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Transcript

The Elephant in the Room · Relatively Stable

0:11
SPEAKER_01: The elephant in the room.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: Someone sent an anonymous letter and I decided to answer it.
0:22
SPEAKER_01: So here's the thing.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: I have tried my very best to live my life out in the open.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm a writer that alone puts the fear of God into family members.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm liable to share anything.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: If you're planning a surprise party, don't tell me.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: I won't give the secret away on purpose,
0:43
but my default setting for transparency will accidentally let
0:47
it slip every single
0:48
SPEAKER_01: time.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: Lying doesn't work for me either.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: If I try to fib about something, I get a weird, creepy grin on my face.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: It's like the Joker, but the opposite of his intentions.
1:02
Although now that I think about it,
1:04
that could have been what put that smile on his face too.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: My mouth does the same thing with half-truths.
1:12
Trying to keep the truth of what happened to our horse Sheba on
1:16
the trailer ride to
1:17
the new farm from the children in the barn whose parents have
1:20
chosen to offer a
1:22
softer version of her absence has been very hard for me to pull
1:26
off without
1:27
SPEAKER_01: slipping.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: We have multiple children at the farm who have lost parents.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: Many of those kids were close to Sheba.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: And that is just one layer of how we live with her loss every day.
1:39
I gave the parents the option of discussing Sheba's accident in
1:45
whatever way worked
1:46
SPEAKER_01: for their individual family structure.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: When I wrote the full details of her death a few weeks ago,
1:53
it was with the full knowledge that one day these kids may read
1:56
my words and
1:57
SPEAKER_01: understand what happened.
1:59
I had to weigh the cost of that against the need for Sheba's
2:02
story not to disappear
2:05
SPEAKER_01: as if it had never happened.
2:08
And that's just a fraction of the internal balancing that
2:10
happens every day on this farm.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: There's also the physical balancing.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: I wish I had taken a photo of what the garage looked like last week.
2:21
A maze of towering boxes with narrow sections where slim people
2:26
had to turn
2:27
SPEAKER_01: sideways just to pass through.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm not one of those slim people.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: I bump into everything.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: When we landed at Lavender Hill,
2:36
the horses and the tools that make their daily care possible
2:40
were the priority for
2:41
SPEAKER_01: unpacking.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: The tack room filled quickly with heaps of saddles and bridle leather,
2:47
SPEAKER_01: but organizing it was far down the list.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: There were fences to mend.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: There were gates to rehang.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: The horses adjusted immediately to their new life,
2:58
SPEAKER_01: but we watched them constantly,
3:00
SPEAKER_01: monitoring and making changes to their care day and night.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: They watched us curiously while savoring mouthfuls of grass,
3:09
SPEAKER_01: living their best lives and becoming more balanced and at ease every day.
3:14
We returned to round bale hay feeding in the fields once the
3:18
grass went dormant in
3:20
SPEAKER_01: the cooler weather.
3:21
It had been nearly two decades since I had shoved my shoulder
3:24
into a big round and
3:26
SPEAKER_01: pushed it into place.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Luckily, this time I had help.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: When I first started Bramblewood,
3:31
it was often just me pressing a round bale off the back of a
3:34
truck with my legs.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: Max, my chestnut quarter horse, is 32 this year.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: It's 32 in March.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: That's this month.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: He has lived through all of these changes.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: My OCD was strangely quiet during the first weeks at Lavender Hill.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know where most of the light switches were yet,
3:55
SPEAKER_01: so it was hard to obsess over whether they were turned off.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: But my hyper fixating found new places to hover as we moved forward.
4:04
Social media filled with horror stories of horses dying from
4:08
botulism poisoning in round bales.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: I picked up my phone and panic texted the veterinarian.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: Did we need everyone vaccinated for botulism?
4:17
SPEAKER_01: I asked.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: And she assured me that our rounds were high quality and stored well.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: Would George develop laminitis,
4:25
a painful and potentially deadly inflammation of the hoof
4:28
lamina from eating the
4:29
SPEAKER_01: cool fall grasses?
4:32
I watched him stand and walk,
4:34
scanning for the smallest sign of discomfort.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: Would the horses in the field beside the road decide to test the fences?
4:42
SPEAKER_01: Michelle researched and ordered reflective collars for all the horses.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Michelle, for your heart-assuring gift.
4:51
Would the well pump hold up under heavy use after sitting idle
4:55
for so long while
4:56
SPEAKER_01: the property was vacant and on the market?
4:59
SPEAKER_01: Would the horses step into the pond and be unable to get out?
5:03
Would the old oak at the edge of the pasture decide to drop a
5:06
limb on a windy night?
5:09
SPEAKER_01: Would the systems in the farm stand up to incoming winter?
5:14
SPEAKER_01: Christopher is an aviation technician who works a day job.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: In the spare hours he has at the farm,
5:19
SPEAKER_01: he rebuilds the fencing,
5:21
digging corner post by hand and ferrying bundles of post across
5:25
the fields on his
5:26
SPEAKER_01: shoulder.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: Since we arrived at Lavender Hill, his entire life has become fencing.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: We hardly see each other on the weekends.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: He is fixing fences and I'm by the barn teaching students.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: Christopher's unwavering and constant work,
5:41
SPEAKER_01: getting this farm in order and walking the fence lines at night,
5:44
SPEAKER_01: counting the horses,
5:46
SPEAKER_01: making sure that everything is okay,
5:48
is a testament to his devotion to the idea of what we're
5:51
building and growing here.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't a farmer until he came to live with me.
5:56
The beauty of Lavender Hill is that it is ours now,
6:00
and we're doing this together.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: If someone has a problem with my work, they also have a problem with him.
6:05
SPEAKER_01: And Christopher is wholly innocent.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: He is the best of all humans.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: The work that happens here is not mine alone.
6:14
It unfolds through his hands every day in ways most people will
6:19
never see.
6:21
And any dismissal of what happens on this farm diminishes the
6:24
effort he pours into
6:26
SPEAKER_01: it,
6:26
SPEAKER_01: not just me.
6:28
With the barn mostly in order,
6:30
it finally felt good to begin tackling the garage last weekend.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: All the belongings we don't truly need
6:37
The accumulated detritus of life were waiting in damp boxes
6:42
stacked across the
6:43
SPEAKER_01: floor,
6:44
their quickly taped lids from the move powdered with bits of
6:48
popcorn ceiling that
6:49
SPEAKER_01: had fallen loose above them.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: There are all kinds of symbolism there.
6:56
It had taken me five months to find time to even begin
7:00
unpacking our lives.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: between the boxes and books and trips up and down the stairs.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: A letter arrived in the mail last week.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: It was addressed to me.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: Inside the envelope was a printed letter.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: No name, no return address.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: This is what it said.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Kimberly
7:27
We are riding on behalf of concerned members of the community
7:30
who donated to
7:31
SPEAKER_01: Bramblewood's cause.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: Our main concern is the safety and welfare of Bramblewood's horses,
7:37
SPEAKER_01: as well as the proper use of the donation money.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: Many people donated a considerable amount to you.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: At first, you framed it as, quote, saving Bramblewood's farm.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: However,
7:50
you did not save the farm and rather purchased a farm with much
7:54
improved conditions
7:56
SPEAKER_01: for yourself,
7:57
while the horses are now living outside with no shelter and
8:00
very unsafe fencing
8:01
SPEAKER_01: conditions.
8:03
We feel that it is very wrong to have taken so much money from
8:06
the hands of trusted
8:07
SPEAKER_01: members of your community,
8:08
SPEAKER_01: and that you are not using it to better the lives of the horses,
8:12
SPEAKER_01: but rather for your own desires.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: We are very disturbed at this,
8:16
and we are watching carefully and hoping that you will choose
8:19
to use the donated
8:20
money to put up proper fencing properly right away and build
8:24
shelters immediately
8:26
SPEAKER_01: for all the horses.
8:28
The second concern are the deadly and horrific conditions that
8:33
you created that led
8:35
SPEAKER_01: to the death of Sheba during transport.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: You were placing the blame on others while,
8:41
SPEAKER_01: in truth,
8:41
SPEAKER_01: you orchestrated a very dangerous,
8:44
SPEAKER_01: deadly situation and then sat back and did nothing.
8:49
You were responsible for making sure the horses were safe
8:52
during transport.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Instead,
8:55
you left the loading and transport of the horses in hands of
8:58
inexperienced handlers
9:00
SPEAKER_01: while you sat back and did not even bother to supervise the situation.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: You are entirely at fault for Sheba's death.
9:08
There is the huge question of how and why you thought it was
9:12
okay to load so many
9:13
SPEAKER_01: horses into one trailer with no divisions,
9:16
SPEAKER_01: etc.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: Even if the trailer floor had been safe,
9:19
it is incredibly dangerous to load so many horses into one
9:22
trailer without proper
9:23
SPEAKER_01: separation,
9:24
SPEAKER_01: etc.
9:26
We have discussed this with many respected expert horsemen who
9:29
were all shocked and
9:30
SPEAKER_01: in disbelief that you created such dangerous conditions for the horses.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: This makes us all question your intentions and equine, quote, expertise.
9:41
You conned people into donating a lot of money for transporting
9:44
the horses.
9:46
Instead,
9:46
you chose the most dangerous and cheapest way possible to
9:49
transport them.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: You could,
9:52
should have hired a deluxe rig or moved horses in small groups
9:56
with proper
9:57
SPEAKER_01: separation.
9:58
There are any number of ways that would have been safe and
10:01
prevented this accident.
10:02
Furthermore,
10:03
when Sheba was injured,
10:04
you didn't even go to help or support.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: You should have been there for the horses and humans involved.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: This is pure negligence and irresponsibility on your part.
10:14
Many within the community have been permanently traumatized by
10:17
what happened during
10:18
the transportation process and are especially upset that you
10:21
are blaming it all on
10:23
others rather than taking responsibility for your cheap and
10:26
heartless decisions.
10:27
We think it was in very poor taste to post details of the
10:31
accident in order to try
10:32
SPEAKER_01: to exonerate yourself,
10:33
SPEAKER_01: which it did not do,
10:34
SPEAKER_01: as it is clear that your decisions were negligent,
10:37
SPEAKER_01: uneducated,
10:38
SPEAKER_01: and not in the best interest of the horses.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: We cannot bring Sheba back from the grave,
10:44
but we encourage you to educate yourself on safe shipping
10:48
methods and to know that
10:50
SPEAKER_01: you should have gotten off your high horse and supervised the process,
10:54
SPEAKER_01: equipment,
10:54
SPEAKER_01: helpers,
10:55
SPEAKER_01: etc.,
10:56
SPEAKER_01: and used the donated funds to get the horses transported safely.
11:00
SPEAKER_01: She deserves so much better, and the rest of the horses do as well.
11:05
Hopefully you will do the right thing and spend the money to
11:07
give the horses proper
11:09
SPEAKER_01: living conditions for their future.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: If not,
11:12
we are considering lawsuits for misleading and misusing
11:15
donations and have already
11:17
filed complaints with animal control for the dangerous fencing
11:20
and lack of
11:21
SPEAKER_00: shelters.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: I read the letter several times.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Anonymous letters are a strange thing.
11:34
They allow someone to speak with certainty while remaining
11:38
safely invisible.
11:40
But the problems described in the letter do not reflect the
11:43
reality we live at Lavender Hill.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: The hardest part of reading the letter wasn't the attack on me,
11:51
but the erasure of the work of so many people that happens here
11:55
every single day.
11:57
I kept my cool as I informed our donors and extended community
12:01
that supports our
12:02
SPEAKER_01: farm on social media.
12:04
Many people advised me to brush it off,
12:06
to let it go,
12:07
to not take the letter seriously.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: But I can't let it go.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: The letter was addressed to me, and I'm glad it was.
12:18
But the accusations in this poison pen letter affect many more
12:21
people than just me.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: Before the move,
12:24
SPEAKER_01: our farm existed because of years,
12:26
SPEAKER_01: decades of built connections and contributions.
12:30
All of that condensed into a kind of urgency when we learned
12:33
that there was no
12:34
SPEAKER_01: choice but to relocate the farm.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: A small core group of people came together and did the work of giants.
12:42
I don't include myself in their numbers because I'm humbled by
12:45
what they accomplished.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: I never, ever could have moved this farm by myself.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: And here we are,
12:52
SPEAKER_01: five months later,
12:53
SPEAKER_01: and that same core group is still donating time,
12:56
SPEAKER_01: sweat,
12:57
SPEAKER_01: and resources to ensure that this farm continues.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: This anonymous writer is not just accusing me.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: By proxy, this person is accusing them.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: And that is something I cannot stay silent about.
13:13
Every single person who gave to our move is part of that
13:16
extended community.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: Without them, this relocation would not have been possible.
13:21
I've connected with the vast majority of them this week after
13:24
receiving the letter.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: Some responded by giving even more.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: The transition is not complete.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: We haven't landed quietly and safely.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: The work is not over.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: It's only just getting started.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: I've had worse accusations thrown at me.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: More often than not,
13:43
SPEAKER_01: they arrive secondhand,
13:45
SPEAKER_01: filtered through someone else rather than spoken directly.
13:49
My life has been filled with people deciding they are done and
13:52
leaving before we
13:53
SPEAKER_01: ever have a chance to sit down and talk honestly about what is wrong.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: Without that conversation,
13:59
there is no chance to understand their grievance and no chance
14:03
for me to speak for
14:03
SPEAKER_01: myself and no chance for us to all learn from it.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: But what I know we have done,
14:11
SPEAKER_01: what I know with absolute certainty,
14:13
SPEAKER_01: is give the horses at Lavender Hill the best possible life we can.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: I stand beside that truth unflinchingly.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: If anyone spends an hour with us at the farm, they'll understand why.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: I held back in my public responses on social media.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: I know this person is watching.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: They say so in the letter.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: Stable Roots is the platform where I write from my heart.
14:37
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to shy away from my feelings today.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: Here is my letter back to the person that sent the anonymous note.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: To the person who wrote the anonymous letter,
14:52
SPEAKER_01: you addressed me by name,
14:53
so I will answer you the same way I answer every hard thing
14:57
that crosses my desk or
14:58
SPEAKER_01: my life.
14:59
SPEAKER_01: I will write to you directly.
15:01
And I am always here to sit with you face to face and talk from
15:04
our hearts.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean that.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: You chose to not put your name on the letter,
15:10
and that choice tells me everything I need to know about the
15:13
difference between the
15:14
SPEAKER_01: two of us.
15:16
SPEAKER_01: I live my life in the open.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: My decisions,
15:18
SPEAKER_01: my work,
15:19
SPEAKER_01: my mistakes,
15:20
SPEAKER_01: and my grief all exist in public view because that is how I'm made,
15:24
SPEAKER_01: and that is why I write.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: I prefer things to be revealed.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: You choose the protection of anonymity.
15:33
If you believed what you wrote strongly enough,
15:36
you would have had the courage to sign it.
15:39
SPEAKER_01: You accused me of misusing donations.
15:42
Let me be clear about something you either do not understand or
15:45
have chosen to ignore.
15:47
The gifts received during the transition of this farm totaled
15:51
roughly $85,832.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: The property we now sit on cost $1.3 million.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: And the overwhelming majority of that came from my own pocket.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Removing the house,
16:07
SPEAKER_01: or as you put it,
16:08
SPEAKER_01: the much improved conditions I now live in,
16:11
SPEAKER_01: from that total,
16:12
SPEAKER_01: the land,
16:13
SPEAKER_01: barn,
16:14
SPEAKER_01: and arena alone cost $641,664.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: The house was not a luxury purchase added onto the land.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: It was part of the property and could not be separated from the sale.
16:28
If securing the land for the horses had meant sleeping in a
16:31
tent beside the barn,
16:32
SPEAKER_01: I would have done so without hesitation.
16:36
After every single penny of financial gifts for the move is
16:38
accounted for alongside
16:40
SPEAKER_01: the direct cost of the moving process,
16:43
I paid $614,967.95 out of my own pocket without the house
16:51
included in this total.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: If your goal was to expose some grand deception,
16:57
SPEAKER_01: you have misread the scale of what actually happened here.
17:01
If you think someone who wanted to con people would choose a
17:04
business model where
17:05
SPEAKER_01: they personally carry the overwhelming financial burden of the outcome,
17:09
SPEAKER_01: you might want to sit with that logic for a moment.
17:13
SPEAKER_01: Moving a working horse farm is not a romantic exercise.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: It is expensive, exhausting, and logistically complex work.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: It involves equipment,
17:21
SPEAKER_01: infrastructure,
17:22
SPEAKER_01: labor,
17:22
SPEAKER_01: insurance,
17:23
SPEAKER_01: emergency costs,
17:24
SPEAKER_01: lost income,
17:26
and countless hours of physical and emotional effort that most
17:29
people will never
17:29
SPEAKER_01: see.
17:31
That is the reality behind every farm of any type that survives
17:34
relocation.
17:37
One thing in your letter that struck me was the suggestion that
17:40
I present myself as
17:41
SPEAKER_01: some kind of unquestionable authority on horses.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: I have never done that, not once.
17:48
I have spent my entire life around horses and people who know
17:51
far more than I do.
17:54
And not a single mentor I respect has ever claimed that kind of
17:58
certainty for themselves.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: The title expert is given by others to others in the horse world.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: It is hard earned and rare.
18:10
I would trust no one who claimed that status,
18:14
and I absolutely do not claim it for myself.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: The best horsemen I know speak with humility because horses demand it.
18:23
Every day with a horse is an education and every decision
18:26
carries responsibility.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: Every mistake becomes a lesson I carry forward.
18:32
I will never stop learning about horses and I will never stop
18:35
learning from the
18:36
SPEAKER_01: choices I make around them.
18:38
Anyone who believes this work comes with a finish line of
18:41
mastery has not spent
18:43
SPEAKER_01: very long in the company of horses.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: You decided to take the very worst day of that lifelong learning process,
18:51
SPEAKER_01: the day Sheba died,
18:52
SPEAKER_01: and turn it into a weapon.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: Losing our old farm was horrible.
18:58
Losing Sheba in the manner that she died was something I will
19:01
never recover from.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: Sheba was my horse.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: You wrote about her as if she were a talking point in an argument.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: To me, she was a life that I carried responsibility for.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: The grief from that day is not something you get to assign,
19:19
SPEAKER_01: measure,
19:19
SPEAKER_01: or perform outrage about from the safety of anonymity.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: I documented what happened at the urging of actual experts,
19:29
SPEAKER_01: foremost the woman who wrote the literal book on large animal rescue,
19:33
SPEAKER_01: because the horse world hides too many accidents,
19:35
SPEAKER_01: and hiding them helps no one.
19:38
The information from that day is now being used to train first
19:41
responders,
19:42
SPEAKER_01: transporters,
19:43
and barn owners so that other horses and other people might be
19:46
safer in the future,
19:48
SPEAKER_01: so they don't make the same mistakes as me.
19:52
Every single person who was traumatized by Shiva's passing had
19:56
a vote in how the
19:57
SPEAKER_01: details of her passing were released to the public.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: We decided together how to share her story and how it would be used.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: It was not a flippant essay I posted to make myself feel better.
20:10
SPEAKER_01: It was a collective response to community pain.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: Everyone had a say, and all voices were taken into account.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: I know that you were not present at the scene,
20:20
SPEAKER_01: nor was I.
20:22
SPEAKER_01: But I do have to look everyone who was present in the eye.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: They all know how sorry I am and how fully I have taken the blame.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: I don't blame them.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: I blame myself.
20:35
You accused me of sitting back and doing nothing while
20:37
something dangerous happened.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: If you had any understanding of what that day actually looked like,
20:43
SPEAKER_01: you would know how absurd that claim is.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: But you did not ask.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: You did not come to the farm.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: You did not speak to the people who were present.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: You wrote a letter instead.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: You speak in the voice of, quote, concerned members of the community.
21:00
I know this community well enough to recognize when a
21:03
collective voice is speaking
21:05
SPEAKER_01: and when a single person is attempting to sound larger than they are.
21:09
SPEAKER_01: The response to the letter made that distinction quite clear.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: The horses here are not neglected.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: They live in pasture with grass,
21:18
SPEAKER_01: water,
21:19
SPEAKER_01: hay,
21:19
SPEAKER_01: herd companionship,
21:21
SPEAKER_01: some shelters,
21:22
SPEAKER_01: which they rarely use,
21:24
and daily care while we continue to build fencing and
21:27
infrastructure step by step.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: Farms are not built overnight.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: They are built through years of work, investment, and stewardship.
21:37
The fences we inherited with the purchase of this farm are
21:40
vastly safer and more
21:41
SPEAKER_01: sturdy than the fences we operated around in the old location.
21:46
The land we now occupy will remain agricultural land because I
21:51
chose to step
21:51
SPEAKER_01: forward and secure it when the previous farm was lost.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: The old property is already being developed.
21:58
Without the relocation,
22:00
this operation and everything it represents would have
22:02
disappeared.
22:04
Most of the horses would have been euthanized because they
22:06
could not find homes.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: You are free to dislike me.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: You are free to question my decisions.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: What you are not free to do is rewrite reality.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: You chose to step into the story anonymously.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: I choose to live it openly.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing more to say.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Kimberly Carter When I shared the letter publicly,
22:37
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what to expect or how the response would be.
22:42
What happened makes me want to thank the letter writer I heard
22:45
from people across the globe.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: The silence that anonymous accusations depend on never materialized.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: My phone is filled with messages.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: People who have stood beside this farm for years spoke up.
23:02
People who donated to the move wrote to say they were proud of
23:06
what we built together.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: Some even sent additional support this week to ensure the work continues.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: That response means so much more than an unsigned piece of paper.
23:19
The truth is not determined by whoever shouts the loudest from
23:22
the shadows.
23:23
It is revealed in the people who are willing to stand beside
23:26
each other in the light.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: Our work, unchanged from the day before, continues.
23:35
For anyone who genuinely wants to understand how the relocation
23:38
funds were used,
23:40
I am happy to provide the full financial summary detailing both
23:44
the gifts that
23:45
SPEAKER_01: supported this move and the actual costs.
23:48
Transparency has always been the standard here,
23:51
and it will remain that way.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: Send me a private message, comment here, give me a call.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: There is no shame or strings attached to my offer.
24:01
Anyone who would like to know where those gifts went is welcome
24:04
to ask for the accounting.
24:06
But as for the anonymous accusation and threats,
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I have said what needs to be said.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: The line is drawn.
24:16
Now it's time to notice what is in front of us,
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take care of those around us,
24:22
SPEAKER_01: and get back to work.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: Christopher, for his part, will continue working on the fences.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Off we go.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: Love, Kim.