stand up for the innocent wild and domestic animals through her foundations, Peace4Animals.com and World Animal News.com. “I am blessed to be in a position to effect change. Not a day goes by that I am not advocating legislative change for animals around the world. The wild mustangs are an Important part of our world history, heritage and an American Icon. They not only deserve their freedom to live free on the rangelands in the United States, but have rights to it that have been violated by our Federal Government and the BLM. The very agencies tasked with the responsibility of protecting them on our public lands” Beauty, brains and courage are words that come to mind when describing our Buckle Bunny, Ms. Katie Cleary.
www.worldanimalnews.com www.tradiov.com
The Wild Montana
By Drea B
In my life I was being a dutiful career minded employee and civic volunteer. I was pretty caught up in the “should do” fast lane of proving, pleasing and performing in many aspects of it to meet real or perceived expectations from others. In that pursuit, I stopped hearing my own voice. Now after nearly thirty years in non-profit business management, consulting, and human resources, I am on the other side of a mid-life reinvention that was the result of remembering the woman I had lost somewhere along my life’s path. It began happening shortly after I unexpectedly brought horses back in to my life after a long absence without them. Only then did I realize how much I had lost and how much I had missed them. Horses had not entered my mind until my sister forwarded me a link about some horses, one named Montana, waiting for a new life at a local shelter. What a powerful metaphor for what was about to happen to me. And it all happened so fast. One of those life experiences where following and trusting the new course of my life river, even though it was scary, seemed out of the blue crazy, with more questions than answers was, surprisingly, easier than stepping back into the “good girl should do” life I had been living. I am so grateful that I had the courage in those moments to walk through those doors. Not a day goes by that I am not grateful for the horses that came back into my life and helped prepare me for my future, remarkable one.
Spirit Of A Girl
Bowen
I had forgotten about stillness, present moment awareness, really trusting my intuition the way I knew it growing up in Montana and spending so much quiet time with nature. I had forgotten about observing, learning and experiencing a connection to the wildlife and the environment that inspired my knowing and recognition of myself. I forgot what mattered in life ensconced in the soul crushing daily grind of career politics and stretching myself so thin and saying “yes” because “I should”, that I breaking me down. I had forgotten about me. Something I didn’t even realize until the horses came into my life. But I will never forget sitting at the top of the hill in my truck, in the dark waiting for the headlights from a truck pulling a horse trailer to appear so I could lead us all to our new life. At the time, I didn’t fully understand the tears that erupted at the sight of those headlights but the fact that I allowed them to come was telling. I was holding the world on my shoulders and that didn’t allow much space for my emotions, I was too busy tending to everyone else’s. I knew I was stepping into uncharted territory, a purposeful part of my life’s journey. It has been said by more than one “expert” in the field of healing emotionally, spiritually and mentally that “we must heal what has been hurt in relationship within relationship. Most of the fears and roadblocks that keep us from loving and living our authentic lives are due to the damage we experienced somewhere in it. It was the chance arrival of the horses into my life that helped me lay down the groundwork for that bumpy road of finding the courage to take my life back.
It is our relationship with others who experience us in our wholeness, our unique and sometimes messy brilliance, who inspire us to want to live a life and be alive in our authenticity that changes not only our own lives, but the lives of others. Horses are not unlike humans, we manifest positive and negative behavioral patterns based on our life experiences. The horses I adopted, Montana, Homer and April, were no exception and they challenged everything I thought I knew about horses and myself. I had to learn to love myself, really love myself, before I could understand how to be healthy in any relationships with others. The horses started me on an unexpected mind-body-spirit life awakening. As my awareness expanded, my perception of myself and how I related to everything in my life began to shift. I believe that our lives and the quality of our relationships are a reflection of our relationship with our selves. My horses kept calling me to step into my authenticity, the wild Montana spirit of a girl, with a soul connection to nature and a passion for supporting humans, horses and horse owners. I am a warrior voice for mutuality and for the horse to be understood as a horse; a powerful, cooperative, social-bond oriented, sentient being who has so much to teach us about those qualities in ourselves. Very few of the horses, or humans for that matter, who come into our lives are free of the consequences of conforming to a human world. A world where most people don’t stop to consider and understand horses, or each other, as sentient, conscious, cognitive, social bond oriented mammals. Humans are that kind of mammal too. Every horse who has found their way to our ranch has needed only to be seen for who they are: a social being and an individual with a past that can play out in the present until they have healed what was hurt in their relational journey. The remarkable thing about helping horses reconnect with their authentic self-expression is how much we learn about reconnecting with our own in the process.
