Volunteer Highlight

Meet Nancy Killian! Nancy is a long time volunteer and if you didn’t already, check the link for the Fertility Control Update to read about her recent accomplishment!

In the meantime, enjoy Nancy’s telling of how she got involved in protecting the Virginia Range wild horses as a fertility control darter:

”When John and I decided to move out here to be closer to our daughter Chelsea, and have a little bit nicer weather than in Minnesota, we were shown a lot of different areas around Reno and couldn’t seem to find the right place. I said to my son in law, what about up there in the mountains where there are trees. He said maybe they would like the Virginia City Highlands, so Chelsea and Jim took us up there. The mountains were stunning the views awesome, but when we came upon a band of wild horses our mouths dropped open and John and I looked at each other and shook our heads yes, this is where we want to live!

”Now I’ve always been an animal lover but never had much experience with horses, but these creatures struck a feeling in my soul that I can’t explain. We finally did purchase a 10-acre property to eventually build on. (We now have 20 acres) It took about a year to make it happen but we finally started to build our dream home in these beautiful mountains. I actually had a dream that I would be involved with those wild horses! We sold our home in Minnesota, cried when we left lifelong friends and family and headed west.

”It took a few months to finish our home but in November of 2004 we moved in. We met some wonderful new friends and not long after I was asked if I wanted to help with the wild horses, feeding and taking care of some rescues. I was terrified but intrigued. I bonded with them and knew this was my calling.

”I’ve been on the board of the Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association as a member, director and now the president. We fundraise and donate to wild horse rescues and provide fencing where needed to keep wild horses and people in vehicles safe, among other things for our wild horses.

”There was talk for years about darting the wild mares for fertility control and I was the first one to say I’d like to be a part of that! After many months, maybe years, a national wild horse group AWHC (American Wild Horse Campaign) had convinced the Nevada department of Agriculture (who had control of these horses) to allow us to do the fertility control in the Virginia Range mountains. If this wasn’t done, they would eventually have to thin the herd and many would end up in slaughter. AWHC funds the project and we have volunteers who help in many ways besides darting.

”In August of 2015 I was sent with 4 other volunteers to Montana to learn how the vaccine worked and had been working on horses on Assateague Island for over 25 years. We learned how to shoot the rifle, identify the horses, and proper mixing of the vaccine and sterilizing of our mixing kit.

”Now my life back in Minnesota was a far cry from my life now. I wouldn’t leave home without nail polish or go outside without makeup or my hair done. My life was a lot of shopping along with dance lessons and going to lunch and of course my decorating business. Now, retired and time on my hands, I jump on my quad, no nail polish, usually some type of camouflage clothing, a sandwich, my gear packed and go out looking for the wild horses. I know many of them by name, and have many favorites. We have a very complete data base. I check to see who needs to darted and mix my vaccine, put it in the dart and dart the mare in the butt with a CO2 dart gun, record all the data and move on to the next band of horses.

”I can’t explain the feeling I get riding out in the mountains no one around for miles and coming up on a band or two of horses. Watching the high desert change season to season, from wild flowers of many colors in the spring, the cheat grass changing from purple to green to golden, the fragrant smell of bitterbrush in the summer, the rabbit brush brightening the mountains with its bright gold flowers the end of summer into the fall. The fresh air, the beauty of the mountains, and the critters that live there is all I need to say to myself….Life is good.”

The Five Leegard Brothers

by Deborah sutherland

Jigsaw, Little Tri, Lantera, Twizzler and Laki are five beautiful stallion brothers from Leegard’s band. Jigsaw and Little Tri were born in the same year 2017 and were always seen playing together or running in the desert next to their dams. Their brother Lantera was born the next year in 2018 with Laki and Twizzler both born in 2019. These brothers have many other siblings running around the Virginia Range, as Leegard has always had a large family band. However, these five “boys” grew up together and are still living close to each other on the rocky cliffs just over the mountain from where they were born.

I only see Leegard’s band about once a year when they make their appearance at their favorite spot next to a sand dune at the base of a mountain range in late spring or early summer. I am always excited to see if there are new members in the band each year. They seem to stay visible for only a few months at best, then vanish to their secret fall and winter location not to be seen again until the following year. 

Jigsaw is the oldest of the five brothers and I have watched him grow from a cute little foal into an energetic bachelor who ran from one end of our valley to the other. When the other four siblings grew older, Jigsaw lead them off into the Virginia Range for some bachelor fun. The five brothers followed each other around and could be seen playing and chasing each other. The brothers were quite a beautiful sight standing together on hillsides in Stagecoach Valley.

