Can you share a little bit about who that is?

Absolutely.

So from Black Beauty, we have Mackenzie Foy, who's a dear friend and turned into a full-on horse girl after that film.

I helped her find her two horses.

She actually adopted a wild horse that was caught up in the slaughter pipeline, who we rescued and started rehabilitating.

And Mackenzie fell in love with her and brought her into her life.

So Mackenzie Foy, Zosia Mamet.

I want you to talk about what Black Beauty as a story means

What do you do in America to control the population numbers?

In the United States, there are parallels and there are differences, of course.

And in the States, we do have predators for wild horses.

We have wolves and mountain lions and animals that have similarly been eradicated because the issue primarily in the States is predators.

Tax subsidized livestock grazing and this massive smokescreen that the Cattlemen's Association essentially uses to say all of the wild horses have to be rounded up or, you know, most of them so that they're not degrading the range.

They're not degrading the fragile ecosystems.

It's the same repetitive process.

But what is the answer? Is there a humane way to keep numbers under control? And if so, what is it?

What do you do in America to control the population numbers?

In the United States, there are parallels and there are differences, of course.

And in the States, we do have predators for wild horses.

We have wolves and mountain lions and animals that have similarly been eradicated because the issue primarily in the States is...

Tax subsidized livestock grazing and this massive smokescreen that the Cattlemen's Association essentially uses to say all of the wild horses have to be rounded up or, you know, most of them so that they're not degrading the range.

They're not degrading the fragile ecosystems.

It's the same repetitive process.

What other ways are there that you've seen? We were talking or we had discussions about controlling reproductive ability, but what is the answer? Is there a humane way to keep numbers under control? And if so, what is it?

So tell me what motivated you to come all the way down under to Australia.

I have always wanted to visit Australia, and I, um, I can't believe the first time visiting your beautiful country is under these circumstances, but honored to be here to do my small part to help.

I grew up with horses, and later in life, I was very fortunate to write and direct Black Beauty for Disney based on the iconic novel by Anna Sewell, which really was an animal welfare plea for the horses of her time in the 1800s.

And doing that work and with the background as a journalist, I ended up getting very deep into the wild horse issue in the United States and worked on a documentary about our mustangs who get rounded up by helicopters and incarcerated into holding pens.

And, you know, doing that work, you care about horses, you care about the, the heritage they represent, whether it's in the United States or the brumbies here in Australia.

And it's so important to illuminate, you know, what's happening to them.

And so I followed the brumby issue for a number of years, and I got a call last Wednesday from the Australian horse trainer from Black Beauty, Cody Ross and Harris, and he said, "Ashley, I don't know how-- if you know, but they're culling the horses using helicopters." And, a-and that prompted my husband and I to get on a plane within twenty-four hours to come to Sydney and to come to the Kosciuszko to try to document what's going on, to try to see if we can get some international pressure to put a stop to this.

Tell us about what happened yesterday.

So tell me what motivated you to come all the way down under to Australia?

I have always wanted to visit Australia, and I, um, I can't believe the first time visiting your beautiful country is under these circumstances, but honored to be here to do my small part to help.

I grew up with horses, and later in life, I was very fortunate to write and direct Black Beauty for Disney based on the iconic novel by Anna Sewell, which really was an animal welfare plea for the horses of her time in the 1800s.

And doing that work and with the background as a journalist, I ended up getting very deep into the wild horse issue in the United States and worked on a documentary about our mustangs who get rounded up by helicopters and incarcerated into holding pens.

And, you know, doing that work, you care about horses, you care about the, the heritage they represent, whether it's in the United States or the brumbies here in Australia, and it's so important to illuminate, you know, what's happening to them.

And so I followed the brumby issue for a number of years, and I got a call last Wednesday from the Australian horse trainer from Black Beauty, Cody Ross and Harris, and he said, "Ashley, I don't know how-- if you know, but they're culling the horses using helicopters." And, a-and that prompted my husband and I to get on a plane within twenty-four hours to come to Sydney and to come to the Kosciuszko to try to document what's going on, to try to see if we can get some international pressure to put a stop to this.

Because no matter how you cut it, humane management is not done by gunning down wild horses from helicopters and allowing those horses to, to, to meet an unimaginable inhumane end.

Tell us about what happened yesterday.

Share a little bit more about some of those stories in particular.

Sure.

And you hit it right on the head.

It's, the statistics are there, and they're upsetting.

25,000 horses last year in 2025 were shipped across the borders to Canada and Mexico.

But those are each individual lives.

Those are horses with individual stories, and that's what we decided to illuminate through the Lost Horses campaign, was looking at, in a 90-second vignette, to understand that this is what happened to this horse, whether it's the Black Beauty story of going owner to owner, or if a horse gets stolen, or if a horse is simply thrown away.

Tell us a little bit about some of those people and their impression or what they're gonna do about this SAFE Act.