Final Post

Final Post

Whoa.... The last blog post is here! School is finally over! Over I tell you! 

Yet with this jubilant and joyous feeling comes a bittersweet one, as this project was a pretty good experience for me and I will miss it. I'm not sure if I will continue my blog, but I will carry on with talking about the subject I made it on in the first place: wild horses and the problems they face. I also hope to create a lot more drawings that will not only develop my own skills as an artist but will help some horses through donations to organizations. 

So many rhymes.

Although I didn't reach my initial goal in regards to the quantity of drawings I created, I am happy with the few that I did get to making. And I think that this has helped me to draw even more than I used to, and to get around to actually finishing more of my drawings. So that's good. I also used to draw horses all the time, but before this project I gradually stopped as I ventured into drawing other things. So I think that this has helped me to rediscover how much I love to draw horses.

Also, I've always liked writing in general, but this project has helped me to realize even more how much I enjoy it. I've tried to start journals and have even written the beginning of a few short stories here and there, but I've never really finished anything (notice a pattern here yet?). And because this blog is technically homework, I was kind of forced to actually finish my posts *gasp*. So because of this, and the fact that I (for the most part) enjoyed writing the posts and felt good about the them after I finished them, I am going to try harder to start a journal (or something) and fill it up this time. 

.....Especially with summer here.....

Dancing gif again? Yes? No?

Yes!

Anyways, I have also learned a few things, such as:

1) Its okay to not reach your goal, as long as you did your best.

2) Its best to bail off a horse when it decides to buck.

3) Speaking of buck, Buck Brannaman is awesome.

Pausing the list...

I didn't talk about going to his clinic at all, but we did go and I learned a lot. Here's a picture:

Shout out to the Belize dude, btw.

And resuming..

4) Googling dancing gifs is very, very entertaining.

5) Its not completely horrible to talk to people on the internet and put yourself out there a bit.

6) Cramming to finish blog posts, and homework in general, is not good.

7) It is good, however, to make yourself do things that you enjoy (for example, drawing) but feel like you can't do because of all the impending due dates for homework that you're stressing out about and OMG I don't have to do that for a while yay!

8) It is not good to then procrastinate and wait until the last minute to finish that homework (see #6)

9) The BLM sucks.

10) And there are a lot of issues surrounding the BLM that people should know about.

Okay... I'm sure that I will think of more things that I have learned but I'm just going to stop at number 10.

I would just like to say thank you to everyone that commented on my posts and to those at my presentation. You were all really nice and encouraging! Also, thank you April for being an awesome facilitator and teacher and for having us do this project:)

And I don't think I have anything else to say... So have an awesome summer!

And... One more

Maybe two..

Okay I'm done.

Anecdote

Anecdote

So, for my anecdote I immediately thought of writing about my most recent experience riding Tank. Yeah..Here we go...

*and the rambling starts.......now!*

It was a few days ago, and at that point I had ridden him a couple of times around our field and he had done pretty well. He is pretty sensitive and responsive, so you have to be light with your cues, which is pretty nice for me. That means that, for example, when I want him to walk forward I use my legs or voice, or sometimes the reins, as cues. And sometimes you have to make it obvious that you are asking something of a horse; not by being mean or anything, just making it more clear. But with Tank, all I have to do is lightly squeeze with my legs or cluck or sometimes just pick up my reins like I'm wanting to go somewhere and he listens. So that's really nice...

Back to my story, that morning I retrieved him from the pen and groomed him, and then lunged him a bit. He was still having troubles with lunging at that time, like he did not quite understand what I was asking of him and also that he was just not wanting to listen, but now he is definitely better at it. All I had to do was be more tough with him one day and let him know that I was in charge, as there is a hierarchy not only within the horses but with the humans too. And if the human is not viewed by the horse as the leader, issues will arise. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not saying that one should go beat on their horse until they're submissive. I'm saying that they should kindly yet firmly show that they're the leader by simply not letting their horse boss them around, as that is what the leader does. So, one day I had to really push him to go forward by swinging the end of the lunge line around until he understood what I was asking him to do.

