Photo by Irene Vejar
Dear Friends,
Freedom and his mares nose around on the hillside. Other horses roll in the dust, then shake. Some of the older horses, like 32-year-old Sutter, doze in the sun’s warmth, manes barely moving in the breeze.
It’s spring at RTF’s American Wild Horse Sanctuary. Recent storms turned the surrounding Jalama Valley an iridescent green.
Right here, right now, life feels good.
There will be challenges ahead, for certain.
The rains weren’t enough to lift California’s Central Coast out of an ongoing drought, and there’s little more in the forecast. That may mean supplementing our water by summer’s end, along with feed.
And though wild horse advocates scored a win in the federal government’s 2018 spending bill, the administration’s 2019 proposal recycles the same inhumane proposals as last year. It will take another team effort to turn them away.
The tour season will arrive soon, too, and, with it, the much happier task of introducing new visitors, young and old, to wild horses and burros.
For now, though, it’s calm and quiet.
Whether you celebrate Easter or another holiday or no holiday at all, we hope that you’re enjoying a wonderful weekend, that you’re able to spend time with your own family band of loved ones, and that you find your own pool of sunlight in which to bask.
Sincerely,