Hold On to Your Horses

Horses are not selling. In too much of the nation rain comes only in memories. Rain used to come regularly, now the only thing that comes regularly are the bills. The world is much too interconnected when junk bonds, criminal greed, selfishness, and outrageous abuse of raw economic power have created a financial environment that poses the greatest threat to the survival of Colonial Spanish horses in a century.

Great horses are being given away and great horsemen are tempted to give it all up. No one has ever gotten wealthy from working to preserve the first horses of America. It has always required tremendous financial sacrifice to be part of the effort to prevent the rest of the American horse world from throwing away the most important part of its history.

How many Colonial Spanish horses are left? Maybe five thousand. How many people who have dedicated their lives to preserving them by breeding, promoting and protecting these horses are left? Maybe five hundred.

Custer could not kill all of the ponies. Miles could not kill all of the ponies. The established horse world could not kill all of the ponies. The whims and fears of a fickle public could not kill all of the ponies. The greed of the cattlemen and the callousness of the bureaucrats could not kill all of the ponies.

The only thing that can kill all of the ponies is the bone weariness of the (perhaps) five hundred that are struggling, not to get rich off of their Spanish ponies, but to feed them.

Do not give up. What you are doing matters. The rain will come back one day. The grass will be green again.

We must make sure that we still have horses there to graze when that happens. Do not give up. Hold on to your horses.