H/T Rick Gore at Thinklikeahorse.org.
Author: Western Horse Watchers
Subsidiarity
The principle of keeping power closest to those it affects.
What an individual can do, society should not take over, and what small societies can do, larger societies should not take over.
On 12/12/17, the Nevada Board of Agriculture voted to give control of the wild horses on the Virginia Range to a yet-to-be-determined non-profit animal advocacy group, according to a report in the Reno Gazette Journal.
If those horses belong to the people of Nevada, as opponents of the action claim, then YOU be that group. YOU form the non-profit. YOU keep the horses on the range and away from slaughter. The people of Storey County.
This is an opportunity not a catastrophe.

Get Your Kicks on Route 66
News report on the burros of Oatman AZ (old mining town in southern half of Black Mountain HMA).
History of WH&B in the US
Mustang Monday
On Kiger HMA.
Cultural Annihilation
Ask for more than you can achieve.
Give your idea a nice name that masks your true intent.
Use the media and educational tools to inculcate your view in the public.
Develop your own lexicon, redefine words, keep pounding those words into the psyche.
Attack your opponents not on logic or facts, but by name-calling and emotion.
Don’t concede until you’ve moved the marker a little closer to your goal.
Reset the measures so the new position is considered normal.
Refer to adherents of the old position as extremists.
Never, ever give up or stop pushing.

Checks & Balances
Trailcam images from the Virginia Range. Darters don’t want you to see these.
05/01/17

07/06/17

Nowhere to Run
Documentary from 1976. Features interview with Velma Johnston.
Remarks about trust beginning at 14:46 are off the mark. The ‘problem’ with older horses is not how long before you can trust them but how long before they trust you.
Here is a rule of thumb: Age ÷ 2
If you adopt a four year old horse, allow at least 2 years to earn his trust. The other option is to force yourself on him and break his spirit.
Mustang Monday
On the Salt River.
Winter on the Range, Almost
VR band 12/02/17 (Mt. Rose in background, center).

Velma B. Johnston
This year marks the 40th anniversary of her passing. Photos taken 12/02/17 at Mountain View Cemetery in Reno.



Up for Adoption
New song by Richard Elloyan & Steve Wade. From the horse’s viewpoint. Not yet released but you can listen to it on the Mustang Matters radio show.
Download the podcast from 11-29-17 at ftp://shows.americamatters.us/Show/Mustang%20Matters and go to 12:10.
What is a Wild Horse Advocate?
In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor argued that management style was a product of the manager’s assumptions about his workers.
Suppose you visited a company and found a top-down authoritarian structure, with close supervision and heavy emphasis on external control (punishment and rewards), you might conclude that management believes their workers are lazy and irresponsible, have little ambition and dislike work.
If you went to a business and found fewer layers of management, larger spans of control, flexible work hours and a high degree of job satisfaction and self-control, you might conclude that management believes their workers are creative, loyal, seek responsibility and voluntarily strive to meet or exceed the goals set for them.
So now you come across an individual or group that practices or promotes the poisoning of water holes, fencing-off of pastures, aerial round-ups, bait-trapping or darting of mares.
What does that tell you about their underlying beliefs?
Another organization installs fences to keep horses away from busy highways, outbids the kill buyers at auctions, places rescued animals on sanctuaries, adopts horses gathered from public lands, provides water out on the range to help keep them away from populated areas.
Who’s the advocate?
Evening Playtime
Youngsters on the Virginia Range, 06/13/17.

Tampering with God’s Handiwork
BLM uses helicopters, she uses darts. Results are the same: Fewer horses on the range.
One hundred and forty six lives denied. Seems proud of it too.
How many of you would call the BLM ‘Advocates?’
Mustang Monday
On South Steens HMA.
The Mark of Authenticity
The BLM freeze mark says you’ve got the real deal.
This horse had a signalment key of HF1AAAAAM.
Male or female?
How many socks?
Buckskin or dun?
Link to BLM Freezemark & Signalment Key Decoder.

Horsemanship 101
Not a fan of their discipline but thought this was cute.
Meet the Horse, Meet the Owner
Bad horses are not born, they’re made. If this is what you have to do to stop a horse from being put down then do it.
It’s not the pasture.
He’s not in a class of his own.
It’s you.
If you were trying to teach your horse to pick up his feet or take a halter, would you put him in a round pen and run the crap out of him?
Dominance
Who’s high horse in your herd?
Does he have two legs or four?
