Yesterday I shared a nightmarish post on Facebook.  My gut told me I had to hit share. In the evening I shuttered to think I exposed other minds to the nightmare.   But the nightmare had to be seen.  I had to wake you up to see what is really happening in our world.  The nightmare involved a baby foal of the Onaqui herd.  The famous Onaqui herd who are scheduled to be rounded up in days.   The foal was running scared out her wits away from her captured family.  Running for her life from the predators. Running for freedom she will never have again.  Running from two determined cowboys with a rope.  Practicing their lasso skills.  Violently.  Traumatizing and possibly injuring or killing the poor innocent foal.  I like many I'm sure could not believe what I was seeing.  I thought man had evolved past the desire to control so badly that he would commit such a despicable act by roping that terrified baby foal to the ground like one of their domesticated calves.  If they had any sense at all they would have remembered the horsemans prayer or oath which is followed by good cowboys and cowgirls.  The beginning of the prayer reads something like this.

 "Give me strength to guide my horse.

Make my hands soft and my head clear.

Let my horse understand me and I him.

My heart you have blessed with a special love of these animals.

Let me never lose sight of it.....

And it goes on which I will share fully at another time.   Good cowboys and cowgirls remember the oath and live by it day by day whether with wild or domesticated horses.

                                         

Now you can be sure the government hired cowboys will do their best turning the story around making the case they were actually doing the right thing catching the foal so she could be back with her family.  The family back in the roundup pen.  The family that was just forcefully chased by a helicopter through the desert in extreme heat to end up in the roundup pen loosing their freedom forever.  

However I will give these cowboys the benefit of doubt.  I would like not to assume they are doing this nasty deed out of hate.  They are most likely thinking they are doing the right thing.  Thinking it is the public that is too soft footed and does not understand real life out here on the ranch and the range. The fact is the American people need to make the choice and decide the fate of America's wild horses.   People need to wake up and understand they are not always being told the truth. They must understand real information is being suppressed and they are being fed a narrative that keeps these two roping cowboys in a government job.   This narrative involves lots of characters spending billions of dollars to maintain the status quo.  Wild horses be damned.

So these two roping government cowboys are just the tip of the iceberg.  On down there is the helicopter pilot, the cowboys that man the roundup pens,  the truck drivers who pull the square metal cans on wheels for the horses to go into once captured.  And then of course don't forget the paper pushers back in the Bureau of Land Management office.  Working hard behind the scenes to make sure the round up goes smoothly.  They probably all think they are doing the right thing. Or if they have any reservations about the roundup of our countries wild horses they think there is no point in trying to stop it due to the powers that be.  I'm sure most of them are honest, hard working decent people. Some of them care deeply for the horses they manage.  But they may know in their heart something is not right.   They need to be braver and bolder to stand up to the nightmare.

So we know the roping government cowboys, helicopter pilot, truck drivers who pull square metal cans on wheels for the horses to get into once captured and paper pushers behind the scenes who think they are doing the right thing are just the tip of the iceberg.  They are not the powers that be that can stop this nightmare.  This nightmare on the Onaqui herd which extends to all the wild horse herds of America in just a matter of time. 

There are big time cowboys and ranchers behind the scenes that are running the shit show narrative.  And they are convincing our trusty politicians and still many in the public to go along with the shit show narrative.  Now we don't know for sure what the big time ranchers who may be big cowboy corporations are thinking exactly.  But we do know by their actions they are not friends of the Onaqui herd and all America's wild horses.  There appears to be cracks in their stories.  Speculation points to be a few lies being told mixed in with some deceit and manipulation by the higher ups.  The higher ups that report to our trusty higher up politicians.  We can't believe that our smart and elected higher up politicians would go along with this plan of deceit.  But the higher ups all the way to the president of the USA just might be listening to the shit show narrative.  What do you think?

Here is one of those private rancher cowboys right smack in the dab of Onaqui country.  He is not a government cowboy.  But he relies of the government to provide him with cheaply leased land so he can raise sheep or cattle.  So he can put food on his table and feed many others.  He probably thinks he is doing the right thing. There are probably many in his local community who respect him and think he is doing the right thing by feeding his family and the world.  I have been told many rancher families have lived on the range for generations.  They feel as if America's range land belongs to them and they know best how to use it and manage it.  Now I don't know how this particular cowboy thinks but I know that many of these private cowboy ranchers see the wild horses as competition for the same grass the government is letting his sheep eat.  So in order for these cowboy ranchers to continue thinking they are doing the right thing they pressure the government agency know as the BLM or Bureau of Land Management to do something about the wild horses.  They tell the BLM and the world that even though America's iconic wild horses are to be protected they have a right to roundup many or all of them up because there are just too many of them.  They say they are feral animals brought here from foreign lands and they are hurting the environment.  They have actually bamboozled many conservationists and the world into believing these "facts".  Luckily conservationists are beginning to wake up to this fallacy.   Another favorite tactic to bamboozle the world is to say the poor wild horses are starving and/or have no water.  It would be animal cruelty to let them starve or die of thirst.  So they tell the BLM government agency to get those government cowboys out there on the range they think belongs to them and do the right thing by rounding the wild horses up and putting them in hot, dry pens to lanquish away forever unless they get "lucky" being adopted by a human.  Then once the government cowboys remove America's wild horses horses off "their" range land, oops I mean America's range land, they put more cattle and sheep on the land that horses were supposebly starving on. The water issue is a tricky one.  Sometimes there is true drought.  Sometimes fences create problems.  Micromanaging nature is tricky.  Man seems to think he or she can control the universe.  I have news.  Man is not in charge. How could man possibly know all the answers?

