Letter: co-exist with wild horses

My name is Rachel M. Reinhardt and I am the president/co-founder of the Northern Nevada Mustang Association and Registry. I am e-mailing you in response to the article in the Feb. 27 Sunday paper regarding the Fish Springs wild horse round up. I just wanted to get a point across that I'm sure has been brought up before, but it directly affects my family and friends.

I adopted a wild horse Jan. 13, and brought her home, along with two other wild horses, Feb. 1. She and the two other horses live at Paradigm Ranch which just so happens to be in Fish Springs where the 42 horses were gathered from. The owners of Paradigm Ranch chose to live there because of the BLM land and the wild horse population. I chose to take my wild horse out there because it is far enough away from "city life" that I can enjoy a day at the ranch. The horses taken away were sort of part of our family, we never bothered them, they didn't bother us. We watch them come down the hill to bring the

new babies, and they come to say hello to our horses, and in a way, to us as well.

My family and friends all feel that if people need to relocate to Nevada areas where there are wild horse herds they must realize, they need to leave the city behind. I would be willing to bet that each of the persons responsible for the complaints that have deprived us of our wild visions either don't have horses or their yards are so perfectly landscaped that they belong in the city or a gated community. Now I am not saying "go back where you came from" or anything like that, but what I am saying is that these horses were here long before we were and with the proper education to the public

we can co-exist.

I have been involved with horses all my life and moved here in 1995 from California. I love the land and the wild horses so much and wish there was more I could do to help the Nevada wild horses. I have created the Northern Nevada Mustang Association and Registry, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of wild horses and promotion of the Adopt-A-Horse program. NNMAAR is

the only way I know how to help these wonderful animals because I cannot save them all.

It was very difficult for me to go to the Palomino Valley Wild Horse & Burro Center to adopt, because I knew that I would only be able to adopt one. There are over 1,000 horses at the Center available for adoption, but I had to choose one. This is why NNMAAR was created, to give publicity and support to all of those horses who need homes.

RACHEL M. REINHARDT

President/Co-Founder, NNMAAR