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Stepping out of the “should do” fast lane and learning how to dance with uncomfortable emotions, experience peace, feel joy and non-judgmental comfort in our skin is not a pipe dream meant only for other people who have a different or “better” life. It is possible for every woman, man and every being. It is doable no matter where you are, what you have experienced, how disconnected you feel, how afraid you may be, or what age you are when you answer the call. Decades ago I read a book called, “Women Who Run With The Wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I have re-read it a couple of times since then from my current place of honoring my wild Montana spirit and I appreciate it deeply, still. It moves me and reminds me to choose my path carefully, to pay attention to my authentic voice, pay attention to how our bodies and intuition tell us when we are off course, trust the wild wisdom that is a part of each of us and dare to live from that wild place. “Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman (Wild Horse) but she is an endangered species. Though the gifts of the wildish nature come to us at birth, society’s attempt to “civilize” us into rigid roles has plundered this treasure, and muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls. Without Wild Woman (Wild Horse), we become over domesticated, fearful, uncreative, trapped.” Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, “Women Who Run With The Wolves”.
There is much I want to do with the rest of my life and I cannot do it from the “should do, good girl” life sucking place. All of us can only do what we are meant to do with our one precious life by reconnecting with our original wild spirit. That authentic place where our loving relationship with ourselves determines the amount of love and truth and courage we are able to express in our lives with all beings. From the time I took a deep breath in 2004 and walked away from a career where I had lost myself, I haven’t looked back. That is not to say by any stretch of the imagination that I stepped into a blissfully easy life expressing my unique soul’s purpose.
It is challenging to hold the fear at bay, to keep calling for and really listening to my voice and to make choices that are in alignment with who I was becoming, the woman I wanted to be in the world. But, here is the deal, when you finally allow yourself to hear the wisdom and courage of your own voice, there is no going back. You might as well burn the bridge behind you because for most of us on this path, going back is not one of the multiple choice answers to the many times you will ask yourself the question, “Can I really do this?” As a certified life coach and Human Equine Alliances for Learning (HEAL) facilitator trainer, I have put the pieces together from my life and career experiences, my passions and reverence for nature and relationship lessons. I have learned from my horses, and some humans, who have inspired me to see “me”. I am dedicated to supporting others as I have been supported to step into a life feeling connected to our authenticity and how we can create relationships with ourselves, each other and our horses, dogs, cats, bunnies, roosters et al and the natural world that reflects that. My coaching, speaking, teaching and equine experiential learning business is dedicated to women (I work with a few brave men too) who are ready to shift their lives towards trusting themselves to create a life, career and relationships that reflect their inner most desires. Many of my clients have reached a point in their lives or careers where they know NOW is the season to step towards living their purposeful life. Some have experienced a life changing event or feel one coming if something doesn't change and they are determined to use their experience to inspire personal growth and healing. Women in our modern culture experience historic levels of stress, depression, anxiety and lack of joy within their lives and careers. Learning how to improve stress resiliency, finding time for self-care, improving personal and professional leadership skills, learning about and enforcing personal and professional boundaries, and ultimately feeling empowered through an improved self-relationship puts them in the strong position of choosing how they want to live and work. Being in relationships with horses and humans who see, feel and hear you for who you are on the inside is an inspirational game changer.
Personally, I know that I am a better human being for having opened my heart to feel my horses and that has translated into every area of my life. At the end of the day, this journey will define my life and the success that matters most to me: learning how to nurture wholehearted loving relationships and having the courage to live from my authenticity so that I can bring my best self to the service of all beings. As a result of the time I have spent with my herd and knowing the depth of healing and inspiration that is possible within a mutually beneficial relationship, I founded a program called R.E.A.L. Principles of Mutual Connection - The Science & Soul of the Horse Human Bond. I teach these principles to horse owners, professionals in the equine experiential learning industry and to people fulfilling a lifelong desire to connect or reconnect with nature through horses. I rely on these principles when I am asked to consult on an equine behavior challenge The three original members of my herd, which is now a herd of nine, are on my Heart of the Herd Ranch logo: Montana, Homer and April. These three incredible horses have opened up a world to me that I could not have dreamed possible. Montana taught me mutuality. Homer true patience and gratitude and was the rock of the herd. And April taught me respect. My time with each of them brought lessons of challenge, warmth, love, tears and inspiration to do better by them by firstly doing better by myself. This story only begins to share and express what our journey’s have meant to us and we have become a true family. They taught me that sharing our time, emotions and selves had nothing to do with being a cowgirl. They are the pillars that I have built my wild woman revival upon. Part of my path over the last decade has been an immersion in understanding the horse as a part of nature, which has little to do with horsemanship as we know it. Seeking to know what it is that touched me so deeply when I started remembering my wild Montana spirit of a girl and why our relationships with nature and animals can be such a powerful ally in our human healing and self discovery. I am blissfully a complete nerd studying the leading scientists in human behavior and mental healing equine ethology, social and evolutionary biology, zoology, neurology and anthrozoology.