Anyways, after I lunged him around a little, I tacked him up and hopped on. And up towards our house and the pen, he was being really good and listening. But as soon as I asked him to walk towards the field, he started to be a butthead about it and not really listen, as he is kind of barn sour so he doesn't want to leave what he considers his home. But I persisted and he finally started walking in the field, albeit reluctantly. After the second time walking a circle around the field and him continuing to not want to listen, he finally decided to let his frustrations out about not getting his way by.... bucking. Well, trying to.

Yay..... 

But before he actually started bucking, I could feel that he was about to, so I turned his head so he couldn't full on buck (he still managed to a bit, though). And, let me tell you, he was not happy about this either. Eventually, after unsuccessfully trying to calm him down by talking to him and petting him, I decided that it was getting to be too dangerous so I bailed. I had to first make sure that my feet were out of the stirrups, and that his head was still turned so I could get off in time before he ran off, and in one extremely graceful maneuver I jumped off him. And, you know, fell on my butt after somehow ripping my shirt. Fun times.

But as they say, if a horse bucks you off (or, in this case, makes you bail off in order to not get bucked off), you get back on. So, after chasing him and finally getting a hold of him (and retrieving my hat that fell off sometime beforehand), I climbed back on him. And he still was not a happy horse and wanted to go back to his home, but I didn't let him get his way and rode him around the field once more until I felt that he was calmer and listening better. Then I took him back and rinsed him off with the hose, and he was way calmer and tired out. So... yeah. Hopefully that made some sort of sense. 

Persuasive Piece

Persuasive Piece

Okay... Honestly, I had no idea until just recently about what I should attempt to persuade people in in regards to this project, mostly due to my brain conveniently deciding to be hyperactive and start thinking of too many things. So, I decided to enlist to help of my parents. They had some really good ideas, and the one I will be writing about here is concerning the BLM and the controversy that surrounds it. The BLM is an acronym for the Bureau of Land Management, some oftentimes called the "Bureau of Land Mismanagement," which, according to itself, is "a small agency with a big mission: To sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America's public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations." It manages over 245 million acres of land, more than any other Federal agency in the United States. There are a lot of issues between the BLM and ranchers, environmentalists, lawmakers, etc. But for the sake of not writing pages and pages about this general topic, and in order for this post to be more related to my project, I will be focusing on the BLM and its involvement with wild horses and burros (which are wild donkeys, basically).

Some believe that there is an overpopulation of wild horses because there is not enough land to support both them and livestock. Really, though, there are only 32,000 wild horses roaming free and millions of cattle and sheep on public lands-if anything, there is an overpopulation of livestock. To the BLM, in order to "preserve ecological balance on the public land," they gather hundreds of mustangs and burros every year. These gatherings are called roundups, and in them they basically chase the wild horses with helicopters across miles of land into small holding pens. Laura Leigh, of the advocacy group Wild Horse Education, says that she has spent about 500 days documenting injuries and deaths in these roundups. She says, "I've seen broken legs. I've seen legs ripped up by barbed wire. I've seen horses kicked in the head. I've seen animals dragged by the neck with a rope. I've seen a helicopter hit horses." The way in which these horses are "gathered" is, simply put, inhumane. Unsurprisingly, bad injuries, trauma, abortions, and death are common in the roundups. For example, only about two months after the Calico (Nevada) roundup ended in 2010, 86 of the 1,922 captured horses had died and 40 pregnant mares had spontaneously aborted.

Some of the less gory pictures of roundups

After they're caught, closely-knit families quickly get split up, with the mares, stallions, and foals all going to different holding facilities. Ginger Kathrens, a filmmaker who has documented mustang herds, says, "I know how much they love their families and their freedom. And in an instant they lose both." Now, there are more than 50,000 wild horses living in captivity, with just 32,000 left on the range. In the 19th century, the number of free horses was 2,000,000.

BLM holding facilities

It is agreed by both critics and supporters of these roundups that the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program is "out of control" and heading towards crisis. With the limited desire of adoption from the public, at least $50 million is spent on the captured horses every year. 72% of the BLM's budget for wild horses is spent on roundups and permanently housing them, while less than 1% is spent on fertility control. The government even acknowledges that "the current path is not sustainable for the animals, the environment, or the taxpayer."

