By Dorothy Young, 18, Scholastic Student Reporter
Marble Falls, Texas
Dorothy and the horse Spirit is based on get to know each other better. (Photo: Dan Alvey) |
Close your eyes and picture beautiful wild mustangs racing across the open plain. It is a wonderful and powerful sight that has long been part of this country's history, but may now be endangered.
A ranch near Lompoc in Southern California hopes to change that dangerous trend. Called "Return to Freedom," the 300-acre American Wild Horse Sanctuary is the home to the stallion that served as the model for Spirit in the DreamWorks' movie
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
Neda Demayo, who founded "Return to Freedom" in 1997, runs the nonprofit horse refuge. She shows visitors a 30-minute video of horses being rounded up by helicopters in the western U.S. She saw similar footage when she was 7 years old and knew she wanted to do something to help save these living parts of U.S. history.
After working in the movie industry for several years, she put her childhood dream into action. She visited existing horse sanctuaries and talked to horse behavior experts to gather enough knowledge to open her own refuge.
Neda wanted to try something different for her operation. Previous sanctuaries had received almost any refugee horse. Neda wanted to transport complete horse families to keep their social order intact.
With the help of donations and children who petitioned the government to create a law to protect the horses, Neda was able to open the sanctuary with about 150 horses in intact family groups.
American Wild Horse Sanctuary's Return to Freedom ranch in
Central California. (Photo: Dan Alvey)
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She now has special relationships with many of the horses on the ranch. Each horse is free to choose whether or not to have a relationship with humans. They are all introduced to human contact and many love it.
Some of the horses are so friendly they participate in children's camps where the kids paint them like the Native Americans used to. Most of the children involved are from the inner cities and have had little or no contact with horses. The kids are introduced or further exposed to nature, creativity, leadership, positive expression, and compassion.
The public can also come and view the horses that roam on the ranch and see their natural beauty.
For more information about "Return to Freedom," visit the Web page by clicking
here.
