Phantom Stallion E-Newsletter August 2010
Happy August!
MAKE THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER COUNT by showing your HEARTS FOR HORSES!
Do you realize how important YOU are to the survival of wild horses? Other people do and they've asked PHANTOM STALLION readers to gallop to the rescue of mustangs before they're gone!
To: You
From: The Animal Welfare Institute
Save the Wild Horses Coloring Page
DO SOMETHING WILD THIS SUMMER—SAVE THE WILD HORSES!!
This is no cool magic trick: All those beautiful wild horses you see racing across the western plains are rapidly disappearing! Bad decisions by people, not magic wands, are the problem. The horses need your help to survive!
You can send a message to Washington, D.C. that the horses should be respected and protected. Print out 2 copies of the drawing above (click on the image for full size drawing), color them in however you want, sign your name, and mail one to each of your U.S. Senators in Washington, D.C. They need to hear from you right away! You can even write your own message about the need to protect these national treasures on the back if you wish.
Then, SUPER-DECORATE the envelope with wild horse drawings, stickers, glitter — anything that will catch the eyes of your legislators! They won't be able to resist reading what you have to say.
Once you have mailed the drawings to your U.S. Senators, print out some more or share this page with your friends, classmates, and family so they can help as well.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Print out and color in 2 copies of the picture above (click on the image for full size drawing).
- Visit www.compassionindex.org to find the names and addresses of your U.S. Senators (each state has 2).
- Sign your drawings, put them in stamped, addressed envelopes and drop them in the mail.
- Print out some more copies of this drawing and share it with friends, classmates and family and ask them to send their own drawing in support of America's wild horses.
But that's not all!
To: You
From: Madeleine Pickens
It's time for the PONY EXPRESS!!!
Madeleine will personally hand deliver each and every letter that you write, via the Pony Express (one of our beautiful mustangs), to Washington DC. !
And THEN write a letter and SUPER-DECORATE the envelope with wild horse drawings, stickers, glitter, so that they will STAND OUT when Mrs. Pickens' delivers them! Yippee!
Once you've written your letter and put it inside your super-decorated envelope, mail it to:
Saving America's Mustangs-Pony Express
2683 Via Del La Valle, G. 313
Del Mar, CA 92014
To read more about Hearts for Horses:
http://www.phantomstallion.com/hearts_for_horses.shtml
http://www.blendradioandtv.com/Wildhorses/Hearts-for-Horses.htm
NOT SURE WHAT TO SAY in your letter? Feel free to use any of Terri Farley's blog entries, quotes from her books or just share what's in your heart.
Here's Terri's published letter to Robert Abbey, director of the BLM :
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Terri Farley August 1, 2010 The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans to clear the West of 6,000 wild horses between July 1 and Sept. 30. How many will be left? BLM's figures vary, and when those who speak up for the horses ask for the science, they're brushed aside as the equine equivalent of crazy cat ladies. Ten years ago, I was writing for Nevada magazine, researching my books and observing BLM roundups. Gather days started at Bruno's café in Gerlach. Before dawn, I drank coffee with BLM staffers, then rode with them to the gather site. Helicopters drove the horses into the corrals. They fought the confinement but were rested before being trucked to pens in Palomino Valley. Not anymore. In January 2010, BLM stampeded Calico Mountain herds onto a private ranch, where the public was locked out except on designated observation days. On Jan. 16, we met at Bruno's again, but my nostalgia vanished when I saw the guns. Most BLM staff were armed. The gather was on fast forward. Two helicopters, not one, chased panicked horses. Horses were sorted by gender. Stallions fought. Mares screamed for foals that clustered together as their mothers were taken away. BLM's daily updates show the contractor's concern for speed, not safety. The hooves of two foals separated from their legs. Adult horses suffered broken necks, skulls and pelvic bones. BLM says 109 mustangs died and 40 wild mares suffered miscarriages -- from pre-existing conditions. This summer's roundup hasn't made the BLM look very good. The agency reported no endangered horses on the range before the roundup, but scores died afterward. The roundup was halted until the BLM's Alan Shepherd insisted most of the remaining horses would die if they weren't gathered immediately. Judge Larry Hicks believed him. The roundup could go on if humane observers were allowed. When they showed up, the roundup had been moved to private land, and they were threatened with arrest. BLM reports describe a palomino: "bleeding from the mouth ... disoriented and unaware of his surroundings. ... He apparently had sustained a serious head injury and possible jaw fracture during the night ..." Supposedly, the young stallion wasn't run to death; he just woke up mortally injured. That's why we need a moratorium on wild horse roundups until the BLM clears its name through an independent evaluation. While we're waiting for results, make plans to let the horses earn their own ways. Consider eco-tourism plans, like those proposed by Soldier Meadows Ranch and Madeleine Pickens. Partner the BLM with the first lady's Let's Move Outside program, letting city kids appreciate wild animals. Introduce middle-schoolers already using terms like "compensatory reproduction" in discussion of BLM's herd management to Sally Ride's science program. These are cheaper, win-win solutions. Our land, our children, our wallets and wild horses will benefit. Terri Farley has a secondary teaching credential, 36 best-selling books and two Calico Mountain mares. |
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August 10th prize!
In book 3 of the PHANTOM STALLION series, Dark Sunshine has had a "job" that broke her heart over and over again. What was Dark Sunshine's job called?
The first reader to email the answer to this question to farleyterri@aol.com before midnight August 10th, 2010 wins an autographed copy of DARK SUNSHINE. Please put DARK SUNSHINE in the subject line. Terri will contact you if you win.
This just in . . .
When the Bureau of Land Management decreed a round up of these horses, I joined a lawsuit to stop them. When that failed, I witnessed the deadly winter helicopter round-ups and captivity which has led to over a hundred deaths.
Ghost Dancer and Shell Flower suffered facial and leg injuries, but survived to become friends. When BLM started clearing the corrals of Calico Mountain horses, these mares were placed on an Internet auction site.
The adobe and white mare is a Medicine Hat pinto. Her markings would have made her sacred to some Native American tribes. The Ghost Dance was a rite of rebirth.
Shell Flower, the black and white mustang, bears a translation of the birth name of Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute woman responsible for negotiating peace between two worlds.
I wanted to adopt them both, but things didn't go exactly as I'd planned.
In my dream, I was a wild West post mistress with a bun in my hair and long skirts. I was working in an old post office, putting letters into the little boxes that might be called pigeon holes.
It was raining outside and my back was to the door when I heard my horse (I didn't drive a car to work!) moving around outside and snorting like he saw something worrisome.
Where is Terri Farley?
August 21, 2010
Book signing
Wild Horse Sanctuary (home of the real Phantom)
Shingletown, California
for photos & more information : http://www.wildhorsesanctuary.org/events.html
September 26, 2010
Presentation & Book Signing
Fairytale Town Children's Book Festival
S3901 Land Park Drive
Sacramento, CA
(directly across from the Sacramento Zoo)
Fairytale Town celebrates literacy
March 3-5, 2011
Young Writers Conference
Boise, Idaho!
Buy Phantom Stallion
Terri's books are available for KINDLE!
Phantom Stallion books are available
at your local bookstore and online at
Amazon.com,
Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound.org
