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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Happy Birthday Cloud, For What It’s Worth

Straight from the Horse's Heart

(In My Humble Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director of HfH Advisory Council

An Open Letter to Cloud, the Wild Stallion of the Rockies

Photo by Terry Fitch
Happy Birthday Cloud;
On behalf of  all self-actualized and compassionate human beings I would like to extend to you a most heartfelt congratulations, this day, on the advent of your sixteenth year of accompanying us on this voyage across time and space upon the spaceship we call Earth.
Sixteen years ago a wonderful cinematographer and her friend witnessed you entering this world.  At that time you probably had no idea of the mantle of responsibility and notoriety that you would bear upon your withers and soul.  As a young palomino, born wild amongst some of the most wondrous grandeur known on earth, you didn’t have a clue as to your destiny or the part you would play in the trivial game of human ego, greed and cruelty.  And if I had my way, you still would not know.
But like so many of your brethren you were not spared the cruelty of the perverted, special interests of human greed as you were harassed, terrorized, rounded up, imprisoned and ultimately released, unlike tens of thousands of others, to live out your hard life wild but all knowing of what ferments just behind the façade of those who walk on two legs; you know.
You are now the most hated and despised wild horse known to the U.S. Federal Government, specifically the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  When Ginger Kathrens began to document your life amongst the Pryor Mountains she, unknowingly, gave the plight of American wild horse a story, a face, a name…yours…and with that, there is now a bull’s-eye upon your head, along with that of your benefactor, Ms. Kathrens.
The BLM has foolishly made you a tool of punishment and manipulation as they have inhumanely chased, captured and terrorized you and your family.  If this special interest funded federal agency could make you go away tonight there would be a bullet between your eyes and politically they would do the same to Ginger Kathrens.
You represent all that is good with the American spirit, the sense of freedom and wholesomeness that we once rallied around, but now you are an obstacle and a nuisance that is in the way of the high paying special interests that seek to rape the Pryor’s of their natural resources and line the pockets of the criminals that hold bogus leadership positions within our government and for this, I apologize.
This is not so much a message of cheer but one of apology for the wrongs that have been committed against you and your brethren across the vast expanse of the benevolent horse nation.  On behalf of those who care, we are sorry.
We are sorry for the slaughter, the deaths, the injuries, the broken families, the lies, the deceit, the false promises and most of all, I apologize for being human.  If I had a way or the power to stand beside you as a stallion that honestly loved, cared and protected his family, I would be there.  But my curse pains me to the bone; I am one of them…a liar, a cheat and one who does not speak from the heart.  I am human and for that, I am sorry.
Cloud; you have made a mark that even a bullet and the BLM cannot erase; you are the voice, leader and inspiration for the salvation of our disappearing national icon, the American Wild Horse.  I thank you for what you are, who you are and where you have brought us as if it were not for you and the pain we witnessed you suffer at the hands of Obama’s BLM we would not be in this fight.  Thank you for opening our eyes, thank you for being all that we cannot be and thank you for being alive.
Happy Birthday Cloud, you have changed our lives in more ways than you could ever imagine and you are the engine that drives our advocacy.  Never become a martyr but instead continue to be the most powerful driving force in the animal kingdom focusing the spotlight upon humankind’s most despicable and inhumane behavior; the twisted and corrupt actions of the BLM.
Be strong, Cloud, and above all…be safe.
Happy Birthday!

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