mare&unbornfoal marker

June 10, 2009

Today I went back to the mustang kill site of April 28^th, 2009.  This is where

the latest and most brutal slayings to date occurred.  The bodies were gone, long since hauled away by the RCMP for forensic testing.   Maybe this time I prayed, they will match up bullets from other horse slaughter scenes, which are all too familiar in the Foothills West of Sundre Alberta. 

 I brought along three large wreaths and one tiny one to mark the spots where they fell.  My faithful Akita’s accompanied me on my trek, giving me the much-needed courage and strength.    I looked for the blood soaked spots on the ground but found none, the elements had since washed it away.  No evidence remained of the brutality that occurred there. However, I did find areas of grass that were flattened down from a few large animal lying down on it, and curiously these spots of grass were dead but had lush green grass growing around them, creating an outline of sorts.  I believed that this was likely where the mare and colt fell.  It was easier to find where the stallion had perished as he had caught his head between two young trees when he dropped and had slowly and painfully died from a bullet to the stomach.       

It was hard reliving this nightmare but I thought someone should pay tribute to our fallen equine comrades.  Their ancestors had served faithfully in World War 1 and helped open up the West prior to that.  The thanks they received was a death sentence, shot down by a coward. 

 At each of the three horse murder sites, I drove a stake into the ground and attached a wreath.  I had lost a few of the stakes on the hillside on the way up, so the mare and her unborn foal shared one, with the tiny wreath sitting just above the larger one. 

 In each spot, I prayed to them individually, asking their forgiveness for us humans.  I only felt sadness around me, not condemnation.  As I walked away, I felt as though there were four equine spirits quietly walking beside me, approving of my attempts to pay my respects.  

While walking down the steep hill I noticed that across the road in the open meadow was a lone dark coloured horse watching me.  I wondered if that was the same horse weeks earlier, who was shown on the news running back and forth frantically between the equine bodies trying to nudge them onto their feet. The horse, at that time, was whinnying in a high pitched tone that screamed.

I took a picture of the horse, but knowing that because of the distance away it would likely be blurry and sure enough it was, but you could still see that the horse had a back white foot, just like the one on the news.  I am sure it was her, sadly keeping vigil over the place where her family was gunned down.

stallions wreath

yearling colt's wreath

Posted by Doreen on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 11:06 pm.