The Quest for Gladiator

Man that title sounds really over dramatic.  Unfortunately, I went on a pun-filled Cream binge earlier today (the band, not the dairy product though I had some of that too) and consequently used up my allotted number of song references. Sorry, not sorry.

I like to think that Gladiator stays on the top of my list when it comes to visiting horses in White Mountain.  The reality is that most of the time, Gladiator hardly even counts.  I don’t find him so much as wake up, put my contacts in and bam! There Gladiator is.

 

One Sunday in October my truck broke down.  So I walked up to White Mountain from Green River.  Even in the most ridiculous of times, Gladiator has a way of showing up

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On Either Side the River Lie

Elaine of Astolat was something of a tragic figure.  Stick with me here, because I swear this is going somewhere. Probably. Probably.

 

Elaine was this beautiful, young woman who made one critical mistake.  She fell hopelessly in love with Lancelot.  You can probably see where this is going.  Lancelot had devoted himself to the service of Queen Guinevere, and rejected Elaine’s advances and her love.  Elaine did not take this news too well, and died of a broken heart.  Now before you go feeling all sorry for this girl, as the story draws to a close we learn that Elaine was just vindictive enough to ask her father to put her dead body in a boat and float it down the river to Camelot just so Lancelot can see the results of his actions.

 

Unrequited love is a common theme in literature for a reason. Elaine’s story has passed on through the generations because we can all relate to her.  I know I’ve been there. More than once, in fact.  Now I would like to think that I have made better life choices than Elaine.  Rather than dying, I fully intend to be an independent single woman who eventually turns into a mildly eccentric hermit.  Some of us just aren’t meant for love.

 

Elaine of White Mountain had some unrequited love of her own to deal with.  Much like her namesake, it didn’t end so well.

Quick and Semi-Dull Update

So I’m working on a proper blog post and uploading photos for it as I type this.  But I wanted to take a separate post to say wow you guys.  Just… wow.  As of Wednesday afternoon, your purchases through my Etsy shop have all helped to raise nearly $700 for The Cloud Foundation. I don’t exactly know what I expected when I decided to hold an impromptu lawsuit fundraising fire sale, but I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

And that is not counting the $180 from my Divide Basin canvas print or the lovely gal from Texas who donated to The Cloud Foundation directly.  Thank you so much for opening up your hearts (and wallets) to help the fight to save the beloved Adobe Town, Divide Basin, and Salt Wells horse herds.  Trust me, they are worth it.

Verity

You can read more of the current updates in the press release found here.  The BLM has agreed to delay the roundup for two weeks so the judge can have time to rule on the lawsuit that was brought.  This is a promising start!  Keep praying/thinking good thoughts that the advocates lawyers with Meyer Glitzenstein  & Crystal bring a strong argument and that the judge will rule in favor of upholding the law and doing what is right for the wild horses.

Octavien

The Red Desert Lawsuit Sale!

Quick housekeeping: Lauryn & I are going to White Mountain this weekend to celebrate my slow descent towards senility and osteoporosis, so hopefully I will come back with some inspiration and new blog fodder. I know I have been distracted and done a very poor job updating the blog through July. I am deeply sorry and will try my best to find the time to make it up to everyone this August.

And now… to the pitch!

Feeling Bolder?

So I have this problem.  I am currently tapped out.

Of money, that is.

Okay not really.  I still have enough money in my bank account to buy hay tomorrow (the boys have exacting standards) and Runza on my birthday, but I’m past what I can feasibly donate to The Lawsuit.  And by “The Lawsuit” I mean the litigation to try to stop the Adobe Town, Divide Basin, and Salt Wells roundups that are supposed to start later this month.  You can donate here, but you may wish to finish reading my post before you hop on over there.

So as I said, I’ve donated what I can to The Cloud Foundation to help fund the lawsuit to stop the roundup and ultimate destruction of the Adobe Town, Divide Basin, and Salt Wells herds.  But it is one of those things where it still doesn’t feel like quite enough, you know?

Like a hazy dream laced with coffee beans and unicorns dancing on rainbows, the answer to my dilemma dawned on me while staring at the clock at work, half buried in paperwork and moving way too slow. I’m out of money, but that doesn’t mean I’m out of capital.  Not entirely, at least.

 

A Call to Arms (More or Less)

Starting today, the above photo will be in a gallery for the month of August as part of the Cloud Foundation Art Exhibit & Fundraiser.  It is not my most popular photo, but I’m really proud of it and glad that it made it into the gallery.  It’s my kind of photo, you see – plain bay mares in the Great Divide Basin casually strolling towards water on a serene Sunday morning.

 

Yet all I can think about is that while that print is hanging around on a wall, those mares may finds themselves galloping across that range in terror, chased down with a helicopter, taken away from their home, and separated from their family band forever.

Adobe Town Roundup, November 2013

 

A couple weeks ago the BLM released their roundup schedule for the rest of the year.  There was no small amount of hullabaloo over three specific herds – Adobe Town, Salt Wells, and Divide Basin.  For while the rest of the schedule was fairly tame (for BLM standards) and primarily consisted of smaller removals of horses that were outside the boundaries of the established herd management area, the planned removal numbers for the Red Desert herds were downright shocking.  The numbers on the chart read that the BLM was going to zero out Divide Basin and Salt Wells, and take over 1/3 of the remaining Adobe Town horses.

 

The plan looks a little something like this:

WY	BLM	Adobe Town HMA	w/ Salt Wells	8/20/14	8/24/14	177	177	Horses	WY State Office
WY	BLM	Salt Wells HMA	w/ Adobe Town	8/24/14	8/28/14	228	228	Horses	WY State Office
WY	BLM	Divide Basin HMA		8/28/14	9/10/14	541	541	Horses	WY State Office

 

 

 

Reading these numbers, it felt a little like the world was crashing down, like I was stuck on a calving glacier just waiting for my feet to fall out from under me so I could hit the icy punch of the water while the ice crashed down on my head.

 

And yet, how much worse is it for the horses?  They don’t even see it coming.  The horses are busy living their lives as best they know how.  They will be busy storing up fat for winter and then suddenly BAM!  Running for their lives, permanently separated from their families, spending the rest of their lives in government holding.  If they are lucky the horses removed won’t be euthanized or slaughtered by an organization that was ordered to protect them, but who now is looking for easy escapes for a problem that they themselves created.  It’s sick.

 

If you are me, the only way to combat that sickness is to dive into the numbers and type out a few feelings.  Let’s break all of this information down in a comprehensive way.  This roundup is a little more confusing than others, after all, which is exactly why it must be stopped and stopped quickly.

Divide Basin Bachelor