Thunder In The Clouds

THUNDER IN THE CLOUDS

Remembering the Mustangs of the Sandhills....

Nine months ago, many animals were saved from 3 Strikes Ranch.

Many did not survive.

It was Lonnie Littlehoop's desire, to bring some sort of closure

for the mustangs who did not make it out alive from 3 Strikes.

Through this, they hoped it would also be a healing

and understanding process for the children

that once were involved in a program at the mustang ranch -

a program of love and caring each child

would be able to give to the mustang that was 'assigned' to them.

On January 22, 2010 - Lonnie Littlehoop rode from Alliance to the former

3 Strikes Ranch, once owned and operated by Jason Meduna.

Jen and the kids drove the horse trailer,

Liz Lee and kids followed in her vehichle.

This would be the first Mustang Memorial Ride for the horses.

The ride was open to all,

many were expected to come from neighboring states.

I remember in a planning meeting that Lonnie and Jen had,

Lonnie stated he hoped the weather would be cold, even snowy.

I thought he was crazy!

But his reasoning... was to remember and pay tribute

to what all the horses endured through the winter at 3 Strikes.

Out in the cold, the snow, and the wind.....struggling to survive.

Without food and water at their disposal,

life for the horses would have been hard, painful, and long-suffering.

It was actually fitting that on the first day,

he was the only rider.

I believe for every evil, there is good.

Once upon a time, a person rode his horses

up and down this road to Alliance.

Now, this rider on the horse would bring goodness

to the memory of all the horses that perished -

and bring good memories for the survivors.

Jen, opening the gate for Lonnie...going onto the former 3 Strikes.

Lonnie and Nahpiya











Lonnie said it felt like he was riding through a graveyard.









The journey is over for the day.
Now Nahpiya (which means 'Clouds')
would get to spend the night at
the Nebraska Boys Ranch, with feed, water, and rest.


Tomorrow he would walk back to Alliance from the Boys Ranch,
but with more riders on the 2nd day.
(And the weather was much warmer!)







Jen, Lonnie, and the kids who had 'adopted' horses.









They walked around a now empty corral, where once they came
and worked with their horses. Now they were gone.
Some of the kids do not know if their horse survived.

We are in the process of locating their horses.
Hopefully, they will find that they are now all in loving homes.









We gathered to the center of the corral, forming a circle.
Lonnie led the prayer in his native tongue.
No pictures would be taken.
Being a part of the 'song' for the horses,
was something I will remember forever.
I'm so thankful I was able to be a part of this ceremony.















Thanks to Laura, we all enjoyed yummy hot chocolate afterwards.

Your gift was so thoughtful Laura!!
The day was cold, and the hot chocolate warmed us to the bones.

The painting of the four horses....

was done by Jay Largo

from Jen's vision of the Mustangs in the clouds.

(Jen's brother Jay, is from New Mexico)

The t-shirts are available to purchase. Jen did the screen printing herself.

Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt, I will get you in touch with Jen.

I think they are $15 + shipping.

Watch Out For That Bunk!

On July 3rd, 2009.... before I noticed the filled-back-in auto gate, I found this salt and mineral bunk in the middle of our auto gate...






In the background of the above picture is the entrance to the former 3 Strikes Ranch.
The kids had gone into town after they dug out Meduna's autogate (the 1st time) for the Alliance 4th of July Fireworks Display (on the 3rd). Don and I stayed home, as we were all now accustomed to never leaving the place unattended.





It was towards evening, and with some of our cattle in the bordering pasture to Mudna's, I decided to go check everything out again. As I rounded the corner, there to my surprise was one of our blue plastic tubs we put salt and mineral in for the cattle. We have two pieces of approximately 4'-5' long rebar criss-crossed on the bottom of the tub to prevent cattle from tipping the bunk over. The bunk was about half full, so that means there was around 80 lbs. total of salt and mineral in it. So he drug it from the spot that is about half way between the autogate and his entrance, all the while trespassing. Or should I say, someone drug it.






