Runs With Wind

Runs With Wind

This is an image of a Medicine Hat mare that I made two weeks ago during our Wild Horses of the West photo adventure in South Dakota. It so happens that I was also there in 2005, a few weeks after she was foaled. She is, to me, one of the most beautiful horses that I have ever laid eyes upon and this year I had the honor of naming her. The name I chose – Runs With Wind. Since she was foaled and resides within the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, is only fitting for her to also be known by the Lakota translation of that name, which according to a Lakota elder is . . . tate un iyanke. TRANSLITERATION:  TAK-tay un e-YAN-a. (TAK is pronounced with a gutteral sound.

Runs With Wind and her first foal.

The term Medicine Hat is applied to horses exhibiting a rare color pattern featuring color on their ears and top of the head, which resembles a bonnet or hat, along with a mostly white body.

According to several Plains tribes, Medicine Hats were used as Ceremonial Horses, Buffalo Runners, and War Horses. They were considered to have supernatural powers capable of protecting their riders from harm. The Medicine Hat was so special that only tribal chiefs, medicine men, and great warriors were allowed to ride them.

Remembering Dream Catcher

A severe winter took its toll on the Gila herd at the facility on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in central South Dakota, where I just returned from conducting our Wild Horses of the West photo adventure. One of the losses, a mare by the name of Dream Catcher.

Dream Catcher was foaled during my first Wild Horse of the West workshop, which was conducted the week of July 20-26, 2003.

She was named by participant and good friend, Karen Flannery. It’s also significant the Dream Catcher gave birth to her first foal at the age of two during another workshop in 2005. The foal’s birth took place sometime between May 24 and May 26. Wind Walker, once the herd’s number two stallion, was the father.

We miss you Dream Catcher. You will be long remembered.

The Fight To Save Polar Bears Is On

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday, his plan to retain the Bush administration’s rule that limits what can be done to protect polar bears from global warming.

According to Salazar, "We must do all we can to help the polar bear recover, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change. However, the Endangered Species Act is not the proper mechanism for controlling our nation’s carbon emissions.”

Not only is this an out and out lie in my opinion, according to Andrew Wetzler, wildlife conservation director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, "The rule endorsed today is illegal, and we will continue to fight it in court."

It is sad that the very people we elected to protect the polar bear have now turned their backs on the bears and us; and, we must now fight them in order to save the bears.

One Day to Save the Polar Bear

Congress passed legislation on March 10 giving Secretary Salazar power until May 9 to rescind with the stroke of a pen both the special rule for the polar bear and a rule that exempted thousands of federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gas emissions, from review by expert scientists in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and National Marine Fisheries services. This latter rule was rescinded by the secretary last week, but he did not rescind the polar bear special rule or give any indication of whether he was inclined to do so.

Should Salazar fail to rescind the "special rule" for the polar bear, he will severely undermine protection for the species. The rule prohibits regulation of any activities threatening the polar bear that occur outside of the Arctic. The polar bear, however, is endangered precisely because of activities occurring outside the Arctic, namely emission of greenhouse gases and resulting warming that is leading to the rapid disappearance of summer sea ice.  

"The special rule is a death warrant for the polar bear," said Snape. "It makes no sense to determine, on one hand, that the polar bear is threatened, and then on the other hand to deny it that protection."

Cast your vote and sign the petition before it's too late:   http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/8257/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1878

Help Feed Abandoned & Neglected Animals

I received the following announcement from a friend . . .

Please tell ten friends to tell ten friends today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box "fund food for animals" for free. This doesn't cost you a thing.

Click here:  www.theanimalrescuesite.com

Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

According to Snopes.com the site is legitimate.

Throwin' Spaghetti

In my recent How To Sell Your Photos workshop, I related that selling is a numbers game . . . that it's kinda like throwin' spaghetti at the wall. Most of it will fall to the floor, but some of it will stick. Sooo, that's what I've been doing. Throwin' spaghetti.

As a result, it appears that starting this fall, I will begin conducting presentations through the Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming. But that's not all. Based on recent conversations with Nikon USA, I will be involved in a new project with them.

With the economy in the shape it's in, you have got to make things happen. So my friends, get out there and start throwin' a little spaghetti around.