Still There Are Horses
A 30-day fundraiser for Return To Freedom
October 2nd - October 31st
Horses, wild and domestic
Still There Are Horses was not originally written as an advocacy song for wild horses. It is a song about hope, fueled by the freedom found in love, and finding the way home. In fact, it was written during the depths of the winter blues, when I was psyching myself into imagining some future time and place where I felt whole again—that stage in the journey where the hero has a long way to go, but still believes that they will make it home, or arrive inside the dream of wholeness. To me, horses represent the untamed wildness that’s necessary to keep hope alive. So when I heard the latest news about the roundups and culling and loopholes for slaughter, I thought that maybe this little song could do some good.
I never became a “horse girl,” exactly, but I continued working with animals for the next four years, handling goats and sheep and giving pony rides. I loved the smell of a hay barn and horse oats, the nuzzle of a velvet muzzle—I still do. I suppose it was inevitable that they’d later find their way into a song or two.
When I was 11 years old, I decided I was going to get a job, so I flipped through the Yellow Pages (yes, I am that old) and called a nearby horse stable, where I went to work picking pens, watering and brushing horses, and sweeping the barn in exchange for basic Western riding lessons. Ginger was my girl, and she was feisty, but I think that’s because she was smart. She certainly had some wild in her.
I am no expert in the decades-long controversy surrounding wild horses—I have but a mere BS in field biology, so I understand the need for land management. But I am here to take a stance and say: yes, the land needs management, and the horses need management to protect the land, but culling, sale for slaughter, and castration are not the answer. Return to Freedom is doing amazing work to show that there are alternative ways to successfully manage wild horses, keep them in their family bands, and protect the land they graze on. We put up blocks and make room for hundreds of millions of acres for cattle to graze, then turn the focus on the horses--many of whom are sold and shipped to slaughter houses via loopholes in our system. Return to Freedom working to educate, advocate, conserve and provide sanctuary to wild horses, and I want to use my voice to support that work.
So, this is a song about hope. I believe that hope is something that, as a society, we definitely need right now. The work that Return to Freedom does in sanctuary is important work for the protection of the future of the American wild horse, and it’s work I want to support. I hope you will too.
