Terri Farley

Sunday, March 31, 2013

On Easter Morning




	Easter Morning by Jim Harrison On Easter morning all over America the peasants are frying potatoes in bacon grease. We're not supposed to have "peasants" but there are tens of millions of them frying potatoes on Easter morning, cheap and delicious with catsup. If Jesus were here this morning he might be eating fried potatoes with my friend who has a '51 Dodge and a '72 Pontiac. When his kids ask why they don't have a new car he says, "these cars were new once and now they are experienced." He can fix anything and when rich folks call to get a toilet repaired he pauses extra hours so that they can further learn what we're made of. I told him that in Mexico the poor say that when there's lightning the rich think that God is taking their picture. He laughed. Like peasants everywhere in the history of the world ours can't figure out why they're getting poorer. Their sons join the army to get work being shot at. Your ideals are invisible clouds so try not to suffocate the poor, the peasants, with your sympathies. They know that you're staring at them.

Labels: On Easter Morning, poetry

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

What's an Ag-Gag Law?

Mad cow disease. Do those words bring video footage of sick and staggering cattle to mind?

Or maybe you can’t stand to think about it.

When AG-GAG bills pass, you won’t have to -- until you’ve bitten into a tainted burger. Then, brain damage is on the way.

2013 is the year of Ag-gag laws which ban photographing or videotaping farms without the farmers' consent.
Most bills make it a CLASS ONE FELONY, even if images show criminal behavior that violates food safety laws.

Ag-gag legislation has cropped up in: Iowa, Florida, New York, Minnesota, Indiana Utah ,Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Wyoming.
I may have missed a state or two, but I know that this month California joined the list.

When CBS "60 Minutes" partnered with U.S. Dept of Ag in to document food safety violations on chicken farms, they discovered an "eight-foot-high vat of water ..where as many as 10,000 chicken carcasses were...left to soak up moisture to increase their selling weight. Dried blood, feces, and hair” floated around the dead birds. Diane Sawyer later called it 'fecal soup.'"

Under Ag Gag laws, journalists or concerned employees would be jailed for revealing what happened before those chickens were sealed under plastic at your grocery store. Some bills are so stringent that Dept of Ag inspectors could be prosecuted for not announcing their presence before taking photographs.

Just a heads-up, for people who eat.

Labels: Ag Gag laws, chicken farms, food safety, mad cow

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Friday, March 29, 2013

MUSTANG STALLION


This guy I call Rowdy, he's a Roan stallion an has a total of ten in his band, not counting him. On the 23rd and 24th of February there were two new additions to his band, a little filly was born first, then a colt. This band has been such a challenge to keep in the Highlands where they belong, but it seems to be working, and my payoff would be to watch these incredible creatures come into to this world and grow into such a magnificent and strong looking Icon of the West as Rowdy does. Thank you for everything you do, and I am glad my photos can bring so many a small piece of enjoyment. Sincerely Bo Rodriguez

Labels: Bo Rodriguez photo, mustang, Rowdy, Virginia Range wild horses

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Wild Baby Mystery and Rescue

Dear Readers,

We don't know what happened to this little mustang's mama. We do know that another mare claimed him and guarded him very jealously. She could not give him the milk he needed, but he was only 2 days old and didn't understand. So, whenever he tried to nurse, she kicked and bit him and even knocked him down. When human helpers finally realized what was going on, the mare charged them!

Finally the baby was saved, and given COLOSTRUM, the first milk mammals give their young.

Seven out of eight foals who don't get it develop serious infections.

Then, Palomino Armstrong -- rescuer of Chilly Pepper, HoneyBandit and more! -- was called and she and her husband Matt drove to pick up the baby they named Collins after a donor who helped make such expensive rescues possible

Collins dozing in the truck on the way to his new home

Collins in the foal room

Palomino's teenage son Travis, welcomes Collins

Collins 1 week birthday portrait! By now he has passed 3 major hurdles as an orphan foal. The first 24 hours, then the 72 hour mark, and then 1 week. Woohooo. He is still having a few tummy issues but seems to be feeling awesome.


Collins says, "Hello doggy!"

click here to see Baby Collins Playtime video

                                                                       ************

Click here to     Help the Babies

from Palomino: We can really use stuff like Vaseline, paper towels, disposable gloves, and as always food. We are also trying to make sure we have enough funds to have colostrum on hand and all the emergency supplies that we need to get a help a newborn foal. Without the colostrum on hand, we can't even begin care, as that has to be the absolute first thing we give them.