Recently, I felt the river of my life changing course yet again. I had a mind, heart, gut conversation with myself about no regrets and what I wanted to do in my life from here. My “bucket list� you might say. Two things became very clear: go back to college and get a degree in anthrozoology and learn Spanish. Before I knew it, transcripts were ordered and the acceptance letter came in the mail. The life sucking career of my past is a distant memory. My future is led by the Montana spirit of a girl that I am!
www.dreabowen.com
www.newmexicohorseadventures.com
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Big Nose Kate
When good girls go bad by Charlene Worthy
How did Mary Katherine Hornady, a young Hungarian girl, daughter of an emperor’s physician, of fine breeding and well-rounded education become one of the most notorious madam’s of the 1800’s ending up in Tombstone tossing back shots and raisin’ hell with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday? By her own account Big Nose Kate was a rip-roaring, hard-drinking, gun-slinging bad girl. Her story begins November 5, 1850 in Pest, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her early life was one of ease and privilege. As the daughter of a prominent physician, she was well educated. Mary Katherine learned English, French and Spanish as well as her native Hungarian. In 1862, Dr. Hornady accepted the post of personal physician to Emperor Maximilian, a Hapsburg Archduke. A few years later, things got dicey. Maximilian’s government fell and the Hornady’s fled to Davenport, Iowa, a Hungarian enclave. The Emperor was executed. In March of 1885, Kate’s mother died. Her father followed her to the grave in May, and Kate, her sister, and three brothers were sent to an orphanage. Kate resurfaced in the foster home of Otto Smith. At 17, Kate high tailed it out of there and stowed away on a steamboat heading downriver. The Captain, named Fisher, discovered her and let her stay on board until St. Louis. There, under the name of Kate Fisher, she entered a convent school, from which she graduated in 1869. It was only a short step from convent to sporting house. In 1874, as Kate Elder, she took a job with Nellie Bessie at the Earp’s brothel in Dodge City, Kansas. While she claims not to have met Wyatt Earp until years later out West, they were both in Dodge City at the same time and it was a small town. Chroniclers surmise that she was involved with Wyatt Earp.
In fall 1877 Kate “got outta Dodge,” and reappeared in Fort Griffin, Texas, where she met the love of her life, John Henry “Doc” Holliday. Doc, a dentist by training and a professional gambler, was a good match for Kate.
Both were flamboyant, hot-tempered, intelligent and resourceful. He has been described as a convivial and congenial man of Southern breeding, a tough citizen and a bad egg, a dangerous adversary and a dependable ally. He was also a dish. A photograph of him taken in Tombstone shows a man with regular features, full lips partly obscured by a luxuriant moustache, a level gaze and piercing, dark blue eyes. His story and Kate’s are intertwined with the Earp brothers’, like wild roses and honeysuckle, and stretched from Dodge City to Texas to Arizona to the New Mexico territories. Wyatt Earp told this story about Holliday; Doc was dealing cards to a local bully, Ed Bailey. Bailey, perhaps to show he was not impressed by Doc’s reputation, “began monkeying with the deadwood, or what people who live in cities call discards. Doc Holliday admonished him once or twice to “play poker”, which is your seasoned gambler’s method of telling a friend to stop cheating. But the misguided Bailey persisted in his furtive attentions to the deadwood.” Finally, Doc simply raked in the pot without showing his hand, as was his right under the rules of Western poker. Bailey brought up the pistol he had concealed beneath the table. Before he could fire, Doc slashed him across the belly with a knife. Bailey fell forward onto the table, dead. Doc had struck in self-defense. Even so, he was locked in a hotel room under guard while a vigilante mob howled for his head on a platter. Kate heard what was going on and simply took care of business. She set fire to a shed behind the hotel. When she shouted “Fire!” the townspeople ran to fight the blaze leaving only a marshal and a constable to guard the prisoner. Kate waltzed into the room brandishing a pistol, threw a second weapon to her lover, laughing, “Come on, Doc!” They hid in the willows near the river until a confederate brought them two stolen horses. Then they made tracks to Dodge City, four hundred mile away. When Wyatt Earp arrived, he found them “installed in great style,” and living as Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Holliday. Doc was so moved by Kate’s courage and devotion that he vowed to live a more respectable life. Once again he hung out his dentist’s shingle. Kate tried, too, but she grew bored with domestic life and went back to plying her trade. Doc went back to the tables.
