My name is Jenna Blocher. I've been riding and showing horses since I was three years old. I was born into an equestrian family, and horses are, and always have been, a significant part of my life. A few months ago, I was scrolling through Netflix when I saw a documentary about wild horses. Four Texan men adopted sixteen wild horses that were facing euthanasia in government corrals. Their purpose for adopting them was to ride unfinished horses from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. When the men, or real life Cowboys, adopted the horses, they were not trained. Before the horses could make the trip, they had to become acclimated to humans and go through a rigorous training process. This was necessary because they couldn't be ridden otherwise. The Cowboys could have used their personal, trained horses, but they instead chose to save the sixteen mustangs with uncertain futures. They rode the horses through 3,000 miles of extreme environments. The riders faced treacherous mountains, raging rivers, and steep trails. One of the many problems riders faced was that even though the horses were somewhat trained, they lacked the experience of the veteran horses the men were used to. What made this trip even harder is that each man had three horses tethered behind them as pack horses carrying supplies. This trip couldn't have happened without the essence of teamwork between the four friends. Although, the team work wasn't effortless. At times, the men argued over which trail to take or which direction to go. Ultimately, they reached their goal and arrived in Canada.

Seeing this journey gave me a new perspective of horses. I knew, of course, that there were wild horses. It never occurred to me that they could be overpopulated, or that someone needed to manage them. The horses would eat farmers crops and eat grass that cattle needed to eat, leaving less food for the cows. This story moved me for many reasons.  It encouraged me help others become aware of the tragedies that wild mustangs face in America. If the men didn't adopt these horses, they most likely wouldn't have been adopted and probably euthanized. I decided to make a donation to an organization called Return To Freedom. Quoting their homepage, they are “dedicated to preserving the freedom, diversity, and habitat of America’s wild horses”. This organization provides a sanctuary for wild horses and burros that could be rounded up and put into government corrals. The volunteers at Return To Freedom also look for ways to manage the population of horses without any euthanasia or abuse. Someday, I would like to adopt wild horses and go on an epic journey with my friends, as these cowboys did.