This picture shows how far the bunk was drug, and was left in the middle of our autogate. What this means is: later that evening, when it was dark...someone probably would have run into the tub on the way back from town. A normal tub, not having rebar sticking out of the sides, may have slid off the autogate, but then stopped when it hit the dirt, and went up under the vehicle. Now this particular bunk, could have very easily got stuck in the pipes of the autogate, and could have done some serious danger when the rebar went up under the vehicle. Driving home that night, in one automobile, were Josh, Josie and my little granddaughter, Cadence....and Justin and Allie (who by the way was very pregnant) - so what could have happened when an air bag went off into Allie?

That is probably why, after I moved the bunk out of the way, I went home and called Mr. Berry (Jason's lawyer) and left a message about it. I was a little upset.

Oh by the way, this is another thing that Jason tried to bring up at my 'harassment case'... was that I was calling HIS lawyer; HARASSING MR. BERRY!!!!

My tape measures, measuring to see just how far he did trespass to do this little job.

Wish I had a dime for every time he's trespassed on us. Or like, a dime a foot....

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM...

I drove out of the yard, nerves ready to have a volcanic eruption. It was Wednesday morning, August 5th, 2009. Jason and Anissa Meduna were taking me to County Court (probably didn't want it to be in front of the Judge whom he would face for animal cruelty charges, so they opted for County) for Harassment Charges... against them. It is about a 20 minute drive into town, and then 40 to Bridgeport. By the time I got to town, I decided I was not going to freak out over this, I had God on my side, and I was pretty sure they didn't.





I was still rather nervous, until they were in view. Funny how the mind kicks in to 'justice mode' when it's needed. My attorney was there with me. To my surprise, Meduna was representing himself! I am sure that his lawyer, Mr. Berry didn't even know Meduna filed this charge against me. Mr. Berry seemed to me to be a little more professional than that. I would think he croaked when he found out.





Oh yes, the title. When I left that morning, the kids knowing how upset I was (after I had just received notice the Friday before and only had a few days to prepare...) they wanted to take the edge off a little. I had never been in court, and I don't watch any court TV, so what did I know? Justin and Josh said, "Come on Mom, take one for the team. Smile at him or something...and he'll attack you. A broken arm or something; you can do it. Then the Sheriff will take care of the rest." I love my sons.





The Mailbox, I've already written a little about. But imagine my surprise when Jason brought this up. HE was questioning ME... he sat about 5' from me. The County Judge was at my left side. So Meduna asked, 'why did you try to get the Post Office to not allow us to have a mailbox at our house?' (some of you have already heard all this) - Terry started to 'object', but I was already starting to answer the question. I forgot I was supposed to let Terry have time to object, but I so wanted the Judge to hear my side!!





The Judge said he didn't see the relevance, and Mudna said it was intimidation. (The judge had mentioned that word before, that's what Meduna was labeling all of his arguments from then on - 'intimidation'). I looked at Jason Meduna and said, "You must not remember, but when you first moved here, I called the Post Office, trying to help YOU get your mailbox moved to your house." Then I turned to the judge, "Your Honor, when Jason and Anissa first moved here, their mailbox was over at the main county road, which is about 2 miles from their house (it's actually further). I called the Post Office, asking why they couldn't put a mailbox at their house? What the Post Office is trying to do, is whenever someone new moves in, they are telling them they have to have their mailbox on the main Broadwater Road, ...I also visited with Jason, saying if he could make his entrance corral area big enough for the mail lady to drive over the auto gate, and turn around there, it might work." Jason then started to say, 'what about you saying I couldn't put a mailbox there?' (Well, duh... no, he couldn't put a mail box in our pasture, but he could at his entrance, but I didn't get to say that.) Terry objected, Judge agreed. Jason started to ask me again about the mailbox and the Judge said, "I sustained the motion, do you have another question?" Jason again, started to mention the mailbox... the Judge very adamantly said, "I think we've already taken care of the mailbox, next question."





Well now, I'm pumped. 'This ain't so bad'....was going thru my mind. Oh what the Judge must have thought about Meduna. I could tell in the first few minutes, he was going no where. I was glad Terry was there, along with Mom and Dad, Jean (the County Attorney) and Sheriff John.