The BLM is quickly running out of places to put the captured horses. The suggested solution? Federal law actually allows the sale of wild horses by the government to citizens "without limitation." This includes sale for slaughter. Between 2009 and 2012, 1,794 federally-protected wild horses were sold to a known kill buyer who then sold them to slaughter. He made over $136,000 in profits, and "is not being prosecuted for violating his contractual obligation to not sell the horses for slaughter," says Suzanne Roy, Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC). "There will be no justice for these mustangs, who suffered a brutal death in Mexican slaughter plants. No one at the BLM is being held accountable." 

Ginger Kathrens said, "The BLM would like to see wild horses gone, because with no wild horses, end of problem ... Wild horses will be managed to extinction."

Clearly, these wild horses and burros are not being handled correctly. Why doesn't the BLM focus more on fertility control so that the mustang population does not grow as quickly, and therefore can remain free? If they insist on rounding them up, why are they not handling them like the wild animals that they are-with respect? And, of course, if they care so much about these horses like they want for everyone to believe, wouldn't you agree that maybe they shouldn't sell the living creatures that they are responsible for to ones they know will put them to slaughter?

Works Cited

 Myers, Lisa, and Michael Austin. "Cruel or Necessary? The True Cost of Wild Horse Roundups." NBC News. NBC News, 14 May 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2016. 

 "About the BLM." About the BLM. Bureau of Land Management, 26 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.

 Howell, Kellan. "BLM Illegally Sold Thousands of Wild Horses for Slaughter: Report." Washington Times. The Washington Times, 24 Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.

Reflections

Reflections

So... to answer the question of how my project is going, I would say well. Kind of. To be honest, the drawing part is slightly (*cough* more than slightly *cough*) stressing me out (unsurprisingly) and is something that I need to start setting aside more time for. I admit that I may have been slightly too ambitious at the start of this project in regards to the number of drawings that I create, so I may have to change that goal a bit. I'm thinking of possibly changing it to at least five drawings or something, just so it is not so overwhelming. But for now I'll just see how it goes with attempting to draw ten, and try not to be too annoyed with myself if that doesn't pan out. But on the brighter side of things, hanging out with the horses/caring/training them is going well so far. Tank, the mustang cross, has been warming up to me and is starting to trust me, which is awesome. Last night, after I put them in their pen, I sat down and hung out with them for a while. He came up and stood in front of me, letting me pet him and eventually he started nuzzling my hair and face. #adorable. He's finally letting his I'm-so-macho-and-always-serious facade slide a bit, so we're getting there. I also went on a walk with him the other day, which is something that I'm hoping to start doing more in order to start getting him back in shape. He we were definitely tired at the end of it. Also, my mom and I are looking forward to the horse training clinic that we're almost-completely-sure that we'll be attending soon. Its being held by Buck Brannaman, who is an amazingly talented horse person. If you're interested, there is a documentary made about him that can be found on Netflix called Buck. I think that anybody, not only horse people, would enjoy it and get something useful from it and I encourage all to check it out. Anyways, I am hoping that I will learn from the clinic and that the knowledge gained will assist me in training my own horse, and make me better equipped to help those who are wanting to do the same with theirs. I think it will.

As for the interaction with my mentor, I feel that it went well and helped me to focus more on not being so afraid to make mistakes, as they are inevitable, and to always have a listening ear. It was also pretty interesting hearing about the different experiences my mom has had with horses that hadn't come up in conversation before.

So, all in all, I'd say that my project is going well, I just may need to adjust it a tad. But other than that, I'm pretty happy with the whole thing so far. I have to say that its pretty fun to run a blog, even if its for school and you're only posting stuff on it once a week. Also, I would just like to say thank you to all who have left comments on my posts, as they are all really nice. Its greatly appreciated:)

Update: Picture!

Schmoke and Tank

I will work on getting better pictures and actually uploading them on here.

Mentor Interview

Mentor Interview

For my mentor, I chose my mom, Jean. I believe that she is qualified for helping me out for this project because she has been around horses for a long time and is very knowledgeable in training and caring for them. Her role in my project is just to basically help me with properly training my horse and riding him. Please note that I couldn't have this interview with her face to face, as she was working at the time and due to my amazing procrastination skills I didn't do it earlier, so we did it over the phone. Anyways, on to the interview.

