Pine Nut Release
Click on the picture above to go to Grass Roots Horse for our first attempt at live stream. Put the system together quickly and am working out the bugs on the fly….
43 went home today
Craig Downer at the release
http://grassrootshorse.com
click on blog upper left corner.
Return to Freedom is trying to reunite some of the Silver King families.
Stories at this link:
https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6931/donate_page/silverkingrescue
Wild and Free
Tonights email update:
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Dear Pilot Mountain HMA Observers & Interested Parties: Effective
immediately, Terri Knutson, BLM-Stillwater Field Office Manager, has
cancelled further gather operations of the Pilot Mountain HMA Gather.
The gather contractor conducted an aerial reconnaissance over the area
Saturday and found fewer wild horses in the HMA than predicted. Based on
this reconnaissance and ground observations by BLM staff, and the feeling
that our HMA census data had been inadvertently interpreted as having
included the 104 wild horses currently residing outside the HMA on the
Hawthorne Army Depot, Terri decided to cancel further operations and
release the contractor.
A new aerial population census flight will be scheduled by BLM in the
future to accurately determine if current population numbers of horses
within the HMA are within the Appropriate Management Level.
The nine horses that were held overnight at the temporary corrals were
released this morning without the mares being treated with PZP. The gather
contractor is removing the temporary corrals and Saturday’s trap site.
With the termination of further gather operations the planned
guided-observation days on November 30-December 1 are also cancelled.
The Wild Horse Gather Information Line will updated for the final time
today for the Pilot Mountain Gather.
Thank you for your continued interest in the gathers on our District. I
will keep you all on my interested observers list and get back in touch
with you as the scheduled catch/treat/release gather in the Clan Alpine HMA
approaches in February.
Mark Struble
Public Affairs Officer
BLM-Carson City District Office
EDITED TO ADD:
These emails were exchanged yesterday about the roundup progress. No public was allowed to observe until Tuesday, now cancelled. My response below.
Date: 11/27/2010 06:56PM
Subject: Saturday, November 27 Gather Update – Pilot Mountain Herd Management Area
Dear Pilot Mountain HMA Observers & Interested Parties: gather operations started this morning on the north end of the Pilot Mountain HMA with the gather trap site at a barrow pit on a north-facing slope overlooking Gabbs Valley. The temporary holding corral is currently located off Finger Rock Road (road to Rawhide), 11.6 miles west of Nevada State Route 361 (Gabbs Highway). The intersectrion of Finger Rock Road and SR 361 is 19.3 miles north of US95 at Luning, Nevada.
Ten horses (six mares and four older foals of weanling age) were moved from the north end of the Gabbs Valley Range to the gather trap today. No injuries. One mare was determined to be too old for treatment with PZP-22 and was immediately released. The other nine horses will be held overnight pending PZP treatment of the mares.
The contractor conducted an extensive aerial reconnaissance over much of the area today and is finding fewer wild horses than expected. A lowering ceiling with snow showers did not help visibility today.
A more extensive aerial reconnaissance is being planned for Sunday morning to determine horse locations both within the HMA and nearby ranges to assist BLM managers in determining if further gather operations or PZP treatment of mares is warranted at this time.
The Wild Horse Gather Information Line has been updated for the day. More tomorrow. Have a great weekend. Mark
Mark Struble, Public Affairs Officer, BLM-Carson City District
My response:
Mark,
It may seem like an odd question but why wasn’t the older mare held to be released with the other horses? You sent an old mare out on her own without her family after a stressful event.
One of my main concerns with current wild horse management techniques is that they fail to take into account the basic psychology of the animal being managed.
The family structure is obviously destroyed and no efforts are made to rectify this. To release an older mare without band members seems to be a further indication that this concept is not understood as it is presented as an almost “humane” step.
These roundups here locally are relatively small and it just seems to me like they would have been a good place to step out of “stone-age” feral livestock practices and actually take a step toward managing a wild population.
Just my opinion and I really appreciate that you take the time to send these updates out.
See you Tues.
Monday if there is a release in Dayton.
Have a nice Sunday.
Laura
Dry mares awaiting release
Grass Roots Blog
Grass Roots Horse has started a new blog. The purpose will be to try to bring you updates as close to real time as we can about what is occuring in the field.
Check it out!
We may be streaming live very soon….
I wont give up my blog, it’s my place to share thoughts, etc. And I’ll keep writing in all the places I write
Spent the day in the Dayton side of the Pine Nuts (HMA).
Examiner Story:
http://www.examiner.com/horse-in-national/wild-horses-released-pine-nut-area
Horses were released today after being rounded up yesterday. Mares were PZP treated.
Family bands have been shattered.
This was literally a backyard roundup. The community is very supportive of it’s wild horses. There was a tremendous group of volunteers that could have been utilized to keep these families in tact.
If it can’t be done right here…?
Working on a report for Horseback .
PZP treated mares released
AND this is my blog… so Happy Thanksgiving. I hope y’all had time with your family, two and four legs.
Travelling song for today…. but I think Obama needs to come out of the video.
Mare leaps to freedom
PZP treated mare released
Strong community support
Awaiting release
Want to apologize about getting behind on my emails. Had to get final prep done for Court and the half dozen other projects I’m participating in.
Had to spend the last couple of days “recharging.” I went to see my old draft mares. I went to see my beloved Calico stallions.