After I received my summons, I called Terry on Friday, July 31st. I told him if he was already busy he could just tell me what to say, etc. It was then that I found out, if I had been found guilty, or the charge went through, they would have came to our house and confiscated all of our guns! (the 2 BB guns we have) - for a year!! So Don told me, "If you get this pinned on you, tell John to just bring the cuffs, I will not surrender my guns."







So, we still have our BB guns..... and two people stormed out of the room that day!

Of course, there's more....

...the Vet has determined Toxic Poisoning....

This 'blog' is a mixture of things: more of the pictures I took of 3 Strikes Ranch, and comments and thoughts of being accused of poisoning the horses. One look at the land, I think everyone knows what happened to the horses. People who later became my friends, began to tell me of the lies Jason told them. Everything from feeding our cows against the fence line in order to poison his horses; to telling them we didn't have horses, hated horses, and that's why we wanted him gone.

This is the south side of 3 Strikes Ranch. I'm zoomed in with my camera, but you can see it's still pretty close to his buildings. While I was on the 4 wheeler taking all the pictures, someone came out of the trailer, looked my way. I found myself feeling a little intimidated, nervous, and I think my heart was beating a little more rapidly. But my anger for what was happening to the land and the horses prevailed, and I continued taking pictures.



One thing to note: Time Frame. I was seen taking these pictures February 10th , and March 3rd thru March 7th. BLM authorities (other than the one in his hip pocket), State authorities and others received the picture book of 3 Strikes land, around March 17th thru the 21st. Suddenly, the Deputy Sheriff is at our door March 28th, reporting Meduna's claim that Justin stole Rayu. Jason saw me taking pictures March 6th, suddenly he's on the board, 2nd week in March, saying they had to bring the horses in because the neighbors were poisoning them.



Think I'll save my money and not hire a private investigator to figure that one out.
.....................................




THE VET HAS DETERMINED TOXIC POISONING...(AS STATED BY MEDUNA)

This is what Jason TOLD everybody on the 'horse forums'. As I've said, up until someone emailed me a link to ABR - (that was the first one I read on); I had no idea anything like this even existed. So here's what I read:

'Jason and Anissa M. of 3 Strikes need help with some mustangs that have come down with some kind of (what the vet has thus far determined to be) toxic poisoning.'

'What on earth is this about?!!' was most likely my first thought, close second would be something like, 'That big fat liar.' So I figure now is as good a time as any to continue with land pictures... I'm thinking it's NOT poisoning, just as the vet ACTUALLY thought also. The vet did not say he figured it was toxic poisoning, that is what Jason lied to everyone (one of the lies he told).

The pictures continue on, clockwise around the perimeter of Meduna's land. These are other neighbors that border him.


In the following picture, the foreground is the neighbor's land to the south of Meduna's. The dark spot and circle you notice by the fence; it was a horse that died there. One of Meduna's, on the opposite side of 3 Strikes Ranch property.




This is horse hair, and the neighbors did not lose a horse. It was one from 3 Strikes Ranch. The wires were broken, someone must have stood the post up along the fence...maybe a neighbor to get Jason's attention? I would say this horse struggled, horrendously. Either from being too weak to get up, or did he get caught in the wire, trying to get to food on the other side, and couldn't get free? Jason's land is on the right of the fence.


Besides some hair, this is the only remains I could find of the horse.


................................................................


'All of the horses affected by this are up against a fence line that boarders another ranch. No other horses are affected or ever go into that territory....no horses have access to that area right now.' (March 15, 2009)

That other ranch, being the Freibergers.... and I'm reading this from the Internet with my mouth dropped open and my eyes in permanent frown mode!

..............................


(This is southeast of Jason's buildings. The left lower corner is another neighbor's land, the meadow-if you can call it that, is Meduna's. Notice wires down, and the grass eaten on the neighbor's side. I'm pretty sure these horses were just simply looking for something to eat.)




And then of course, there was the asking for donations for the Medunas....to help with their toxic poisoned horses. HA. If it weren't for the horrible outcome of the horses, and the intentional destruction this would almost be funny.



