PITTSBURGH — Wild horses have a friend in Marty Irby.
“As a kid, horses were my friend and I felt an obligation to protect them, and that’s been my number one thing in life,” Irby said recently.
The eight-time world champion equestrian will bring his equine activism to Pittsburgh for the one-day screening of “Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West” on Thursday.
Directed by Ashley Avis, whose previous work includes Disney’s “Black Beauty” in 2020, “Wild Beauty” presents stunning images of wild horses in their natural environment and the cruelties they face in what activists call “inhumane” helicopter round-ups by the federal government.
Avis and her film team spent four years making the documentary, filming wild horses in the majestic western landscape as well as the controversial government roundups.
The film won best documentary at the Boston and St. Louis Film Festivals, setting it up for a possible Oscar nomination.
Irby describes the documentary as a magnificent work in cinematography capturing the behind-the-scenes plight of wild horses and the “federal bureaucrats who are killing wild horses and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.”
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management manages the herds of wild horses and burros that can increase up to 20% annually.
“Population control must be implemented to protect scarce and fragile resources in the arid West and ensure healthy animals,” the agency stated on its website.
Irby has been advocating for wild and show horses for a decade after he started working on Capitol Hill in 2013. Wild horses are a “hot topic, it’s like the bald eagle. People are very passionate about these horses that helped build civilization for thousands of years,” he said.
Irby stopped competing in 2010 and had seen abuse of the animals in the show horse world.
“I hung up my spurs,” he said, to become president of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ & Exhibitors’ Association. He fought, including providing congressional testimony, to ban “soring,” a painful practice that changes a horse’s gait for the show ring.
“You can win all the world championships you want to, but you get to a point and look at the expense of what a horse is going through, he said.
“Seeing everyone competing – it’s a game of who can out-cheat at the expense of the horse’s welfare. In wild horses, it’s a game of people padding their pockets at the expense of the horses.”
Irby’s activism caught the attention of Queen Elizabeth II, who honored his horse activism in August 2020. Monty Roberts, the renowned royal horse trainer and a friend of Irby’s, pioneered a brand of gentle training. He asked Irby to write his life story and gave it to the queen for consideration of the honor.
Irby heard that the queen read his narrative twice. “I can’t top that no matter what I do in my life,” he said. “She’s one of the few people in the world who loves horses as much as I do.”
In the long run, Irby said the only way to solve one of the major issues facing wild horses is to prohibit helicopter roundups. Round-ups should be conducted on horseback, he said.
“Horses are flight animals. They flee and they are much more stressed when charged by a helicopter.”
Wild horse populations should be kept in check by birth control darts, which is supported by the Humane Society, he said. The BLM on its website said the agency does administer the birth control vaccine to captured wild mares.
Humane Action Pittsburgh is screening the documentary to raise awareness of the plight of wild horses on public lands, said Natalie Ahwesh, executive director.
The nonprofit also wants to catch the attention of Sen. John Fetterman, who serves on the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, “to address horse slaughter in the upcoming farm bills,” she said.
“Our tax dollars are being spent on rounding them up, often for slaughter, so beef cattle can graze,” Ahwesh said. “We were only able to screen for one night due to our limited budget.”
At Thursday's event, Irby will answer questions from the audience following the documentary. Humane Action Pittsburgh is sponsoring the film at Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville.
Tickets, $15, are only available online at wildbeauty.eventbrite.com.
———