Commander and General
These two are always together. Commander is 25 and General 22. General is such a strong stallion. I watch him with the others. His actions are never “big,” but so subltle. He can get the whole group to move by changing his facial expression and shifting his weight. Commander is steady and loyal.
True Boy
General’s son, True is still with his dad.
I walk around with them now and there is no fence. I sit and they stand there with me. I listen to them chew and have no more fear that they will be separated and disappear. It is the most amazing feeling.
Return to Freedom is working to bring them home… but for now they are safe. I know where they are…
Batteries recharged.
Together
I love this old man
Impossible?
Light a candle.
Tomorrow is the Federal District Court hearing for both cases. Hon. Judge Larry Hicks will finally hear the emergency motion for Injunctive releif for access to our National Treasure and the hands on management by the US government. He will also hear the Contempt motion for Owyhee…
Been stressful.
Read filings:
Stallion no longer free
Reprint from Horseback magazine
I have spent literally thousands of hours on the road trying to document the hands-on care of America’s National Treasure, the wild horse by the agency tasked by Congress to manage these beings “humanely.”
My travels have included documenting wild horses on the range, at roundups and holding facilities.
I do this work because I am passionate about the subject. These animals speak to my soul. The convoluted process that has them literally trapped both fascinates and disgusts me.
When I am at roundups, or facilities that house our horses, I may express my opinions but I am never “out-of-line.” I obey rules, no matter how ridiculous.
At the Silver King roundup I was “grabbed” hard by a beautiful Albino stallion. His gaze was riveting. When he shipped we followed him from Pioche, Nevada all the way to Gunnison Prison in Utah.
As I inquired about his adoption, to go to sanctuary with some of the others, I exchanged emails with a woman I met once.
Dona Bastian runs the BLM facility at Gunnison.
In the course of her emails to me she told me I had to make sure to tell them when I was coming to pick up the stallion. She informed me that they needed to notify SWAT.
I’m not kidding.
Here is the email:
I need a application for adoption and also payment before the animals are
picked up. Do you have an approved adoption application? I know you said
you was working on it with John Neil. Also, the pickup is by appointment
only. We have to have a clearance, and also SWAT notified in advance.
Let me know!
Thanks,
~* Dona *~
Dona A. Bastian
Wildhorse & Burro Specialist
Gunnison Prison Facility Manager
Utah State Office
To view entire article go to:
http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/4708
Silver King 2010
The first time you post your avatar goes into a cache and needs approval. After that you can post without issue. (Not my set up, wordpress).
If you attempt to create a second profile the system catches it. Please be aware that I will not approve a second avatar if it appears that you are trying to hide from your first identity. If you lost passwords etc. that is a different case.
I am often away from my desk for literally days… so be patient with the system.
Single horse chased at Silver King for over 15 minutes
Court case is a week from today. Grass Roots Horse has a donor willing to match donations to help cover costs.
http://www.grassrootshorse.com
Get a Pair and Make a Stand
Underwear from Grass Roots/Herd Watch
Or go to Grass Roots Horse and download a free iron on and make your own.
Here we go….
Notes
Meet 4:30 am BLM office Burns
Drive like a bat out of hell in the pitch dark on rocky roads
thank god tires not flat
arrive at trap site in the ptch dark
sat in car for over an hour waiting for sunrise
Sun J chopper refueling for the fourth time
got to observation location around 7:30
contractor shows up 9:20
helicopter fuels 10:06
refuels around noon…
refuels around 2…
BLM PR asks if horses today
contractor confirms there will be horses coming in
refuels at 3:30
Deb Coffey blows a gasket and wants to know just how far those horses are being run in a day and isn’t time to call this off
BLM PR goes to trap to talk to contractor
BLM “decides” it is time to call it off to rest horses.
note: single trap location chosen for entire HMA
Temporary Holding
Go to temp holding
denied accesss to view mares and foals because contractor has their two year old playing by pens
New contractor
“Sun J”
Vernal Utah
All nice new EXPENSIVE equipment, lots of it.
Only two observation days offered, no reschedule, no return
No horses rounded up today.
But who knows what happened with the ones run that we did not see.
Sunset
Judge Hicks has finally set a date for hearing on the emergency TRO filed over a month ago for access to the hands on management of our wild herds. The Contempt motion will also be heard on the same day.
Say a prayer for Democracy
The government is basically controlling the content of what information reaches the public by precluding journalists who may portray them in an unflattering light.
The Second hearing will be on the (filed) August 11, 2010 Motion on Contempt of Court charges levied against the BLM which cites evidence of the Defendants‟ violation of the court‟s previous order to uphold the plaintiff‟s First Amendment Rights to observe and report on the Bureau of Land Management in regard to the “gather” and removal of wild horses in Owyhee Herd Management Area. When Laura Leigh arrived in Owyhee, accompanied by two individuals, they were barred entrance to the roundup site, stopped by armed personnel on public land, and given the literal run around.
The Contempt of Court Motion also addresses the Defendants‟ sworn testimony in open court that a „water emergency‟ existed and that an „emergency‟ roundup had to happen immediately, or horses would die. This testimony resulted in Judge Larry Hicks lifting the Temporary Restraining Order he had put in place to halt the Owyhee gather until he could hear legal arguments in the case.
Photos and documentation of the area have been filed showing that in fact the range appears exactly the same as it normally does this time of year, and nothing out of the ordinary was found by independent observation.
“Federal Judges have a tough job and a tight schedule,” said council Gordon Cowan, “Our country is based on very sound principals that ensure democracy continues and our case will be heard.”