The right side was owned by Meduna. It is meadow ground. The sad thing is, it is also a salt grass, that usually gets left by animals. The brown looking grass toward the middle of the picture are bull rushes. We put up rushes during haying season for bedding roads and blow-outs! Why? Because the cattle AND horses DO NOT EAT them. They ate at much as they could reach of the neighbors' ground across the fence also.


The corker here is, Jason told certain people all this stuff to post, but they unfortunately, had no idea at the start of this, that he was lying to them.



(The middle fence is part of 3 Strikes. The trees in the far right, are where I found a dead horse. The buildings in the far left, was Meduna's.)







So most of what you read, is what Jason told them to say. I don't blame them - in fact, they are good friends now; they were just victims of the sickness of a couple people.

Then there was talk on the board about cattle feed that could kill a horse instantly. So here I am reading all this, in total shock; and keep in mind....so is Anissa and Jason. And they know what is going on. Then it's stated that they are tick infested. But why, Jason said, 'along the stretch of land the horses hang out is a cedar tree wind break on the neighbor's cattle ranch.' Now I'm reading this thinking, funny....our cows, horses or dogs don't have ticks. Why are our ticks just hi-tailing it to Meduna's and jumping on his horses? Especially when our trees are not close to Meduna's land. LIES LIES LIES. It was starting to drive me crazy, all the reading and comments about our family. My dear like-a-'little'-brother friend kept telling me to be careful and not let it get to me.

'He has brought that ranch from nothing to something ...has spent the past couple years cleaning it up' ....I, personally, have a bit of a different outlook on that.

'With wind blowing out there, it could have blown anything in.' Our land didn't blow. Jason even bragged of sandstorms on his ranch! Now I'm sorry, but how stupid is that? The last thing all of us would do is brag about how our land was blowing like in Hidago. That is exactly what he did. The difference is, all of his neighbors had ground cover, his land was the only land moving like the sand storms in the movie Hidalgo. Those poor horses. They were sand blown in the corrals also. When a horse is standing by a windbreak, in a sand storm, it just circles around and gets caught in the updrafts, believe me, they were not out of the weather.

"if neighboring ranch is using mineral....can be picked up by the wind and dispersed huge distances" NO, NO, NO. When you have a total of 25 lb. of mineral, mixed with 25 lb. of salt - (which by the way, the mineral contains NOTHING that could hurt a horse, BECAUSE OUR HORSES HAVE ACCESS TO IT ALSO!) and that 50 lb of salt and mineral is in a plastic tub, that only fills it to half full, and is located NO WHERE close to Meduna's land that the wind could pick up and carry that far - no way, no how.

It was posted on ABR, that the vet told Anissa he thought they may be able to help 'Blue' and that he wouldn't give up on the little foal. In court, Meduna testified differently. So the board is raising funds for Meduna for 3 horses that are 'sick' from poisoning, and they need tests. As of March 16, there are now $675.00 raised for this. There is little 'Blue', fighting for his life at the vets, and another horse that is sick at the ranch, 'that as the same thing the other foal has.' No one would ever dream they aren't being fed!

On March 17, it was stated that 'Jason is busy trying to get the ducks in a row for the rest of the horses (5 total) that are being affected by this.' .....Now I'm reading this, wondering what about all the dead ones I've seen while taking pictures??????

March 18, Anissa sends a message thru someone on the board (ABR) that 'Blue' is still hanging in there, fighting and struggling to stand on his own.' The board is still raising funds to figure out what's wrong.

March 19, Jason sends a message thru someone on ABR... 'there's concern with possible intentional feeding of cattle feed to some of the horses....the fence line band of horses are the ones affected - next to the cattle ranch.'

And if that's not enough, later they post on the board that little Blue died. Now they are going to ask money for necropsy tests to be done on the dead colt. BUT.......
he's not dead! I'm thinking there's a law against that..... raising money for a dead horse to be tested, that is not dead.

The last two pictures are of horses that were kept up by the house.

I hope they survived. Did they survive?

I have now covered the entire east side (perimeter), north to south. There's the west side left. No, it doesn't improve.......

Poisoning? Or just nothing to eat...

