My Animal Story: Mercedes (Animal Welfare in general)

Member Name: LauraElliott

Product:	Animal Welfare in general
Date:	13/03/03 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mercedes got a lovely home

Disadvantages: Many horses are still waiting to be adopted

My family are horse-lovers. Even though I am not as fascinated about these creatures as my grandparents and aunties and uncles are, I still used to go horse riding when I was a young girl. Most Saturday's I would go down to the local stables and get the chance to ride my favourite horse, Lucky. I entered a colouring competition when I was about 12 years old, and I was really pleased to hear the news that I had won. I thenrealised that the prize was to meet Princess Anne at the stables where she was going to be donating a cheque to help pay for the stables to be improved. When I met her, she presented me with a rossette and shook my hand - it was an absolute delight to of met a royal person - all of my friends at school couldn't believe it. These stables have now turned into a riding centre for disabled children, which a lot of people helped raise money for, to make this happen, including myself.

Every once in a while, my uncle who lives in Illinois, would write to me and inform me about the horses that he looked after. My uncle moved from England to Illinois when he was in his early twenties. One of the reason's why he moved to this part of the country was because of the spacious land use. Eventually he settled down in a rather large house with a lot of land, inclusive of stables. Having stables with nothing in seemed a bit pointless, and it didn't quite look right when he had visitors. People would say 'where are the missing horses?' so my uncle soon decided that he should get some. In 1987, he adopted his first horse and since 1991 he has adopted another twenty-seven! The horses are mainly from Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and California.

My uncle's favourite horse is one, which is named Mercedes because of how fast she can gallop. She was a wild, free-roaming horse from a small place called Paradise Valley - sounds lovely doesn't it? Well, thankfully he's promised me a visit there soon, so watch out for

a review about there (if there's even a category for that place on DooYoo). The Bureau of Land Management Team in Nevada runs Paradise Valley. They took her from the rangeland, so that she could live a better life with a good enough water supply and enough food to keep her healthy. Mercedes soon grew into a fine young horse with an elegant chestnut brown coat. She was put up for adoption soon after at the National Wild Horse and Burro Centre. Mercedes has a brand tag to say that she used to be a wild horse, but if you saw her now, you wouldn't be able to tell unless you looked closely for it. She comes across as no different from a horse that has been trained for riding purposes. This brand tag says the horses estimated year of birth, organisation that it came from and an individual number. The tag is put on the hair on the left side of the horse, which has been clipped, and then an iron coated with chilled liquid nitrogen applies the stamp onto the bald patch.

The horse was spotted a few months after being put up for adoption, by my uncle himself. He saw her and fell in love with her at first sight. The sparkle in her eye as she looked directly at him said clearly to him 'please give me a home'. So, after spending a while signing all of the necessary papers, Mercedes was his. He had her transported back to where he lives and she soon settled into her new stable. She showed a lot of affection towards my uncle, to prove that she was grateful for what he had done. He favoured her over all of the other horses, but he tried to treat them all as equally as possible. This was until he entered a competition for his horse to be in a movie. It might sound weird at this point, but he saw an advertisement saying that if any horse owners could get in touch with this company, then they would be grateful, because they need a horse for the leading man to ride. He got a reply back from the company and they said that the photo of Mercedes that he had s
ent them was beautiful, and that they'd like for him to bring her along to an audition.

About a year and a half afterwards (apparently these films generally take that long to make), the film was released. Named 'Gods and Generals', it wasn't one that I ever saw released in England, but it was a success where he lived. It was released on February the 20th of this year (2003) and was set to be shown in theatres across the country. He se
nt me a copy of the film on DVD and I must admit, it wasn't that bad - not your typical Hollywood flick, but still quite good. I'll just give you a little bit of information on the film, even though I know that this is supposed to be an animal review. Well 'Gods and Generals' is based on the Battle of Chancellorsville. It looks back on the Civil War, but has a family orientated theme to it too. It tells of the courage that wives and families had during the difficult times of the war and how they coped. Mercedes appears behind Jeb Stuart. You can spot her in the background by looking for a brown haired mane that has been clipped short.

Prior to this, my uncle had also entered another one of his horses in for 'The Greatest Adventure of My Life', another good film.

My uncle wrote to me last week to tell me that he is now teaching other people how to train and tame wild horses into gentle ones, such as his favourite horse, Mercedes.

If you live in Nevada near to where my uncle does, then you might also be interested in adopting a horse, just like Mercedes. www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov is the website to visit.

*This review was written as part of MALU's fantastic write-up idea. You need to use the title 'My Animal Story:.............' and then your own title where I left the gap. Please do not write about the loss of an animal, because that really belongs in the Pet Bereavement section instead. If you have an interesting story to tell,
about
a pet or an animal encounter, then please include your story in the 'Animal Welfare in general' section - Let's make this a success'*

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