Or mail checks to CHILLY PEPPER - MIRACLE MUSTANG, 34694 Sidebottom Road, Shingletown, CA 96088.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A Nagging Question

Dear Readers,
When you love horses, you get a little sensitive on their behalf. At least, I do.
The first time I remember the feeling was when my grandfather told me to go catch a horse by putting a rope over his "loco caballo head." I heard lococaballahead as a single word and couldn't puzzle out the Spanish-Texas fusion. But I knew it sounded derogatory and I took offense for the horse.
To Grandpa, it meant crazy horse (that albino colt sorta qualified), but I didn't like the way he said it.

UNTIL YESTERDAY,

I had that feeling about the word "nag," thinking it was a double slam.

When you say "Don't nag me to take out the garbage," that nag has NO connection to horses. Mice, maybe, but not horses.

And the other kind of Nag isn't so bad. In fact, it's kind of ' fascinating, if you're a word geek as well as a horse geek.




nag (v): "annoy by scolding," 1828, originally a dialectal word meaning "to gnaw" (1825)

nag (n): "old horse" c.1400, originally a small riding horse of unknown origin, perhaps meant to imitate neigh

So there.

Labels: horses, language, nag, Texas, wordcraft

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

HEADS UP!


photo by Bo Rodriguez

Friends of wild horses:
Please keep your eyes open-- today or tomorrow -- for a link to my newest newsletter. It features a survey about WILD HORSE TOURISM. Public input (from all states & countries) will be passed on to members of Western governments.
Please don't let our mustangs become only a bittersweet memory!
Thanks,
Terri

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Monday, March 11, 2013

Hearts Wide Open: Patches & Palomino

It takes a special heart to love and let go.

Palomino Armstrong, rescuer of all things 4-footed, has allowed her pinto mini-horse, to leave for a new home.

Patches has been a love-and-therapy helper to both people and animals, even teaching
mustang orphans -- like Honey Bandit, below -- how to be a horse, when he was without his "real" family.

Now, Patches will share his affection with scads of foster children.

"I can only imagine the heartbreak they go through," Palomino said of the parents who welcome kids into their lives, "I am broken-hearted every timed we place one of the foals that we help, and they are all going to wonderful homes. "

Patches has no misgivings about his new life. After a "last minute mani/pedi," the plucky pinto walked up a ramp into the back of an SUV, happy and relaxed to begin his next adventure.

Happy trails,
Terri

Labels: foster children, Honeybandit, Palomino, Patches, therapy horse

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Monday, March 04, 2013

BLM Chief's Disconnect with Reality

Utah mustangs rounded up in the dead of winter, the "Swasey gather"

When: Today
Who: Joan Guilfoyle, chief of the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Division
Where: BLM's Wild Horse Advisory board met in Oklahoma City
What: "corrected" public perceptions of BLM's mustang management.
Why should you care? Some of Guilfoyle's comments, see below, show a disconnect from what really happens on the range. Instead, she believes what she sees in in BLM publicity photos.
Read Guilfoyle's comment, and then watch Anatomy of a Roundup a short documentary on the Swasey round-up by Ginger Kathrens, protector of the wild stallion CLOUD.

BLM's Joan Guilfoyle

"Finally I'll say the Wild Horse and Burro people I work with and encounter, they love the animals too. And they do their best to take good care of them. I have seen this over and over but you have to remember they're a wild animal and when they come in off the range, they're a wild animal and they're frightened and just alarmed and uncertain and we do our best if we have to gather them for any of those purposes, we do our best to calm the fears and I guess if any of you looked at the gather reports from the Swasey gather, which is the last one we did in Utah, you will see the footage that these animals were brought in trotting calmly, there were no incidents, that is our model. I will say too if you'd been here this morning, you would have heard that soon you can go to our Web site an pull off all the public domain footage, B roll stock footage, et cetera so you can see some of this for yourselves."

See, listen and feel for yourselves what it was really like at the Swasey round-up.