They traveled together throughout the West, their stormy on again off again relationship continuing until the stagecoach incident. Doc Holliday was suspected of taking part in a stagecoach robbery near Tombstone in which a man was killed. Although Doc was acquainted with one of the robbers, highway robbery was not in his repertoire. Local authorities heard that Doc and Kate were fighting again. Eager to make an arrest, they got Kate drunk and persuaded her to sign an affidavit declaring that Holliday had been involved. They arrested him. Case closed. The following day, a sober and remorseful Kate recanted, but Doc never forgave her betrayal. Upon his release, he left town without her. The two got back together from time to time, and it is believed that Kate took care of Doc in Glenwood Springs, Colorado during his last illness, but things were never the same. After the tuberculosis finally did Doc in, Kate married a blacksmith named Cummings. The marriage did not last but she kept his name. Then Mary Katherine Cummings worked as a housekeeper for a Mr. John Howard in Dos Cabezas, Arizona until his death in 1930. As for that jailbreak story? Toward the end of her life in a rare interview, Kate denied the whole thing. “Think of it,” she said, “A woman weighing only one hundred and sixteen pounds, standing off a deputy and rescuing her lover? It reads fine, but there is not a word of truth in that fairy story.” But one thing was true back then. And that was the lack of lucrative, entrepreneurial opportunities open to women in the wild west of the 1880’s. Opinions as to how young Kate Silas, Fisher, Elder, Earp, Holliday, Cummings made her living differ. Some historians claim that though she worked in houses of ill repute but she was never a prostitute. Others, with equal passion and pride, claim that she was. All agree that her first known place of employment was at Nellie Earp’s sporting house in Dodge City, Kansas. Years later she earned the distinction of being the first Madame in Tombstone, running a combination brothel and saloon, known rather grandly as the Grand Hotel. It still exists today as an historical building and tourist draw in Tombstone. When asked about her lifestyle and flamboyant past, and in her own words, Big Nose Kate said, “I made my own choices about my life. I belonged to no house and no man. I did just what you’d do for your husband, only I got to keep something for myself.” Big Nose Kate ended her days in 1940 at the Arizona Pioneers Home leaving a legacy of strength and pioneering spirit behind.
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iVIEW with Gina McKnight and H. Alan Day
H. Alan Day is the coauthor of The Horse Lover: A Cowboy’s Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs. In this heartfelt memoir, Day tells how he purchased Mustang Meadows Ranch, near St. Francis, South Dakota, with the idea of turning its 35,000 acres into a sanctuary to preserve and protect the mustangs being warehoused by the United States government. He successfully lobbied Congress, and Mustang Meadows Ranch became the first government-sponsored wild horse sanctuary in the United States. He then relates his personal relationship with fifteen hundred wild mustangs and his adventures at Mustang Meadows Ranch, which included the dangers, frustrations, joys, and heartbreak of balancing the bureaucratic requirements of the United States Bureau of Land Management with the needs of America’s wild horses. Gina McKnight: When was your first encounter with a horse? H.Alan Day: I’m sure I was on a horse in front of my dad or one of our cowboys before I event turned one. But what I remember is being about three years old riding Chico. He was a little bay horse that had been captured out o f a wild horse group near the ranch. He was the best child’s horse I’ve ever seen and was completely patient and knew how fast or slow to go. If the rider fell off, he would stop and not move a muscle until the rider got back on. He was my babysitter and partner for many years. GMK: Tequila, Aunt Jemina, Saber: which is your favorite? HAD: Saber. He was super horse. Intelligent, muscular, strong, loving. That’s why I dedicated an entire chapter to him in my book.
