Right after I herded some words together for my last column and spoke about the plight of the wild horses I took a drive south down HWY 191. As I drove deep into the lush green of the high desert, there were huge and spectacular ominous clouds bringing in a spring storm.

As I passed through Farson, and the faint signs of civilization, I spotted a small herd of wild horses near the road. They were calmly grazing and doing what wild horses do, but now they had some newly born colorful colts at their sides.

The approaching foreboding storm brought out the frisky in the little fellas as they ran around their mothers kicking, bucking and playing. At this moment of wonderment, touching the wide-open spaces of Wyoming and feeling the ‘Code of the West,’ I had my confirmation that my thoughts and words towards being an ally for these magnificent creatures is right.

As we believe that wild horses are beautiful to see running across the prairie, these horses’ fate for a good life is threatened and we are forgetting the cowboy culture of Wyoming. It is an American treasure, and there wouldn’t be cowboys without horses.

Wild horses hold not only great recreational, emotional, historical and cultural value, they also hold real economic and financial value to the areas where they exist as well as to our country as a whole. Such as in eco-tourism. A wide variety of recreational visitors frequent areas where wild horses exist for that one specific reason: to experience the wild animals in their natural habitat.

Eco-tourism of America’s wild herds is an economic resource with huge beneficial economic implications. The opportunity to view wild horses is unique to America and brings the feeling of freedom within the relation of the old West. Wild horse tourism, of course, translates directly into additional revenue for the areas where they exist.

Many long-time locals are extremely attached to the wild horses but some are not. The unprecedented outpouring of letters and calls when they are threatened with removal attest to the emotional value that the wild horse represents not only to local residents, but to uncountable American citizens as well.

There is a deep meaning, connection and value that wild horses foster in Americans. People find solace and peace in spending time with them. Recent studies conducted by the Institute of Heart-Math provide an explanation to the two-way healing that occurs when you’re close to horses.

According to researchers, the heart has an electromagnetic field larger than the brain: A magnetometer can measure the energy field of the heart that radiates from 2.4 meters to 3 meters around the human body. More impressive, the electromagnetic field projected by the heart of a horse is five times larger than that of a human. With a compelling force the electromagnetic sphere around the horse can travel straight into our heart rate.

Horses have what science has identified as a coherent heart rate pattern. This explains why we can feel better when we’re close to them. Studies have found a coherent heart pattern, or HRV, to be a solid measure of well-being and consistent with emotional states of positive calmness. We need to be in the presence of horses to feel a sense of well-being and peace.

Research also shows that people experience physiological benefits by interacting with horses, which includes wild horses. This interaction can lower blood pressure and heart rate, higher beta-endorphins, decreased stress levels and feelings of anger and anxiety.

The wild horse is a majestic animal that embodies the spiritual power of independence and freedom. It’s a symbol associated with strength, courage and freedom. They, like countless other species, struggle to coexist in an increasingly human-controlled world in which they are mercilessly killed and their homes destroyed for, primarily, reasons assuming that humans are the  central fact of the universe.

We, the wild horse advocates, are hopeful that the treatment of wild horses will improve as people learn more about them. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues with regular roundups to remove wild horses from public land. Then they warehouse them in feedlots that they call “off-range corrals.”

The BLM favors roundups and feedlots because the agency complies to the loudest voice being uttered. This voice concerning grazing on public land is from the stockgrowers association. An organization that uses the same free roaming lands of the wild horses and have not been checked since the hanging of Tom Horn.

The BLM tends to approach wild horses as if they were livestock. As a rule, the term “stock” is used as a way to downgrade or lower the status of animals. When the thought is shrunk down on species to where they are seen as commodities, it makes it tough to acknowledge the richness and sophistication of their lives.

Wild horses are a universal symbol of freedom without restraint. Looking at and being close to wild horses makes humans feel they can free themselves, escape from their own limitations, and travel into adventure and desired passion. The spirit of the wild horse gives an inner motivational power to move forward, succeed in ventures and become the best version that we can become.

When seeing the wild horse roaming freely on the high desert of Wyoming, just for that moment, we borrow freedom and feel alive. - dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.