Me: How long have you been around horses?

Mom (Or Jean...): Since I was twelve, so 32 years.

Me: What was your first horse like?

Mom: My first equine was a pony named Bumper. He was called that because he would take his head and hit you with it when he wanted you to walk. And he didn't like boys, so he would buck my brother off. I had to get Bumper because I had to prove to my parents that I was ready for a horse, so when I did that I got Will. He was a blue roan of unknown breeding and only cost 500 dollars. He was probably the best horse that I have had and he taught me more than any trainer ever did.

Me: How many horses have you had since your first?

Mom: Eight. After Dreamer, I bought Stella who was a little paint mare. She then foaled Splash. Next was Jack, who is a chestnut quarter horse gelding (PS: he was my first horse). And now we have two, Tank and Schmoke. Tank is a mustang cross and Schmoke is another chestnut quarter horse.

Me: Especially when you were first learning, did you have a teacher or instructor to help you?

Mom: Before I had any horses, I took riding lessons for two weeks from a family member that convinced my mother that I needed to have a horse. Then when I was 13 I was given an orphan foal that I named Dreamer, and when he was ready to be trained I needed help so I started taking lessons from a woman named Jeannie. She was my horse mentor for several years, and I spent hours everyday at her residence.

Me: What would you say were the most important things that Jeannie taught you in regard to horses?

Mom: Confidence, work ethic, and perseverance. 

Me: What is your experience in training horses?

Mom: I have trained four horses: Dreamer, Stella, Splash, and Jack.

Me: What advice would you give me as I am training and caring for my horse?

Mom: Be teachable and the rest will come. Be willing to learn and make mistakes.

Yay! By the way, as far as my project is going, I am working on my first drawing (which I'm hoping I will finish in a couple of days), and I am also working with Tank and Schmoke. By that I mean that I have been mainly lunging them (which is basically having them walk, trot, or canter around me and have them respond to my commands), grooming them, and just hanging out with them. Also, yesterday my mom, sister, and I wanted to see if our saddle fit them, so we tacked them up and then rode them around for a little while and they both did surprisingly well.

The 20% Project

20% Project Proposal

• What is your project?

The goal for my project is to promote awareness for the masses of wild horses in need by creating graphite and/or charcoal drawings that I will (hopefully) sell. That profit will go towards various charities involved with helping these horses find good homes and be saved from slaughter. I also will be documenting my journey of caring for and properly training my own horse, a mustang cross that has been abused. I hope that this will help those that are going through the process of caring for, training, and bonding with a horse, especially one that is not very trusting. Also, I am planning on going to various horse training clinics and sanctuaries over the course of the next couple of months while working with my own horse in order to extend my knowledge and be better equipped to help others.

• Who will work with you?  

I plan to mostly work on my own (if you're not counting my horse), especially with the drawings. I will, however, receive help from my mom who has a lot of knowledge in the area of horses and their training.

• Who is the audience?

The audience could be anyone, from those that are even slightly interested in horses or drawings to those that are looking to further improve their relationship with their horse or learn more about wild horses.

• Why is this project worthwhile?

This project is worthwhile because, with over 36,000 mustangs being kept in holding facilities and thousands being sent to slaughter, there is a great need for these horses to at least be talked and thought about more. And the more people that talk about this issue, the greater the chance will be for it to get closer to being solved.

• What do you expect to learn from this project?

I expect to gain a lot of knowledge in training and rehabilitating horses, as well as become more aware of the needs of wild horses. I also expect to learn a lot more about drawing and different techniques that will further those skills.

• What product will you have to show at the end of the year?

I plan on having at least 10 finished drawings to show that I will later be attempting to sell.

• What sort of expenses will be involved?

Although I already own plenty of art supplies, there is always the possibility that I may need more in order to finish this project. Also, the clinics that I plan to attend will cost money, as well as any tack or training equipment that I may purchase in order to further my horses training.

• What sort of equipment will you need and where will you get it?

I will, of course, need a horse, and as mentioned earlier, I will very possibly need tack or things of the like, which I will get from places like feed stores or online.

• What is your timeline for completing your project?

I hope to have all 10 drawings completed by the time we are presenting our products.