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Welcome to LOOKED OVER FARMS MEMORIAL FOR HORSES. For most of recorded history, Horses helped fight our wars, pulled our ancestors to their new homes, plowed their fields, and provided pleasure and companionship. Our mission to increase awareness of the horses plight today and to work towards establishing practices which ensure their well-being, both in their association with Humans and in the Wild.
For the past twenty some years Thomas Justice Freeman and Boyce Drew Freeman have dedicated their lives to establishing a safe home for a herd of Horses that they have been Training to set an Example for the Horse Industry. The land that supports them is located in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains which are traversed with many streams, open pastures, and quiet forests. It was Boyce's wish that upon her passing we continue on with theses efforts to secure the Horses Future in America.
Horses have been our greatest allies in civilizing North America. An abundance of fossil remains reveal that Horses evolved in western North America and migrated across the Straits of Bering to Asia around 6,000 B.C., the time of the last Ice Age. Approximately 1,200A.D. Genghis Kahn captured them and used them to conquer the know world. After the Kahn died, horses were sold through out the world.
Some historians say that Horses were so instrumental to the development of our western civilization that had Native Americans acquired them first, China might have been the New World.
Despite the fact that we should be recognizing horses for their contribution to our progress they instead suffer profound abuse at the hands of the Horse Industry. Horses are not completely developed until they are at least seven years old, the equivalent of a twenty-one year old human, yet the Horse Industry routinely shows them publicly at the age of two. (In 1982 Boyce passed out Pencils at the Horse Shows saying: "Horses helped us now it is our turn don't abuse them so young wait until their 7 like our 21") All the Tract Records in Horse Racing are set by Babies. If they would wait on Race Horses until they have Matured the mature Horses would shatter thoses Records. Then interesing Racing would result.
Needless to say the training is rigorous, resulting in numerous physical injuries as well as psychological trauma from which they may never recover. One of the most common injuries is a fractured shin,Ouch, occurring in 70% of two-year-old Thoroughbred Race Horses. This injury is often DELIBERATELY INDUCED, thereby decreasing the likelihood of it occurring when the horse is 3, so it won't interfere with their 3 year old training. Allowing them to age before use will eliminate this problem.
Other injuries include bleeding lungs, bowed tendons and other soft tissue damage, sagging spine, weak hoof walls, and fractures in the shoulder and forelimb. ( Watch the Movie Ruffin, she was in a match race and 3/4 of the way around the tract she blew out a Ankle. The same thing happened to Eight Bells and Barbaro in Kentucky Derby, they both blew out ankles only Eight Bells blew out both Ankles and of course all Three were put down. Please don't us let them die in vain
IN FACT, 80% of THOROUGHBRED HORSES ARE EUTHANIZED BY THE AGE OF THREE AND THE REST SHOW SCARS OF ABUSE.
The unfortunate truth is that the Horse industry is structured to maximize profit, and this is achieved through rapid turnover.
Forbes magazine lists, for 70 some years ,the top Net Money Makers in America each year, and since it started Horses have made more money than anything else you could invest in. They headed the list every year.
Horses are not the only ones at high risk in the current system. The greatest percentage of Rider Injuries take place on Younger horses as well, This is partially due to the positive correlation with horse injuries and partially because Younger animals frighten easily, making their riders more vulnerable to accidents. One example; (With Deep Respect) Christopher Reeves attempted to jump a 5 year old horse over a fence that was simple too difficult for the physical and mental maturity of His mount, at the Horse Show at Culpepper Va.
In Order to correct theses and other problems, Two practices must be established:
1) KEEP HORSES FROM BEING SHOWN PUBLICLY UNTIL THEY ARE SEVEN YEARS OLD, EXCEPT IN HAND. ( the public deserves to see the best in any sport that it is watching.)
2) RECOGNIZING THAT WILD HORSES ARE INDIGENOUS TO THIS CONTINENT, GIVES THEM PROTECTED STATUS WHICH ALLOWS THEM TO LIVE FREELY ON GOVERNMENT LANDS. (The Native America Indians on the West Coast had developed the Appalosa Breed found only in America long before the Settlers came to America and until not to long ago they became popular and have been sold over Seas. So they were here before the settlers came to America and are Eligible for Indigenous Status)
The Government currently removes Horses from Our Grass Lands and allows them to be replaced with Cattle in return for a monthly fee from Cattle Owners. Hope Ryden's Book, "America's Last Wild Horses" provides in-depth information on this subject. (interesting reading) It also describes how much hard work it took to put laws into place to protect Horses in the Wild and why it is so important to keep them in place.
Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) chairman of the Approperations Subcommitte that funds the Bureau of Land Management placed a measure in a 3000-page year end spending Bill after consulting with Senator Bryan Dorgan (D-ND) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). The measure removed from Federal Law a Bill that stated that no wild free roaming Horse or Ass could be sold or transferred for Slaughter into commercial products in this country.
The Bureau of Land Management wants to cut the costs of holding Wild Horses in long term Holding Pens a cost of $6.8million a year or $465 dollars a year per horse. These Horses are being held hoping for adoption by the public, a plan that was devised to get them off the Government land to support more cattle, this plan is clearly not working. We suggest to get rid the Holding Pens and taking the ones out that are fit for Service and having our men in prisons train them to pull and drive and or ride and put them in the Army to help our men in remote stations in 3rd World Countries to gain good will and restore Peace and return the rest of the Horses to the Wild with Indigenous Status,
A Horseman for sixty some years, Tom is now working to educate the public about these issues so support may grow to establish more Humane Practices.
The Horses at Looked Over Farms, have trained for jumping and started to compete in the Show Ring visit www.freehorse.mysite.com With respect to maturation, they have been lead in halter from birth to 3 years of age and then driven until 5 years of age, then ridden with ground training and then worked over fences at 7 years of age and then put in Show Ring when they show they can handle it.
Tom plans to first work within the Horse Show and Racing Industry to accomplish needed changes. When Horses become Indigenous, Tom plans to place the Horses of Looked Over Farms Memorial For Horses on Government Lands so they may live out their days in Freedom.
IN Summary remember Horses Mature around 7 or 8 years of age and don't get settled in until 12 or so. They will serve their owners well in to their 30's if kept with love and care.
Timing their use according to their years of maturity will enlimate most problems of abuse and injuries.
There is so much to be done for the cause of the Horses Welfare. We NEED your support and input for theses efforts to come to pass.
PLEASE pass this website on, contact us with your ideas and/or contribute to the Memorial with your Tax Free Dollars
Believe me the Horses will be forever Grateful and the SPIRIT OF THE HORSE WILL BE KEPT INTACT.
Please send Your Donations to: LOOKED OVER FARMS MEMORIAL FOR HORSES Post Office Box 692 Pilot Mountain North Carolina 27041
EMAIL tjfreeman0000@netzero.net
For that which Befalleth the sons of Men Befalleth beasts; even one thing Befalleth then: as the One Dieth, so Dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all is Vanity. Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 verse 18 thru 19
Email tjfreeman0000@netzero.net