Anatomy of a Roundup

Labels: BLM, Cloud, Ginger Kathrens, Joan Guilfoyle, Oklahoma City, Wild Horse Advisory board

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Sunday, March 03, 2013

Get BREAKING NEWS on Wild Horses

	Don't decide the media is not giving WILD HORSES enough coverage,until you do your research.
			HOW TO SET UP A GOOGLE ALERT ON WILD HORSE NEWS It can be crazy keeping up with wild horse news, but I do it with a great but under-used feature of Google called an "Alert." I get daily email from it about wild horses and it's totally free. To set up a Google Alert: Go to Google alerts , fill out the form, and click the "Create Alert" button. The form asks some questions: Search Query: Here's where you type in WILD HORSES Type – I set my alerts for all types of alerts – news, blogs, books, etc. How often – Once per day is enough for most people Volume – This isn't loudness; it means how many responses you want to see. I choose "Only the best results," otherwise you often get the same story over and over again. When you get your Google Alerts they'll look something like this: You click on a headline, go read the story and if there's a place to comment, do it. THIS IS ALL ABOUT PEER PRESSURE. Your opinion influences other people. They won't know if you're 11 years old or 87 years old. They won't know if you're a student or a veterinarian – unless you think those facts are important to mention. I call my two kinds of comments: Nicker or a Neigh A nicker is just a short response. I might say "wild horses deserve freedom and the land they're given by law" or "wild horses belong to all Americans and shouldn't go to slaughter" or " a wild horse sanctuary is a good idea, but shouldn't be all geldings". In a neigh we speak for the horses and act as their protectors. Here's the easy format my friend Suzanne Morgan Williams taught me: a) Describe your personal connection to the issue in 2 -3 sentences b) Give 3 facts about the issue – 1 – 3 sentences c) Tell your reader what action you want him/her to take – 1 sentence That's it! In 3 – 6 sentences, you will have explained why you want to share the world with wild horses. Save your NEIGH as a document and you can use it over again, as sort of a letter-in-waiting. Here's one of mine as an example: As the author of the PHANTOM STALLION book series about Nevada's wild horses, I've spent much of my adulthood in the West's wild places. I hear from readers around the world who see the mustangs as the majority of Americans do: wild horses are a treasure far greater than the minerals underground. The BLM has sided with big business and big politics, against the American people. Costly helicopter round-ups cause the death and dislocation of wild horses and greed rules the range. It's up to you to stop the round-ups, before the thunder of wild hooves is silenced forever. Take my NEIGH apart and you'll see I showed my connection to the horses as an author, and someone who treasures them. Next, I gave facts: the round-ups are expensive, they are done with helicopters and most Americans want the horses to stay free. Last, I said the round-ups must stop or the mustangs will be disappear forever. Feel free to borrow from my NEIGH – all except the part where you say you're me.

Labels: Google alerts, wild horses

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Look for the Helpers

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me,

'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who
are helping.'

To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers. "

--Mister Rogers

Labels: look for the helpers, Mister rogers

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Saturday, March 02, 2013

Horse Poem for the Citizens of Oklahoma

A plea (used with her permission) from Rebecca Gilbert, one of my wonderful readers and a talented, perceptive writer

HERE I AM

Here I am.
I was your partner, I thought I was your friend even.
I guess I was wrong.
I helped you, loved you, trusted you, did my best for you.
Look at me now. Can you look me in the eye?

Here I am.
I'm afraid, in pain, alone.
Was it because of me or you?
I gave my all for you.
I'm sorry I got old. I didn't mean to stumble.
I don't want to blame you; I want to love you.

Here I am.
I need you.
I'm terrified. Many are with me, but really we're all alone.
We want to trust, love, live again.
I don't want to be alone.
I don't want to die.

Here I am.
Sold for meat. Sentenced to death.
Thousands of us.
Was it worth it?
Didn't you ever love me?
Am I nothing more than a cast-off toy to you?

Here I am.
Won't you save me?
Save me. Is that so hard to do?
I want to live.
Thousands like me want to be loved.
Save us.
Please.

Hear we are.
Scared.
Unloved.
Alone.
Starved.
Dying.
Hear my dying breath.
I still love you.
Here I am.

-BorrowedWingsOfPegasus

A note from Rebecca: So this is my poem. I don't know if you'll like it or not, but I think it's a way that some may see what a loving family horse sent to the slaughter may feel.
Hearing the Phantoms hoof beats,
Rebecca G., penname BorrowedWingsOfPegasus

Labels: horse slaughter, Oklahoma, poem, Rebecca Gilbert

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