Last weekend I was so excited to see the five brothers still traveling close together on cliffs, climbing rocks and grazing on new grass. Jigsaw is a band stallion now and has a mare and foal, Truffle and Calean, who joined him after the big “ Wild Frost/Padrillo band break up” last spring. After that break up Truffle and Calian went missing until I found them one day with Jigsaw near the river. We were all relieved that they were together and safe. I noticed that Jigsaw has just acquired two more family members, but they were so high up on rocky cliffs last weekend that I couldn’t tell who they were. I’m looking forward to finding out who else joined Jigsaw’s family. 

Lantera is also a band stallion and was following close behind Jigsaw’s family as they journeyed over the rocky mountain. Lantera’s band includes their other two brothers, Twizzler and Laki! Three of the brothers in one band! Lantera also has his mare Jelly and her foal Kashill (Who were also part of Wild Frost’s band before the big break up). Sylvan, Wild Frosts’ daughter, was separated from her dam during that big break up but Lantera took her in and she is safe now with her new family. 

As I was photographing Lantera’s beautiful band I noticed another pinto in the distance climbing over rocks coming near us. The stallion stopped and stood still like a beautiful statue in the early morning sun looking down at me and then I realized it was Little Tri! He was following his brothers but he was all alone. Little Tri is a bachelor but he too, made his home near his brothers on the rocky cliffs. I wondered if he wanted to be included in one of his brother’s family bands? Not too long ago Little Tri did have his own band for a short while, some of the mares and foals from Wild Frost/Padrillo band break up but he soon lost them to Wild Frost when Wild Frost made his big “come back”. 

As I was leaving “The Five Brothers” last weekend I took a last look at them standing on the cliffs and thought how handsome they are and how much they have grown since I had photographed them as newborn foals. I am thankful they have a safe place to live and that sometimes they grace the mountain tops with their presence for us to see.

Meet the Virginia Range foal who hit the jackpot in Las Vegas.

by LBL Equine rescue

Trooper was a twin born in Silver Springs. Unfortunately, his twin did not survive. He spent the first year or so growing into a handsome colt and just being a wild horse until he was removed from the range illegally. When it became known that the people who were keeping Trooper no longer wanted him, the Department of Agriculture brand inspector asked LBL if we could take him, and we said “yes.” So … Trooper went to prison - to be gelded and branded - then LBL sprung him and Trooper spent about a year with us. He was such a sweet, loveable guy with a fun-loving personality. Everyone loved Trooper.

Continue reading to find out the rest of Trooper’s story as told by Kellie, his best friend:

“I was searching for my new companion when LBL Equine Rescue reached out to me about Trooper being available for adoption. I drove to Silver Springs on November 24, 2019 and met him for the first time. As soon I as laid eyes on him, I immediately fell in love. He was just the goofiest, sweetest thing ever and still is to this day. I told Linda that I wanted to take him home as soon as I could, so she told me that I could come the following weekend! I said absolutely - I’ll see you Saturday! So, I adopted my little man on November 29, 2019, and that was the best decision I’ve made in my entire life. After a long ride back to Las Vegas, Trooper settled in, and we got right to work!

“For an entire year we did nothing but groundwork, my philosophy as a horse trainer is that if we can’t do it from the ground, how are we going to do it horseback! He was such a smart learner, once he trusted me, we could do anything. I taught him a couple of tricks, such as “smile” and “no no,” and we are still working on more tricks to this day. The bond I have with this horse is like no other with any of the other horses I’ve trained, I think it’s a mustang thing!

“Once we started doing arena work, he picked everything up perfectly. We started doing a little bit of everything, roping, barrels, poles, trail riding, etc. This horse loves it all, but his favorite for sure is trail riding. He acts like a little racehorse once we get on the trails. You can really see the passion come out of him when we are trotting up and around the mountains. Trooper loves friends and he gets along with everyone. His horse buddies are my friend’s horses Billie and Biggie. They will play all day long. Billie likes to come with us on the trail rides and Trooper absolutely loves it. There is nothing this horse can’t do, if he gets a little nervous about something, he looks to me for guidance and then he will follow and do it right after. I cannot wait to see what amazing things this horse will do!”

Wild Horses Carry Me Away and Double-D ranch spring clothing line

(A Wild Horse Preservation League Story)

Marty Wright is another great volunteer for Wild Horse Preservation League. She is always looking for a way to spread education about our wild ones. This is a story about how she raised funds, spread the word and she helped make a couple of our local rescued mustangs stars.