GMK: Why did you feel compelled to create Mustang Meadows Ranch? HAD: I was never afraid of a challenge. When I ended up with this very beautiful, productive 35,000-acre ranch, I somehow felt compelled to do something creative and different with the land. Whether it was the ranch talking to me or me talking to the ranch, I can’t answer, maybe some of both. I just knew that I had enough eggs invested in cattle ranching. So when the possibility of keeping wild horses on this land flashed in front of me, I grabbed it and ran. Some would call it stupid, some impulsive. I called it exciting. GMK: What makes the mustangs so intriguing? HAD: The mystique of their running free across the prairie has appeal to everyone. The idea that I could make friends with them and be accepted by them was a really interesting concept to me and ignited my fire. GMK: You maintained the mustangs for four years, and then the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) awarded their care to a low-bid rancher. In the end, your decision not to sue BLM when your contract was not renewed is commendable, and I applaud you for that! In hindsight, would you walk away again? HAD: Would I sue them, no. Should I have tried harder through other avenues, such as calling my senator, yes. Maybe if I had alerted people in power that I was getting run over, the outcome might have been different. Maybe I walked away too soon. I did try filing a complaint, but from my perspective, the turndown reply was classic bureaucratic double-talk. GMK: How many Mustangs reside at Mustang Meadows Ranch today? HAD: None. They were all shipped to Oklahoma and there they remained as far as I know. GMK: Will you submit a proposal to BLM for care of the Mustangs in the future? HAD: No. At this point, I’m retired from active ranching.
GMK: What was the highlight of your four years with the Mustangs? HAD: The highlight was the whole four years. Every bit of it was exciting. After having made friends with them and being able to ride through the herd and say, “Come on, let’s go” and have them follow me, all 1500, at an easy gallop, well, that was always a thrill. GMK: The Horse Lover is well written; witty, whimsical, and wise. Will you write a sequel? HAD: Hadn’t thought about that yet. GMK: What does horsemanship mean to you? HAD: There are a hundred definitions of horsemanship. The ability to bond with the horse and have the horse respond and respect you is the ultimate definition for me. Whatever the horse is doing; jumping, or working cattle, the most important part is the bond between the rider and the horse. Connect with H. Alan Day: www.thehorselover.com Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/AlanDayAuthor FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Horse-Lover-A-CowboysQuest-to-Save-the-Wild-Mustangs/641650999198071?ref=hl Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13779.H_Alan_Day About Gina McKnight: Author, equestrian, poet from Ohio, USA. She is also the contributing writer of iVIEW for tCmag. http://gmcknight.com http://ginamc.blogspot.com
Lillian Smith
Good Reads & ON THE JUkEBOX Being a lover of mustangs, with the goal of rescuing them to a big ranch...I realize I need to have some education from others before me that have adopted, gentled and loved the mighty, wild ones. An avid reader, I enjoy the word of others and gleam all the information and education I can. Well, Mikey Porter does not disappoint. In her book “Eyes with Fire”, Porter delivers her mustang experiences, with heartfelt and colorful recanting's of the different personalities she has come to know, train and love. It will make you cry, laugh & want to go adopt a mustang. Go ahead, get a mustang, but first get Mikey Porter’s book’s “Eyes With Fire” and also “Wild Expectations”, the complete guide on taming a wild or “unhandled” horse. Mikey Porter is the real deal with a lifetime of riding, showing, training and loving horses. www.mikeyporter.com One of my newest favorite CD’s is “UNBRIDLED”, the latest release from Western Underground. If you’re familiar with Chris LeDoux, the World-Champion Bronc Rider and cowboy, then you’re familiar with his music. Although LeDoux passed on at the young age of 56, his music continues to rock forward with the original band members and the welcomed addition of drummer, songwriter, singer, Ned LeDoux, Chris’ son. The title track “Unbridled” kicks butt and is quickly followed up by 10 country rockin’ cuts including the heartfelt “Think About Rain” and “Broken In”. The musicians don’t get any better than Mark Sissel, guitars; Dusting Evans, vocals; Bobby Jensen, keyboards; David “Pop” Evans, bass; Ned LeDoux, percussion; K.W. Turnbow, drums. The musicianship of these cowboys is fantastic, layered and expert. This CD is stories of life and love as time passed for Chris LeDoux. I highly recommend it to all of you. www.westernunderground.com
Cowboys? by Jeff Hildebrandt Do cowboys still find time to rhyme when cattle’s bedded down? Or do they just hop in their cars and beat it back to town? Do cowhands still swap stories like those hands did years ago? Or is that bit of history gone like the buffalo? The romance of the range lives on around the campfire’s light in the minds of all the wannabes who spend each day and night doing what those cowboys did a hundred years ago. And it’s up to full time buckaroos to let them think that’s so. They long to ride Ben Johnson style with smooth and flowing grace. Have a showdown with a grizzled cur and spit right in his face. They’re living out a fantasy in hats and chaps and vest, pretending to be real cowhands in the wild and wooly West. Say what you will of tenderfeet, of dudes and wannabes but if the West is to survive it’s up to folks like these. Cause, were it not for wannabes, why use a horse at all? They’d round up cows from ATV’s while making cell-phone calls. http://cowboyupamerica.blogspot.com/
www.savingamericashorses.org
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