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 I found this article and wanted to share it. Bruce Weary



I AM A HORSE.

By: Jim Gath

We’ve known each other since you were just a child.

Remember the pony rides at the Field Days? Remember Fury? And Flicka? 
And Silver? And Trigger? And Black Beauty? And me and my brothers and 
sisters at the Fair? And that little figurine of me they you kept on a 
shelf in your bedroom?

And do you remember when you got a little older and you came to ride me 
one day? How scared, but excited, you were when you first climbed on my 
back? And how that fear went away when the two of us marched off? I knew 
you were a little scared. That's why I took such great care of you. We 
ended up having a ball that day, didn't we?

Now you’ve gone and grown up and made a life for yourself. A lot has 
happened in your life since that day so many years ago. You moved or you 
got a job or you went away to college or you raised a family or hundred 
other things. But I know you remember me because I remember you.

I'm still here. And I miss you. We always had a great relationship, you 
and I, going back hundreds of generations. Our histories are 
inextricably tied to each other. And it’s a bond that can't-or 
shouldn't-be broken.

My ancestors carried your ancestors from the big port cities in the East 
across mountains and plains and grasslands and deserts to places where 
they all ultimately settled down.

Your ancestors farmed the land and my ancestors pulled their plows and 
their wagons to market. As a team, your ancestors and mine built big 
cities. And together, they delivered all the goods and services to the 
people who made those big cities their homes.

Together, our ancestors made this country what it is today. My ancestors 
were big and strong and worked hard for your ancestors. And, in return, 
they were well cared-for and fed and housed to the best of your 
ancestors’ ability.

They worked and lived together in war and in peace. In good times and in 
bad. Under the blazing son and in blinding snowstorms. They were happy 
together, sad together, scared together and triumphant together. They 
were brothers and sisters. And neither of them could thrive, let alone 
survive, without the other.

Maybe that's why Mother Earth but us together in the first place. We are 
still brothers and sisters. And when a member of the family has a 
problem, he or she turns to his brothers and sisters for help. And I'm 
turning to you now for your help.

All across this land, too many of our 4-legged brothers and sisters are 
suffering. Some are starving. Some are in pain. Some don't have a home. 
Some are being slaughtered. Too many of us are in jeopardy. And it pains 
me to tell you this, but much of this suffering is being caused by our 
2-legged brothers and sisters.

I don't know why that is - maybe its ignorance; maybe it’s indifference; 
maybe it’s the loss of the sense of the history we share; and maybe - 
and I hate to say this - but maybe it's greed.

You see, too many of us are being born. Too many of us are being 
forsaken because we've gotten old or injured. Too many of us are being 
ignored or forgotten or dismissed in favor of more material things. The 
reasons are as varied as the colors in the Rainbow.

I just want you to know it's happening and I'm scared.

And I’m reaching out to you from across the years and across the 
memories for your help. Don't worry - I'm not asking you for much. Just 
a little.

I am asking you to call your representatives in government and tell them 
to put an end to our slaughter.

I am asking you to donate a little every month for food and care for our 
brothers and sisters who live in sanctuary's and rescues.

I am asking you to have the wherewithal to refrain from breeding so many 
of us.

I am asking you to volunteer your time for us once in a while.

I am asking you to teach your children about us and given the 
opportunity to experience the joy we shared so many years ago.

I am asking you to treat our lives with the same love and respect with 
which we’ve always treated yours. The way we’ve always treated each other.

I am asking you to, once again, be our brothers and sisters in deed. To 
be a part of our lives in whatever way you see fit. In whatever way you can.

I am asking you to make me proud, once again to say: I AM A HORSE.

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