I’ve been on an exciting journey with our wild horses since I came to Nevada! It’s been a bit of a roller coaster as I learned the ways of a wild horse advocate and determined how I could be useful. I joined the Wild Horse Preservation League and became a director. I also am a volunteer for Wild Horse Connection, and American Wild Horse Campaign. I raise funds and volunteer for projects wherever I’m needed. Since I love being on the range with wild horses, I thought bringing awareness to others might be a good roll for me. This required me to learn photography and with the help of a good friend, I’ve made some progress. 

I got a message from a lady I’ve admired in Texas who, along with her dad and sisters started a woman’s western wear business about 30 years ago. Double D stands for Dad and Daughters. Audrey, Cheryl, and Hedy started making great clothes in their garage in Yoakum, Texas. At the time, I was announcing horse shows and doing promotions for KIKK Radio and wanted to stand out a little/a lot. Love their clothing line! 

Fast forward to last fall, Audrey Franz contacted me about their Spring 2022 line coming out and wanted to shoot the catalog with real wild horses. She had seen my photos on the Facebook page, Wild Horses Carry Me Away, and asked if I could help them. Without much thought, I said yes! We worked out the details as we went along. John and Therese Cline came on board with their motorhome and other necessities. I proceeded to scout locations for the shoot, keeping in mind we must have wild horses and be able to park the motorhome. I also had to find locations that looked like spring in our high country desert. Thank goodness our yellow rabbit brush was in full bloom.

The week before the entourage was to arrive from Texas, our Nevada drought broke, and the weather folks warned of an atmospheric river descending upon us. We needed the rain and snow, but I know wild horses hide away in the hills in bad weather and we couldn’t take the motorhome onto a muddy range. Panic set in! Therese and I reviewed our shoot locations and made some changes. Beth and Dave Palmer agreed to let us shoot on their SageHaven, NV Ranch in Stagecoach and their formerly wild mustangs, Echo and Hondo, would be available to step in as model horses. Echo and Hondo became international celebrities over night! We’re so proud as they took to their rolls with the beautiful human models like professionals. See their stories below by their adopted mom, Beth Palmer.

The last week of October, the skies turned beautiful blue, the Double D Ranch crew arrived from Texas, and spring came to our Virginia Range. The photo shoot was a success thanks to wonderful supportive wild horse advocates. The awesome sons of band stallion Silver Ghost, Echo and Hondo, along with our wild ones who magically appeared, put on a show just like they always do!

The folks at Double D Ranch https://doubledranch.com gave our Wild Horse Preservation League a generous donation plus an ongoing donation of 20% of the proceeds from sales of their horse print line of Wild Horse Clothing!

super-horse models, echo and Hondo

stars of The Double-D Ranch Spring line

Our volunteers at Wild Horse Preservation League have many hats they wear, darters and documenters for birth control, certified rescue, diversionary feeding, fencing, raising funds, education and much more. This is a story about one of those volunteer families.

Long before they were international super-horse models Echo and Hondo came from a long line of stunning horses on the Virginia Range.  Echo was born in January 2018 and lived wild and free for the first year of his life.  As a sweet and curious colt, he made some human friends in the neighborhood where he was growing up so when a series of injuries made it necessary for him to be removed from the range, he landed on his hooves with two ladies who had known him since birth and had watched him grow into a handsome yearling.  

Hondo’s story is similar.  He was born into the same natal band as Echo, with a couple of months between Hondo’s birth and Echo’s removal from the range.  When Hondo was about nine months old, he was orphaned, and the band stallion ejected him from the band.  He was not quite old enough to join up with the big boys and become part of a bachelor band. After a period of trial and observation he was also removed from the range and placed in rescue.  One of the volunteers at the rescue was instantly smitten with the youngster, gained his trust and adopted him.

Fast forward about a year, Hondo had gained two rescued mustang brothers and was near moving to the property his adopters were developing for their equine family.  On a visit to meet some available donkeys his adopters also met Echo, who by then had grown into a very handsome young horse.  When the conversation revealed that he was half-brother to Hondo, plans were initiated to reunite the brothers.

Today, Echo and Hondo live with the two other rescued mustangs, two donkeys, and occasional foster equines who need a soft place to land. They enjoyed trying their hooves at modeling and are looking forward to their next opportunity to share the awesomeness of Virginia Range mustangs. In the meantime, they help with the chores by carrying the hay bags to the barn to be filled by their humans. The kind people that opened their home and hearts to these guys are Wild Horse Preservation League volunteers/Director. Thank you, Beth and Dave Palmer.