This is the crux of the situation - people managing the herd with their emotions. There is the famous (but often forgotten)story of Teddy Roosevelt and the deer herd of the Kaibab (Arizona). In his attempt to protect the deer, Roosevelt stopped hunting and terminated natural predators. The result was a population explosion that ultimately led to the starvation death of 100,000 mule deer. Let the past serve as an example - let's take emotion out of the equation and deal with management in a way that is suitable (not perfect) to all sides involved.
Your perception about my posts are partially correct. My "feelings" are not the either-or" kind, or without thought, but what is in the best interest of all concerned, including the horse. The present situation with mustangs and the BLM is a travesty which seems to have escaped you.
The "full zealotry" that you accuse me of is from my watching the what and why people do what for, and why and what with horses. Most of it is wrong. The fact is, horses are no longer a necessity, so why does anyone even have them. I doubt that you ride a horse to work, use a horse at work or use a horses to pull your counties ambulances or fire equipment. Your sheriff rides a car or pickup. Therefore, horses to those of you who are "even tempered" about them, are toys and are simply used for amusements such as playing cowboy. When you get right down to it, I don't know why we have any horses at all. They cost money that would be better spent on other things and they are dangerous. So, if I am a "zealot" about horses care and treatment, how can you justify your wanting to own them strictly for your own personal amusement? It's the other side of the same coin.
.. by the way, I'm happy you are so successful and your operation is so well funded that additional revenue vs. additional expenses isn't something you are concerned with. The fact is, some folks scrape by...
"The fact is, some folks scrape by.." Yes they do and I have. The fact my operation is adequately funded is that I have priorities. I don't waste money on vehicles or personal luxuries. My horses earn their keep and their retirement. I don't buy or trade for "fun", and I don't sell horses to people who don't have the money, facilities, or most important of all, inclination to care for them. So don't try and shove money up my nose, pardner. I too, once fed my horse on my credit card until I learned to do the things that balance the books.
...and promising means just that, promising - not accomplished. As in, Daddy was a great cutter and Momma had a wonderful temperament around cattle.
You are more likely to find a great horse at the auction than you are to buy a "promising" yearling from somebody's back yard. More than half of the sound horses at an auction, that are less than ten years old, represent more human failure then the horse's own lack of "promise". From the breeder, to the trainer, to the last owner, a lot of so-called "horsepeople" have let the "promise" of that good horse go to waste. Now that otherwise good horse, is going to fill a Frenchman's belly because its owners had no horse sense.
The arguments you've put forth so far are limousine liberal diatribes.
Whoooie! I'll bet that felt good! Just like Johnnie Cochran a playin' the race card! If that's all the argument you've got left, then you're plumb outa' dally slack and you dun dropped yur' piggin' string in the dirt, "cowboy". Furthermore, none of any of your posts attempted, in any intelligent way, to resolve the problems regarding the overpopulation of mustangs.