Monday, June 30, 2008

What a wonderful day

Dear Readers,
Today I ate fresh pineapple, outside, for breakfast.
I watched my first polo game and loved it and I just gently relocated a teeny tiny gecko that was watching my laptop screen from his perch atop my bare shoulder.
Tomorrow I leave Hawaii for home.
With research, book sigings and workshop teaching behind me, it's time to write the next book!
I'm recharged and ready,
Terri

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Roughing it -- with horses!

Dear Readers,
Check out the new additions to my photo album.
http://phantomstallion.com/photo_album.shtml

Wish you'd been there!
Terri

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

Hold a Wild Horse in Your Hand -- and Hope

Dear Readers,
Each time you see a quarter this summer, check to see if it shows Nevada's wild horses. Soon, that might be the last place you'll see them.
Those of you who've read my books know I haven't been very critical of BLM in the past. I believe the agency employees some good people doing their best for the horses. Sadly, that's not enough.
Talk of ending the adoption program, of "zeroing out" wild horse herd management areas, and slaughter in Mexico and Canada is more than rumor.
Right now, BLM is proposing to round up wild horses in the McCullough Peaks area of Wyoming In an area with 200 wild horse, they have proposed removing 100.
In Nevada, plans are underway to helicopter herd 1700 mustangs off their home range and into pens.
In this news clip, you can see the capture of Oregon's wild horses.
http://www.king5.com/video/eveningmagazine-index.html?nvid=253866
As you watch it, listen and you'll hear a wrangler say "there's an adopter for every horse."
That's just not true. In fact, this week BLM asked people to apply to use their lands for new long term holding pasture facilities located anywhere in the continental United States.
BLM is spending millions on helicopter herding, gas for big horse trailers and paying citizens to to provide homes for up to 2,500 horses each.
And there still hasn't been a reliable count of how many horses still exist.
In the Old West, people traveling on trains shot buffalo because their wooly brown herds seemed endless. In a short time, the buffalo and the Native Americans depending on them were on the brink of extinction.
Likewise, it doesn't make sense to capture thousands of wild horses because it SEEMS there are lots of them. We know how to count wildlife ; why aren't we doing it?
I'm collecting those wild horse quarters and saving them...
Terri

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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Come see me!

Dear Readers,
I'll be running around a lot this summer. If you're going to be able to come visit with me, please email me and let me know at farleyterri@aol.com!

JUNE


Behind the Barn Door:
Secrets of a Writer Teacher
Children's Literature Conference
June 27
Oahu, HI

Borders Book Signing
98-1025 Moanalua Rd. Aiea
June 28
12:00 - 2:00 pm

and on the same day...

Bookends
600 Kailua Rd. Kailua
3:00 - 4:00 pm

JULY

Cheyenne Frontier Days
Barnes & Noble
1851 Dell Range Blvd.
307-632-1164
July 19
1:00 - 4:00 pm

Barnes & Noble
5835 Sky Pond Drive
Loveland, CO
970-663-9503
July 20

AUGUST

Wild Horse Sanctuary open house
Shingletown, CA
August 16

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

SHACKLEFORD EXPEDITION

Who: 5 Earthwatch volunteers (women 19 - 58), 2 college interns, 1 24-year-old Ph d. candidate working on research for her degree in animal behavior, 1 ranger with a specialization in all things equine

What: researching the behavior of the wild horses

When: May 28 - June 11, 2008

Where: an uninhabited island, part of Cape Lookout National Seashore

Why: to help determine if population controls interfering with the natural social groups of wild horses on an uninhabited barrier island?

How: every day we hiked the sand dunes and beaches of the island, watching for harems and bachelor bands of 2 - 10 wild horses. Each time we spotted one, we identified the horses through binoculars and up-close observation, then watched them for 45 minutes, documenting exactly what each horse was doing (grazing, digging for water, nursing new foals, fighting, dozing in the shade...) every three minutes.

I'll get more photos to you soon, but right now, if you'd like a glimpse of where I was, watching wild horses, take a peek here :
http://www.shacklefordhorses.org/default.htm
The photos haven't been updated recently, but it's very cool for me to see horses like

Paula
Bo
Hardee
Julius
Lennon
Dusty and the amazing black stallion Dionysus as younger horses.

Are these equines ponies or horses? It's an often-asked question. To me, they looked like horses which had adapted to their small island environment, becoming smaller over the generations. Many of them are 14 hands high. And how did they get there?
More about that later!
Terri

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The REAL Wild Horse Island!

Dear Readers,
I'll be writing longer blogs on this later, but here's a start --

Fireflies in the rain
Falling in love with one hundred wild horses
First ever tick bite
Almost stepping on a copperhead snake
Fitness level tested by hiking,climbing,crab-stepping up dunes covered with sea oats
Feeling prickly pears with many body parts
Focusing on Shackleford's wild horses & learning more than I thought possible
Seeing stallion fight that took my breath away
Finding out there's a world of alpha and beta herd stallions
Imagining more book ideas than I have life left to write
Ghost crabs, fiddler crabs, miles of beautiful shell-covered beaches
Meeting amazing, SMART, funny people who love horses as much as I do
Thunder and lightning storms
Heat index of 105 degrees for days

More later...
Terru

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