Monday 3 November 2008 - Our Wild Mustangs

Today I am devoting my post to the Wild Mustangs of the American West. This has become a very controversial subject and one that I am also passionate about although I have not seen them for myself.

The post today is made in the hope that it will educate some of us as to exactly what is happening to these beautiful animals, it is not what we are being led to believe is happening. One of my fellow photographers, Carol Walker, has been photographing these herds for many years and if you visit her website you can find all the information that you need to see just what a tragic and urgent situation this is. She published a book and calendar this year with photos of all the herds she has followed and come to know intimately and tells what is happening to them. She is offering the book and calendar together at a special price for the holidays and I hope that you will each consider purchasing one of them because part of the proceeds go back to helping these horses and if their story doesnt bring tears to your eyes I will be surprised. I am going to post a few links to the book and calendar which is for purchase and to photographs that she took recently during a "round-up" by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). I have to warn you that these images are VERY disturbing and the fact that she and her colleagues had no option but to sit on the sidelines and record the events as they unfolded must have been very painful for them.

I am also posting a link to a second photographer, Cyndie Planck, who I am associated with who had the wonderful opportunity of photographing wild horses in a different area to the ones that Carol covers but these animals are suffering a similar fate and again, take a look at the calendar, it would make a wonderful Xmas gift and also shows the beauty surrounding these animals.

Carol Walker:
http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/

Warning the following link has some disturbing images

http://www.livingimagescjw.com/CLIENTS/08SandwashRoundup/08SandwashRoundup.htm

Some other links but I am sure with a bit of research you will find many that actually show what is actually happening is not what we are hearing.

http://thecloudfoundation.org/blmthreat.html

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/

Cyndie Planck:

If you click on the July entries, you will find photos and stories of Cyndie's trip. Be sure to view all the entries for July as there are a quite a few relating to the Mustangs and the photos are beautiful

http://cyndieplanckphotography.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

This is her business website
http://www.cyndieplanck.com/

and you can purchase a lovely calendar here:
http://cyndieplanckphotography.blogspot.com/2008/08/now-available.html

All of this goes hand in hand with the closing of the horse slaughter houses in the USA and the continued battle against abuse that horses going to slaughter have to endure and these mustangs are mostly going to end up in Mexico and Canada for processing. This is a whole nother story. I will get into that next.

I am sorry this is such a morbid post, but if I can educate even one person on what is happening it will be worth it. There are many people who are involved in the horse industry that dont know this is happening let alone people out of the horse industry.

(((((Hugs))))))

Lori
xx