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First-time Out --Pickens wins Award in Rose Parade
Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens and part-time Del Mar resident, used her Rose Parade float to draw attention to wild horses – specifically mustangs that are being placed in holding pens by the government.
The 55-foot-long by 35-foot-high float – dubbed Mustang Monument - won the Past President’s trophy for “Most Innovative Use of Floral and Non-floral.” The theme described by its designers as a patriotic representation of the grandeur of the natural home of the endangered wild mustangs.
At a cost of $500,000, the float featured six floral mustangs and included 35,000 flowers - for the 35,000 wild horses currently in government holding pens. With a projected audience of 54 million watching the Rose Parade, the winning float called attention to the plight of the wild mustangs of the West.
During the parade, the float was accompanied by members of every military branch, along with wounded warriors, canine war heroes, boy scouts, girl scouts, and representatives from Native American tribes.
Plight of Wild Mustangs
A century ago as many as two million
mustangs roamed North America. They were the descendants of domesticated horses brought by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century.
Oddly, horses evolved and lived in North America for over 50 million years but then disappeared about 10,000 years ago. Whether the disappearance was due to disease or hunting by the growing human population, no one is really sure.
Today only 30,000 mustangs remain in the wild, and an upcoming Bureau of Land Management roundup is
slated to reduce that number further.
Pickens is fighting this government-run holding pen procedure with her Saving America’s Mustangs foundation and proposed eco-sanctuary for horses.
Last year Pickens acquired two ranches near Elko, Nev. that feature nearly 19,000 acres and 550,000 acres of grazing rights. She is seeking the federal government’s help to turn these ranches into a wild mustang sanctuary.
The Wall Street Journal called her “a force of nature” and quoted her husband T. Boone Pickens as saying, “I tell you one thing, you get a woman who has made up her mind to do it, and she has money, she’ll do it.”
Her concept is simple: rather than leaving thousands of wild horses in substandard, expensive government holding facilities, set them free in a sanctuary on their native range which would be fenced.
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Madeleine Pickens, with husband T. Boone Pickens, rode on the float during the Rose Parade. Photos: SavingAmericanMustangs.org, Jim and Kris Sanders
Two mustangs playing in the wild. Photo: Bureau of Land Management
A century ago as many as two million mustangs roamed North America. Photo: Creative Commons, Jaime Jackson
Of course, anyone who has studied Western history, more acrimony and violence has been spent on these two issues than any other -- water rights and fences. Fences have been contentious because ranchers want to preserve a free range for their cattle to graze.
Certainly, Pickens will continue to work on behalf of her beloved wild mustangs.
For more information on Saving America’s Mustangs foundation visit:
www.savingamericasmustangs.org
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