Wild Horses

  This is my first, albeit short, entry about wild horses.
  While I could really stand high on a soap box and shout for hours about what is going on and how detrimental it is that we all (you) do something to help, I am only going to take a second to tell you a little bit about my horses.
  You're not off the hook yet, I will undoubtedly get on the soap box, later, lol.
  My first experience with wild horses was a promise, from my father, to go and see the wild herds behind Garfield Mountain, near Grand Junction Colorado (we lived on the Western Slope at that time). Although lives got in the way of that promise, my fascination for the wild horse never wavered and was, in fact, fed by coincidences and passion along the way.
  We had almost always had horses, rode them, fed them, learned about them and what not to do, as well as what to do. Mostly, my parents did their best to keep me away from really understanding them, in hopes, or perhaps due to their lack of knowledge, that I would steer clear of horses.
  As I grew up, I realized that horses, literally as a whole, are completely gracious, intelligent, creative and ridiculously forgiving, among a million other positive traits. Unfortunately, the horses I had been exposed to were also, always, damaged. They all had that in common, they all had issues that needed to be trained, or to unscrupulous & ignorant idiots, beaten out of them.
  I had never learned a hard hand against animals, although it was there as immediate representation, but I did learn that the only equation within these damaged horses that was not of 'horse', was humans. Yep, we are all responsible for all the damage to those horses. It's not a point that I will ever waiver on, it is a fact.
  So, my journey with coincidences began, when it was time to get my own horse, as an adult, and learn the hard way that humans really (@#*$& us up when it comes to having a positive experience with a horse.
My first purchased horse literally tried to kill me,to no fault of his own, it was due to his 'trainer' and my lack of knowledge. Yeah, it was fun, and I lost several hundred on both him and training for him. I quickly learned that all the best intentions in the world will get you just as far as you were before. Learning and educating myself became priority and after many trainers, many wannabes, and several good points from all of them, I taught myself natural horsemanship (for lack of a better term).
  The idiots were removed from my life, now I had to figure out how to acquire the rest of this dreamlike partnership, with a horse, that I desired with every fiber of my being.... You guessed it, I decided to find a wild horse; no humans would have screwed them up yet, right?!
  This road, as almost all of them I take, began with educating myself, first. As per our lovely and ridiculously overabundant government regulations, I couldn't just go get one, as claimed by many wild horse wannabe trainers- I had to go through the BLM.
  The most poignant day and experiences, in my whole life to date (which has been pretty exciting) were about to unfold.
More, in my next posting.
Happy Trails.