These are the sheep themselves grazing the range grass like sheep will do all day if you let them.  Some of the same grass the wild horses graze.  The rancher cowboys with their ranching horses and cute little herding dogs manage these sheep. They probably do a damn good job of raising these sheep on America's range land subsidized by American's tax dollars.  Don't get me wrong!  I don't hate the sheep.  I love the sheep.  But the sheep will graze were ever they are put.  They don't have to be put on America's range land to help the rancher cowboys survive and think they are doing the right thing. 

So here's the thing.  How can we change the consciousness of the rancher cowboys, the government cowboys and everyone in the world who has been bamboozled into thinking the right thing to do is to round up the wild horses, traumatizing them, sometimes violently injuring or killing them, including innocent foals who might try to run for their freedom after their parents are captured and in doing so are videotaped so those like me can see the image and have nightmares?  Yes that was a run on sentence but how else do I get my point across? 

If you are one of those people who feel the round up of the Onaqui wild horse herd and the rest America's wild horses is the "right thing to do" for what ever reason I beg of you to change your perception on the matter.  I beg of you if there is any inkling in your gut that what is happening to wild horses is not right please listen to your heart and your gut.  Trust your intuition.  Stop listening to the shit  show.  Start by taking action by understanding the horse in general and it's history.   Research is now unfolding the evolution of the equine species "Equus Callallus".  The argument that horse are "feral" to North America has been disproven.  Horses have roamed the planet for 50 million years!  They became extinct in North America but some were able to migrate back over the Bering land bridge that once connected Alaska and Siberia.  And later on in life if some migrated to America by boat with the Spaniards I'd say they were pretty damn smart to have gotten on those boats taking them to the promise land. How did they do it?

I'll let you in on their secret.  They made a pack with mankind.  You see their nature is such that they see the possibilities in getting along.  They believe in coexisting with all life including mankind.  They were so devoted to mankind they changed the path of humankind.   They allowed man to ride them hunting for food or going into battle.  Sometimes they were the hunted food.  They would agree to work, plowing the fields, hauling heavy wagons,  transporting humans here and there fast and slow.  Now a days used for equestrian sports, pleasure riding, companionship and healing and therapy.  They have done more than just agreed to coexist with man.  They have gone over and above helping humankind. Not every animal besides man's best friend does that.  The least we can do is give them a hand when they need it.  They are helping the earth and continuing to help mankind even though man is not yet aware of it. 

Their ways and wisdom built up over millions of years are not conceivable to man who focuses on the material world.  Horses are sometimes called stupid.  But we have all seen whether personally or on TV and social media many a horse outsmart a person dressed in fancy cowboy boots with the IQ of a genius, or scientists with advanced degrees or trainers who know everything.  Horses are hip to the world in ways we can't even imagine.

                       

You see horses are prey animals who have survived on the earth for millions of years.  They have developed incredible perceptions in the process.  When full grown they can evade, outsense, outguess and outwit almost any predator.  Except man at this point.  Man who still wants to control the horse into submission.  Man who still thinks he is in charge.   Man who is running the shit show to control the world.

Horses are the ultimate balance of strength and sensitivity.  We all know horses can run like the wind and look beautiful doing it.  A grown horse can rear, buck and maim a lion to it's death.  Wild stallions mightily fight to to protect their bands.  But the horse can also be assertive with out being aggressive.  This is most often the case.  This is were the sensitivity comes in. The sensitivity of a prey animal.  It uses it's prey-animal instincts to sense aggression in a otherwise smiling and friendly appearing human who may have plans for it.  It holds it's ground by not becoming too emotional and ruining the party.  The horse exemplifies genuine assertiveness with out becoming a tyrant or a victim.  Too bad humans cannot do the same.

If humans could develop some of this magnificent animal's characteristics the world may be a better place.   But man has had the wisdom of this prey animal knocked smack dab out of him for centuries.  Man does not know it but he has too much predator in him.  How can we get the wisdom of this prey animal back?  How can use horse wisdom to help the wild horses?

For one we can stop listening to the shit show and listen to the horses, watch the horses, understand the horses.  We can realize our predatory nature is out of balance.  We can stop being indifferent and looking the other way.  We can tell everybody including the powers that be that we can't go on with the nightmare any longer.  We can tell them to stop the insanity of jailing these beautiful beings full of so much valuable unimaginable wisdom so we can control the earth and the whole world. 

We can be a force for love.  We can create a ripple effect of love and respect of all living things. 

If you have gotten this far in reading this post I thank you.  I thank you for the horses and mankind. 

I end with this image of "The Old Man"  He is the most well know and famous of the Onaqui herd these days.  Word has it he has been roaming the Utah desert with the Onaqui herd for 30 years.  Wild horse lovers and activists are anticipating he may be rounded up in this weeks roundup and at worst killed for being too old and unadoptable by a human. 

Do me a favor.  Do not imagine Old Man being rounded up.  Imagine him free forever along with the rest of the Onaqui herd.  Let's use the power of imagination and love.  Let's stop the nightmare.

                 Adios Amigos

 

Update: The Onaqui herd roundup by the grace of the universe has been postponed from  7/11 to Tuesday 7/13  One judge says he needs more time to look the case over.  Details unknown.  Let's send him love so strong he fills his heart with love for the horses.

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