I left Baghdad Feb 04. We had an Army Vet who
was working with the horses at the race track but we were never able to get a
mission to go see the horses. At first glance, I can't tell if this is
legit. BE CAREFUL and do some checking before sending ANYTHING, for
obvious reasons. I am going to back track my contacts from last yr and see
what I can find out. Many of the horses were stolen when Bagdhad fell and
were pulling donkey carts when I arrived in Bagdad in Jun 03. Iraq had not
had many horses due to the politics. Rarely saw any horses south of
Baghdad and the ones I did see were very thin. The donkeys were
thin. Saddam was starving out the Arabs in the south and hence their
animals. His son's ran the race horse business. I do know there is
an active race track there. Some animal rights groups had been
trying to rescue some horses. You need to understand the
civilian phones there are still not working very well. They
do not have electricity 24/7. The average Iraqi is not able to deal with
care of horses. They also had a thoroughbred race horse industry.
Army wise, the 1st Cavalry Division is out of Ft
Hood and they have a horse detachement. The soldiers there learn the be
farriers and boot makers and saddle makers in addition to the riding for many
ceremonies. It was an awesome sight to see their performance. I
recommend going to the Ft Hood 1st Cavalry website to look for verification
of this. It would be better to send an item than to send money. I
did not see an address to mail things to. Also need to have a CONTACT
person. That person should have in the least an email address.
Baghdad also has cell phones. I would NOT send any money to the paypal
until this is all verified.
Respectfully,
Mary Ann Spencer, LTC, US Army Reserves, Civil Affairs
I haven't investigated to see how legitiment
this cause is... but I did find a message and a link on an arab horse rescue
site. This is allegedly to help the national Iraqi Arab horses:
