While the Thoroughbred world is a notoriously insular one, no horse is ever an island. The butchering of Mongolian horses, for instance, may to people in our business seem to belong to another planet. But it's all one world, in which millions of individual interactions with horses should proceed along the same arc of dignity and responsibility. That's the premise for World Horse Day, introduced on July 11 last year by the United Nations, and the challenge for what could prove, for a Thoroughbred industry increasingly cognizant of its exposure to Main Street, potentially the most important film since Seabiscuit.That movie opened with a historic sequence depicting mass production of the “horseless carriage.” It then cut to a scene of Tom Smith, that time capsule of Old West horse-lore, riding through open country until suddenly confronted by a new barbed wire fence.In the century since the events depicted in Seabiscuit, the impact of urbanization has grown ever more profound. Much of the planet, indeed, now comprises societies as “horseless” as the automobile. At the same time, 600 million people retain a daily economic dependence on domesticated equines. For the makers of Fire Horse, a 90-minute documentary to evangelize World Horse Day, the challenge is to reconcile such a vast range of human experience into a coherent narrative. While still in the pre-production phase, they appear determined to embrace that challenge in compelling fashion.Certainly they have grasped the paradox that universal themes, and global reach, are best entrusted to individual, personal tales. Fire Horse will in fact begin with one such from the Mongolian steppes, before entwining numerous others from around the world–ultimately meeting the same barbed wire fence as Tom Smith.Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa addresses the U.N. | courtesy World Horse Day FoundationProducer Mark Galvin actually traces his involvement in the project to a human engagement of his own. For it was his friend Naranbadrakh “Naara” Batkhuu whose horror, witnessing the ordeal of a terrified mare in a Mongolian slaughterhouse in 2013, ignited a campaign that ultimately led to World Horse Day. Starting with a horse sanctuary, Batkhuu has meanwhile established an educative and economic partnership with herders and captured the imagination of his national President, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa.“Naara has paperwork that proves him to be a direct descendant of Genghis Khan and, if you met him, you would agree that he actually could be,” Galvin says. “He's a powerful being, put it that way, and gets things done. He's been incredibly influential in Mongolia. The president was already working on stopping live export of horses to China. The cruelty of that trade was unbelievable. So when he heard of the work Naara was doing, the two of them came together. They wanted to restore a lost horse culture, and together they've been working on reducing the slaughter, and finding alternatives for the herders.”Meanwhile the president resolved to expand his horizons. If Mongolian national heritage plainly owed horses a better deal, then it could also be a platform for much wider protections. After a five-year campaign, he persuaded the United Nations to inaugurate World Horse Day.Recording that journey, however, will only serve as an overture to Fire Horse, which will then broaden its horizons into far wider celebration of the horse-horizons both literal and metaphorical. Besides Mongolia, proposed locations include South Africa, the U.S., Britain and Switzerland; with a correspondingly diverse agenda. At the same time, each chapter will tell a single, shared history, between the horse and humankind.Mark Galvin | courtesy Mark GalvinFor millennia, that history was rooted in an economic relationship, of service, followed, since the dawn of the industrial age, by increasing disconnection. Now there are signs of resurgence, with the horse participating in human therapy and environmental recovery.“Obviously the main reason for World Horse Day is the welfare of 60 million horses today,” Galvin says. “But horses have been an integral part of humanity's story. So we need to tell a cultural story, as well: how the horse has affected poets and writers, for instance. We're speaking to the Rockefeller Foundation, David Rockefeller having been one of the biggest collectors of horse art, sculptures, paintings.“And then we'll be asking, 'Where are we now? And where are we going?' While those 600 million people still rely on the horse, there's going to be a big transition over the next 15, 20 years because of robotics and cheap electric trucks and bikes out of China and India. Obviously there's global decline in equine sports, as well. But there are many transition opportunities, too.”Equine therapy is one such. Featured examples from our own community include the Man O 'War Project at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (mowproject.org)–the first program to develop and test a protocol that uses horses to treat any mental health condition, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation prison program, and racehorse retraining. Further afield, in the Swiss Alps, a powerful tale will be told of an autistic woman who did not speak at all until given a horse at the age of 12. The expression she then discovered has proved so comprehensive that she is now herself healing autistic children.“So we have amazing stories of this deep connection,” Galvin says. “And we're also looking at the science behind that resonance. We've Professor Ann Baldwin, a British scientist in Arizona, looking at how horses actually have a measurable biological benefit on humans.”That mystery of connection could hardly be in more dexterous hands: Fire Horse will be made by the world's first award-winning blind director, Adam Morse, whose inspiring career has evolved a revelatory, sensory-focused perspective. But the film's specific human narratives will be complemented by a far broader story of healing: that of our hurting planet. Two rewilding projects will bring things full circle. Viewers will return to Mongolia, to see how horses are renewing its grasslands; while in North American mustang country they shall observe the removal of the fencing that baffled Tom Smith.“A lot is changing for the horse,” Galvin emphasizes. “The Mongolian steppes are being degraded by overgrazing. There are 75 million sheep and goats eating grass from the root, which didn't happen traditionally. That's not just destroying the grasslands, but a whole nomadic culture. But there's now a brilliant program where the herders–who can only earn $20,000 total from 5,000 livestock–instead adopt horses, which actually encourage growth, and also get carbon payments for reducing their sheep and goat herds. So it's a win-win. It stops the slaughter, restores the grasslands, and restores the culture. But it also makes common sense, economically.“And that template can in some ways be applied to the mustangs, in that there can be economic benefit in preserving these wild horses. Ranchers are now being paid to take down the fences, and compensated if any livestock are killed by wolves or bears. When Michael Nathanson [ex-head of MGM Studios] first came into that project, he said it was almost like a battle with the ranchers. But he's changed the whole atmosphere, saying, 'Hey, let's work together. There are ways of doing this.' And that's what we want to highlight, in this film: that there is a way.”For both those rewilding programs, naturally, funding has been imperative–and Fire Horse will be no different. The World Horse Day Foundation, as a 501c non-profit entity, is seeking tax-deductible donations to the kind of budget, around$2 million, required to achieve eligibility for such mass streaming platforms as Netflix or Prime. But Galvin feels that the Thoroughbred community has already given much to the enterprise.“Everybody I've spoken to, in the six months since engaging in this, has been so passionate about welfare,” he says. “And they know that the conversation has to be had. Aga Khan Studs, for instance, they're cradle-to-grave, and the Princess is passionate about it. So we're thinking, 'Let's tell these positive stories, these great stories that can influence others.' In the western world, the majority of horses are well taken care of. But what we don't want to do is point fingers. Let's just bring everybody together, so that there can be a learning for us all going forward. At the end of the day, it's all about the horse, about telling the world its part in our history and the need to help horses thrive, now and in the future.”The post Film on World Horse Day Aims to Fire Global Interest appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.