It Is Our Children Of Today That Will Be Leading Our Horses Of Tomorrow
Atticus the Wild Stallion of Deadman Valley, British Columbia, Canadawas handed over to Theresa Nolet, an associate with CritterAid from the Interior of our province. When you watch the footage of Atticus being led into the trailer to leave the Kamloops stockyard, it is difficult to imagine that this is a wild stallion from the scrubland of Deadman's Valley. In fact, we were in awe of the ease of not handling this horse. When that trailer door closed and the truck pulled away, the tears came. They came because Atticus is a horse that so deserved to be saved from slaughter. You will understand the strong sense of morality and justice that comes with the name Atticus if you've read the book, or seen the film, "To Kill A Mockingbird". We call him "Atticus", as a fitting start to the rescue of these horses from slaughter.
Does Atticus have any idea of what his fate would have been had Critteraid not intervened on his behalf and on behalf of the other horses? Some people say that once a horse gets to the stockyard for auction, they know - they sense the impending doom. Like human beings, some may clutch on to hope. As volunteers with Critteraid's Project Equus, we can only speculate and retreat from the possibilities that might have been and quickly erase those thoughts from our heads as we concentrate on "what is".
Critteraid and Project Equus are providing a second chance to this rescued mare. She gave birth to her foal on May 5th. The pretty baby is only only 4 hours old in this video. Several beautiful horses were abandoned and left to die. Thank you to Honourable Steve Thomson Minister of Natural Resource Operations, Province of BC, who allowed the horses to be rescued, instead of turned over to auction for slaughter.
It is with this story I was inspired to create the subject of study for the VFTH Writing Competition for Children on ~ Wild Horses! To date it has been almost overwhelming in the research I have done so far; just when I think I might know even the most minute amount of statistics and the depth of what is happening in our world of wild horses in the U.S.A. and in Canada, I am yet shown another side depicting even more of a need to have this subject brought out into the world where many are still unaware. I was originally given the contact to Saving Amerca's Mustang's and when I shared with this organization my intention of hosting this writing competition, Madeleine Picken's got back to me and was excited to hear more. I invite you to read my Letter To Madeleine she is a wonderful inspiration to many I am sure! What I am experiencing in this learning curve right now appears to be endless in my eyes, but I know in my heart that this is something that I really want to do. I don't have all the answers and am young in my studies here also, but it is my hope through all that our children will write and share with us as to their perspectives of what I am presenting throughout the pages of this Children's Writing Competition, my learning will be expedited!
To The Parents, Guardians, Schools and ALL others with a vested interest in this writing competition: Please take the time to review the content on this web site; it has everything to do with preserving our heritage, our land, our children foremost and OUR future's ... we urge you to take the time to review the information presented, you will have no regrets in doing so!
For parents that are reviewing the pages of the writing competition to authorize and sign off on our Waiver for your children to be involved, please note that some of the web sites link to other sites may be unappropriate for young children due to the nature of the subject. We do recommend that the children stay within the pages of the competition, in particular the 12 and under category. Good luck to you all and for the parents signing off for their children to particpate, we thank you for supporting our vision and goal of preserving the wild mustang herds that are today running free and for those held in small holding facilities, that they may return home soon to where they belong.
VFTH is seeking Sponsorship's up until Sept 30, 2011 for kids that will be participating. What is of special interest to us is educational sponsorships for children in the field of equine and environment. We encourage more education all around when it comes to our land, heritage and environment which our wild horse's of today and forever more, are deserving of. Of course all other appropriate sponsorship gifts are accepted!
Please note that the menu links for the writing competition are at the top of this page. If you navigate to a page that has no menu links at the top (you will come across some that do not) please press the "back key" on the screen to return to previous page. If all else fails return to the homepage of the VFTH web site and click on the image below of VFTH Mascot's Angel and Mischief or the menu on the left hand side at the top.
The Red, White andBlue represents VFTH in sharing our respect to our perspective countries, Canada and the U.S.A. Welcome !!
“Celebrating horses in our lives for their past, present
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