I had to check my calendar again. When was it that we looked across the fence and noticed the level soapweed plants? Soapweed yucca, (Yucca Glauca Nutt.) a perennial that has early spring blooms on a strong stem in the center of the long, narrow sharp leaves the reach upward 12"-24". After the blooms do their thing, the plant produces a 'pod'. The pod averages 3" in length and I suppose about 1-2" diameter, that's while it's still green. That's when it's candy. At least that is what our cows think. If we move cattle into a pasture that has all the green pods still on the stems, they will cover practically the entire pasture, just eating off the pods. Then they go back to grazing. Of course, if the cattle didn't have a chance to get into a pasture with pods that have now opened up and turned brown, they're just something I pick for decoration. When the pods are no longer green, the texture is that of wood, and the stem is now like a thick twig. Nothing eats it. This is actually leading up to something.....

May 9, 2008; a friend of mine came out from town. Our mission was to look at the land of 3 Strikes Ranch. It was during a nice day, and the snow had melted. Our curiosity was to see the condition of the land after the snowfall we'd had, and to see if there was any grass left, or hay being fed. Looking out over the hills, there wasn't an abundance of vegetation. The moisture was much needed, hopefully we were getting enough for these hills to heal up and keep producing.

One thing we noticed: when you looked out across the hills at the soapweed plants, it looked like someone had just come along with a measuring stick and evenly cut the plant to the same level, like you were trimming hedges. There were no 'sticks' coming out of the plant; the stem was gone. Our thought, "Oh my gosh, they ate whatever they could find sticking out of the snow. They had no feed." I am sure that is exactly what all of those horses did. We had never noticed hay being fed in the pastures. So those poor animals, during the snow storms, ate the stems and sharp-edged leaves of the soapweed plants as far as they could. As I'm writing this, I remember talking to someone that was there, of all the cuts and scabs by the eyes and on the face. Have you ever grabbed a soapweed plant, or yucca plant, with your bare hands? Those horses were probably trying to eat them for nourishment, and in the process they cut their face.

So that leads us to the land. Soon after I took pictures of the land, and sent them off to whoever I could think to send them; Jason Meduna claimed 'the neighbors' which would be my family, was poisoning the horses with cattle feed. So, I'll take you on a journey around the perimeter of his ranch. You decide. Does it look like the horses had enough to eat? I only wish we could have fed them.

To get to Jason's entrance, you had to drive through our land, which is where I am taking the picture. the 'Kids Pasture'. The following land pictures were taken in February and March of 2009.

This is the entrance to what was, 3 Strikes Ranch. Of course, when I refer '3 Strikes' or 'Meduna's land', happily it no longer is. The Kooper Ranch now belongs to the Greens. The picture journey will start here, and continue clockwise, covering the perimeter of the Meduna property. I saddled up my 4 wheeler, made sure I had extra batteries for my camera...and was off.

Jason's meadow ground is what you see here. There stands a few horses. I have another picture of this meadow with 1 horse carcass, and 1 live horse. That picture is being saved for that distant possibility of a book. This meadow joins ours to the north, and is east of Jason's house.

On the right side of the fence, is Meduna land. Notice that bare patch of land on the left? It is not too hard to see that posts are leaning to that side; they leaned over to eat the grass, thus causing erosion to start on our property also. The kids had just fixed this fence in January, and now, February 10, were fixing it again. Most of the posts in this line of fence were broken.

How sad for the horses. As I looked out across the hills on the 3 Strikes side, it looks bare as far as the eye can see. I visited a desert in Arizona once, this is pretty close to that memory. I imagine they do not show up on the above picture, but when I zoom in; there are horses in the background, horses that made it....or did not. The lake on the left belongs to Gilroys.

You know, I'm pretty sure I don't need to write anything to explain these pictures. Just imagine though, checking our own cattle and looking across the fence at this. And he accused us of poisoning his horses...

My heart sank when the kids called me on our business band radio, "Mom, you there? Grab your camera and come over by where we're fencing. There's another dead horse."



There are three different land owners in this picture. Our land is the bottom left corner, Gilroy's land is the top left corner, and Meduna's ground is the right side of the fence. The typical leaning posts, staples pushed out from horses leaning over fences, and wires down. At this corner, we leave our property, and will continue around Meduna's borders, (with permission from our good friends/neighbors).




