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Leachman holding onto the glory daysMy first trip of the year was to the Summit of the Horse in Las Vegas. I was asked to moderate this three-day event to discuss the scenario in the horse world. Limited access to viable markets, and in particular the non-existence of any horse harvesting facilities in the United States, was a primary topic. While this was a tremendous meeting, we continue to spin our wheels in finding the correct solution to re-opening existing plants or even building a new one in states that have expressed interest in doing so. I was very critical of the fellow horse owners in attendance in regard to our own complacency when we hear of a person that has a problem with horses. Far too often we sit back and some animal rights organization rolls in just to be the white knight in shining armor that saves the starving horse. That is the biggest reason for hopping on a plane to Billings two weeks later when I read in the Billings Gazette that Jim Leachman, once recognized globally as a leading cattle breeder, had been charged with animal abuse. I had to go see it for myself. I questioned whether even this great publication had enough ink to tell the whole story of what happened to Leachman. Perhaps I should phrase it as what he has brought upon himself rather than what happened to him. All of the media outlets did report "horses starving" and "malnourished horses" running on a ranch south of Billings. In fact, the media was so effective that roughly 500 tons of hay and $30,000 in cash was donated to help these starving horses. The problem was that there were no starving horses. I saw nearly 1,000 horses grazing on pastures where helicopters had dropped hay. Leachman never fed his horses. He built this herd by grazing year round and even eating snow when the water froze up. These were not horses used to having their feed delivered to them and they were not in need of feed. There are apparently six horses in question. Charges against him have never involved hungry horses but rather stem from the fact the Leachman had ID bracelets on the horses and some allegedly outgrew the bracelets they were not comfortably fitting the horses. I am here to tell you that if you have 1,000 animals of any species you are bound to have a handful that will be a problem of some sort. Did Leachman fail to manage these six animals correctly? That is a question the courts will soon answer. There are so many lessons in the whole scenario for all of us in animal ownership to understand. Today's public cannot understand owning more animals than they have kids. They have three kids and they may struggle with getting it all done correctly, so when they hear about one guy with a thousand horses or even 3 million laying hens or 40,000 head of cattle in a feedlot, they simply cannot relate. Compound all of that with the fact that average horse owner who babies their horses even more than they do their own kids with a shed, blankets and way too much feed and it leads them to the incorrect notion of how a horse should be tended to. In fact, while driving to ranch seven miles from Billings where Leachman's horses were running, I can honestly tell you that I saw more horses in poor condition than I did at his ranch. Those horses were overweight and underused with a pile feed in front of them. Leachman's horses were in range condition and quite healthy because of it. The general concept that I want to share here is how all of us must get involved in places that previously we might not have been comfortable doing so. Leachman has some real problems and it stems from access to land, not animal abuse. For those of you interested in the whole story, I am still asking those questions and Jim Leachman was willing to join me on the radio for an hour to discuss the situation. The bottom line is that he went broke and lost his ranch. He hasn't paid the neighboring Crow Indian tribe for the leases to run livestock on and he has been reluctant to do the right thing in reducing his horse herd because he is attempting to hang on to the glory days of Leachman Cattle Co. The Bureau of Indian Affairs did confiscate 829 horses and sold them April 2 and 3. All horses that went through the ring sold, and 804 of them brought a reported $380,365 for an average of $473 a piece. Leachman did buy 68 of his own horses in the sale and Jim told me recently that he was once again trying to get them back onto the same land they came off of. Apparently another 100 horses, owned by Leachman (or his creditor), have been located in the neighborhood as well. Stay tuned for Chapter 2. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or email Trent at trent@loostales.com.
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