Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Jonni Jewel said:

 

>I would love to find out what group against

>horses in natural areas has such a good

>communication, to get so many to
>vote in this little poll.

 

My bet is someone contacted one of the big

Sierra Club or Wilderness Society lists.

That'd do it, even without writing a script

to "stuff" the ballot box.

 

There's always more of them than there

are of us.  In Massachusetts, groups like

Massachusetts Audubon and the Sierra Club

can go into a meeting of the Board of

the Department of Environmental management

and claim 30,000 members statewide.  The

largest single trails club in Massachusetts

can walk in and claim...600 members.

 

>Makes me wonder

>if we as a horse community CAN
>join together to fight against those who

>want to take away our riding areas.

 

This activity has nothing to do with "joining

together to fight against those..."  As

some of us have been trying to explain,

it is a meaningless, pointless exercise.

The most useful thing anyone could do

is write the Daily Register a letter-to-the

editor pointing this out.

>As mentioned, this poll does not have

>any official capacity, but it is
>telling me (and maybe some others)

>that horse people might not be as strong
>as they think they are.

 

Who thought horse people were "strong"?  As a group,

horse people are astoundingly and extraordinarily

unorganized, politically oblivious and naive.

Heck, watching the Belmont, even the *horse racing*

industry, with a billion dollar industry at stake, only

organized on a national level four years ago!

 

Actually, the horse people around Shawnee National

Forest are some of the most organized and politically

active horse people there are.

 

My opinion is:

 

Horsemen in each state should form a PAC to lobby

for their interests at the state level.  501(c)(3)'s

are all well and good and have their place and purpose,

but nothing works as well as full-time professional

lobbyists.

 

The National horse PAC is the American Horse Council.

Every local "saddle club" should join the AHC, not

just the big state Horse Councils.  AHC needs $$

to hire lobbyists and that's where the money comes

from.

 

And remember, this "poll" is in response to the fact

that the National Forest Service has made a decision

in favor of horsemen using these areas.  This is

a reversal of the way Shawnee's local superintendant

has been managing his forest.  I suspect the word has

come down from on high in the Department of Agriculture that

the "environmentalist" position that has ruled the

roost during the Clinton administration is now in

eclipse and more credence and standing must be

given to all recreational groups, including horsemen.

 

After all, this country is more about "rights of

the minority" than it is about "majority rules."

 

Linda B. Merims

lbm@xxxxxxxxx

Massachusetts, USA