Dinner With Craig C. Downer

Animals' Angels Blog

Part One

Author of The Wild Horse Conspiracy

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“Craig C. Downer at Schell Creek Range Eastern Nevada”

This past September Author Craig C. Downer was in Las Vegas, Nevada to address the attendees at the International Equine Conference. The evening before the event, Brandi and Pennell of Animals’ Angels Inc. had the distinct pleasure of dining with him. A few days before I had asked Brandi to take along some questions to ask him because his work in the fields of ecology and wild horses, in fact, all equids, has been remarkable and a life-long study. Here’s what he had to say.

Anne: The Wild Horse Conspiracy is an intriguing title for your book and I’m looking forward to getting my own autographed copy to read. The back cover write-up reads beautifully and I think anyone with any environmental sense would immediately want to find out what you are talking about. Your viewpoint as an ecologist piques my inquisitive nature because like most people I want our planet to thrive. How long did it take you finally to compile your findings and present them to the public?

Craig: It took me four years to write and perfect The Wild Horse Conspiracy.  The book considers both wild horses and burros and is a well-rounded treatise on these magnificent presences here on Earth: Their evolution and history, ecology, a plan for their restoration called Reserve Design, personal experiences, update and higher thoughts.

Since this is a convoluted subject involving a war of values going on in human society, there are new developments every day. Though my book is an expose of the dishonesty and maliciousness that have subverted the Wild Horses and Burros program and the WFHBA’s true intent, it is above all a positive book that stresses why the horses and burros do belong and what can and shall be done to restore the herds by following the principles of Reserve Design.

“The Wild Horse Conspiracy”

It includes my personal account of experiences with many herds throughout the West and with all the various human actors, both pro- and anti-wild horse and burro. These could lend themselves well to a dramatic film; and this is something I would, indeed, like to do in the near future in order to get the message out on a worldwide scale and effect the kind of positive, dynamic changes that need to occur.

Anne: I see you are also a poet having written Streams of the Soul. I understand the reason your words flow so well. Can you recount your favorite poem here?

Craig: Thank you for your compliments on my poetic side. I also have a musical side, which is very much related to my poetic side, and offer a musical CD called Wild Horse Rhapsody. This contains about ¾ of an hour of my original melodies played by a gifted pianist. I also play the piano and my mother, Alice, was a fine pianist who helped me progress over the years. The CD can be ordered from me and is a collection of 13 medleys, each of which expresses a particular facet of wild horse life and is given a corresponding title. I have also written much poetry over the years, including – as with my music – on that most inspiring of subjects: the wild horses. Here I present one of my poems about the wild horses that are found in my book Streams of the Soul, together with photo illustrations of these wonderful animals. By the way, my photo-illustrated, 341-page book can be ordered either directly from me or by visiting here.  My wild horse book can be ordered at Amazon.  On pages 138-9 of my poetry book (photos also in my wild horse book) appears a picture of “El Espanto”, a Medicine Hat Stallion and his band and my 1995 poem:

“Feel the personality of this horse”

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