Gilroy's land, as all of the surrounding neighbors; had to deal with staples out, wires down, posts broken. ONE of the things that made me laugh when I read the 3 Strikes web site, was Jason claiming how well/much he fenced, because 'good fences make good neighbors'. Geez. I didn't even know it existed until a friend told me about it. (His web site, not good fencing...that didn't exist for 3 Strikes Ranch)

A good example of how the horses had to lean over in search of grass. The left side of the fence is actually Gilroy's land. He is another that Meduna accused of different things. The grass should come up to the fence line, as it is-there is about a 3' wide, eaten-to-the-ground path. I guess I don't need to repeat my self about staples out, wires down, and posts broken. Just ditto that for the rest of the tour.

How can things get this far out of hand? This ground didn't just appear like this over night. My husband watched it rapidly decline for 2 years. Why didn't we say something to Meduna about it? As I said in court, we did talk to him when he first moved in. He actually waved me over when I was in the hay field, he said he noticed we were haying the meadow, and since it runs into his meadow, it must be time to put it up! (good thinking, Mudna) Then Don talked to him, and HE ASKED DON about the fencing.... Don told him a few tips on where he would fence it and how if it were his. But, Meduna never did anything with the knowledge....(and I think Don has some, since he's lived here all his life, which would be over 50 years, you would hope one sort of knows what to do by then).



Anybody see anything to eat out there??????? Oh yes, what you probably cannot see in this picture, more bones up the hill.




In the center of this picture, you cannot see it very well, but there is another carcass on the ground. I took the liberty to zoom it in for you in the next picture.



A lot of the horses found on the place, were in low ground. That would be where the most vegetation would be. At least the horses knew that, but there was nothing there.


Meadow ground.
Pretty sure the average person can figure out there's no poisoning of feed, no poisoning of water....Hey, maybe there IS NO FEED, and there IS NO WATER. In grade school, we were taught that is what is needed to survive; or maybe our human instincts just knew that.





Alright...in this close up and the next close up; here is what I think happened. (No, I do not claim to be a vet, or have a fraction of their knowledge.) When I zoomed in on this horse, I think she went down, probably began labor, and had two things against her: 1. she was too weak to push and 2. she was laying downhill, which didn't help matters at all.




Yes, this poor horse could just be bloated from death. I stick to my thoughts:
There is dirt upturned behind her; this is either from her struggle to get up, have her colt, or a coyote has already come visiting. I prefer to hope it's one of the first two. It looks to me like her tail is high and behind her, this is what cows look like when they are calving. I personally have never watched a horse have a baby, but I'm pretty sure it's likely about the same. To me, it would appear she has a 'bag' - it looks like it is developed for a baby to suck, but could also be from death. I think she was with milk, ready to nurture her baby. And I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I think the white 'spot' you see between her bag and her tail, is possibly a hoof. A baby hoof that never had a chance to be born into this world.

In our world of calving, we check our cows every couple hours. If one is calving, we check her more often until the calf is on the ground. The risk of the dying from even the sack on it's face is there, so we are there. We may not save all of them, but we are out there trying.

This horse breeder was not. And how many died that we'll never know of? How long has he been breeding?

I can only hope death was fast. But death from starvation is not...



This photo is from the south/eastern side of 3 Strikes Ranch.

Guess which side belonged to Meduna?

Obviously, the right side of the fence was Meduna's. The hills in the far, far distance were Meduna's.

Words are not needed.

The erosion on the left side of the fence, is caused by the fact there is no ground cover on Meduna's side, so when the wind blows.....so does the sand. It covers the grass on the opposite side, although most of it directly on the opposite side, had been eaten down to the ground also. Can you imagine why?

Some say, 'he just got in over his head.' I say, 'No.'

This 'tour' consists of only half our border with Meduna, and one other neighbor. There are three more that border him. This is the first set. This is the east area that he told everyone he had to get the horses in from, to be able to watch them and protect them from the neighbors, and to keep them from any more poison.

Now look at this land. What do you think? Someone (we) poisoned his horses? Or did they just not have anything to eat?