The Horseman's Voice

Chicago Sun-Times

"You win championships when you're a player-led team," quarterback Caleb Williams said, and that's Johnson's goal.

The Horseman's Voice
Chicago Bears

January 1, 2016

Eric Ponders commented on Hon. Lou Lang's link.

"Education, roads and capital projects. Throw in some unfunded mandates for all public meetings to be audio and video recorded and be available for taxpayers aka the stockholders."

The Horseman's Voice

From Quarks to Quasars

Hundreds of America’s wild horses were reportedly sent to slaughter despite federal protections meant to keep them safe.

A The New York Times investigation (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/us/trump-wild-horses-legal-loophole-slaughter.html) traced mustangs sold by the Bureau of Land Management to livestock dealers, with records showing some BLM-branded horses later on trucks headed toward slaughter plants in Canada.

The horses began on public lands across the American West.

Under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the federal government manages and protects these animals. When the BLM decides herds have grown beyond what the land can sustain, horses can be rounded up and placed in government holding facilities, adopted or eventually sold.

That last option contains an important loophole.

A 2004 change to federal law directs the BLM to sell certain animals that are over 10 years old or have been offered for adoption at least three times. Once a horse is sold, ownership transfers immediately and the animal is no longer legally considered a federally protected wild horse.

The BLM also stops tracking it.

At the same time, BLM policy explicitly says buyers must not send the animals to slaughter or knowingly transfer them to someone who will.

Yet investigators found that some horses apparently entered that pipeline anyway.

Sales have also surged. The BLM sold 3,718 wild horses and burros in fiscal 2025, including 2,387 horses, compared with 1,509 animals the previous year.

The agency says more than 63,000 horses and burros remain in government facilities, costing taxpayers over $100 million a year, creating pressure to find private homes for more animals.

BLM has since tightened its rules, allowing it to bar buyers who recklessly or knowingly pass animals into the slaughter pipeline.

But another fight is unfolding in Washington, DC.

The Trump administration’s FY2026 budget omitted a longstanding congressional restriction preventing federal money from being used to destroy healthy wild horses and burros. Congress has historically restored those protections.

Learn more:
"Under Trump, Protected Wild Horses Are Going to Slaughter." New York Times via https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/us/trump-wild-horses-legal-loophole-slaughter.html

The Horseman's Voice

Good morning world.

https://youtu.be/0XkoO6oOy2g

Goodbye, Love
Song by Christian Nodal

I look into your eyes and you're not happy

And your look can't lie

There's no point in continuing like this

If you don't love me, it's better to leave

Nothing has been the same for a long time

You're not the same and you treat me badly

And before my G-d I could swear to you

How much I loved you and I still love you

Goodbye love, I'm leaving you

And this time forever

I will leave without turning back because it would be fatal

Goodbye, love, I was yours

The love of your life

You said it once, you made me believe it

How it hurts me to lose you

I will resign myself to forgetting you

Because you failed me

And see you there, my queen

Christian Nodal

The Horseman's Voice

Christian Nodal - Adiós Amor (Official Lyric Video) Music video by Christian Nodal performing Adiós Amor (Lyric Video)....

Adios @ The Meadows

The Horseman’s Voice

Illinois Racing Board

August 19, 2026
1:00 pm
555 West Monroe
1st floor, Illinois Room
Chicago, IL 60661

Please note that any additional requests to testify and/or provide written materials must be provided to
Board staff on or before 2:00 p.m., August 13, 2026.

AGENDA

1. Public Commentary.

2. Update from ITHA regarding Hawthorne backstretch.

3. Request submitted by FAIRMOUNT PARK, INC for approval of a racing official for races at the
Illinois State Fairs.

4. Request submitted by FAIRMOUNT PARK, INC. for approval of a racing official for calendar
year 2026.

5. Request submitted by STAFF for approval of the Board’s Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)
for the Illinois Racing Charity Grant.

6. Commissioner Comments.

7. Approval of June 17, 2026 Board Meeting Minutes.

8. Motion to adjourn.

Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama enjoying the pleasant weekend weather in the garden at his residence, Shewatsel Phodrang, in Leh, Ladakh, India on August 1, 2026. (Photo by Ven Tenzin Jamphel)

Blessed.

The Horseman's Voice

Good morning world

The Horseman's Voice