Volunteer Highlight

This month we talked to Julie Lee, who has a quite a past (and present!) in wild horse advocacy.

Julie got involved with wild horses thirty-eight years ago in 1984. “I met a lovely lady named Gerry Olson, who was the founder of Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association. I joined the organization and soon learned the plight of the wild horses and in turn joined the Board of Directors. I took on the photography of the horses for VRPWA,” she told us. She even got to go up in an airplane to help with an aerial count of the horses - the pilot donated his time and the organization paid for his fuel.

”At the time I owned a saloon in Virginia City called Calamity Jane’s and we hosted wild horse benefits there. Anything we could put together to raise money,” she continued. She also came up with a string of wild horse postcards to sell to raise funds.

A photograph sits in Julie’s front room that she took of a foal at dusk standing with is head down. When the photographs were developed she didn’t like the blue tint of the photo in the fading daylight and threw it away. But her friend got it out and entered it in a contest with Nevada Magazine and it won an award!

Now retired, Julie says she is busier currently than when she was the Comstock Chronicle photographer and the Executive Director of the Virginia City Chamber of Commerce. Six years ago she joined Wild Horse Preservation League after meeting Bonnie Matton who convinced her to come to one of their meetings. When asked what is her favorite part of WHPL and volunteering, she replied, “Their dedication and willingness to go at a moment’s notice to help a wild horse in trouble.”

”There are times now I feel like I’m starting to slow down.” We aren’t so sure about that. Julie attended rallies in front of the state capitol building every Wednesday for a year and a half pleading for the governor’s help to get the fertility program reinstated on the Virginia Range. She now organizes and attends rallies each week to bring awareness to the helicopter round ups of wild horses taking place across the West. In addition to being a member of WHPL, she also regularly visits Wild Horse Connection’s rescued foals and LBL Equine Rescue’s horses.

We asked Julie if she could share a favorite memory from the range. She told us about time when she was still working and some visitors from France were very excited about the wild horses. She told them to wait until she got off work and she would take them out to see some. That was when they came upon a mare giving birth to a foal in the Virginia City Highlands! She loves how prepared foals are for life, getting up and getting around at just an hour old.

Wild horses are special to Julie because “they endure and they are and will always be, the Spirit of the West.” We couldn’t agree more, Julie!

Breeze! One loved and lucky boy!

What is your vision of a “Rescue” horse – damaged or broken? Horses that end up in an equine rescue like LBL Equine Rescue have been let down by humans – abandoned, neglected, and abused. They are not damaged or broken. They just need someone to help them shine.

Breeze came to LBL starved with very painful feet from malnutrition. It took many, many months to rehabilitate Breeze. And then he found his forever human.

Read Meredith’s story about how she found her “Love Bug”: 

I first met Breeze when I was visiting LBL Equine Rescue with my students. I am a Veterinary Nursing Instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College and wanted my students to see how an equine rescue works, and to have the students help in any way we could for the day.

While there I took one look at Breeze and was in love. He was tall, dark, and handsome. Linda was telling his story, and after all he had been through, he still was such a kind and gentle horse. At the time, I was not looking for another horse, but I just could not forget about him after leaving that day. I talked to my husband that evening when I got home, and we both went out to meet him that very weekend.

It took a little time to get everything ready for him to come home with us, but when he did, he made himself right at home. My two other horses loved him from the moment he got off the trailer. He just has that effect on everyone, you can’t help but love his kind eyes and gentleness.

He has been such a blessing for us. Many of my friends and family have ridden him, for some of them it was their first riding experience. He takes such great care of his rider. Breeze is also great with my students; he loves all the attention they give him. Breeze has been with us for two years now, and he will have a forever home with us, he has given us so much joy. I will always be so grateful to LBL Equine Rescue for allowing me to adopt Breeze, my love bug.

Shaggy the Shimmering Buckskin

by Deborah Sutherland

Shaggy was born in a canyon in the Virginia Range in 2012 and has always had a beautiful copper shimmer to his coat that could be seen from far away.  That’s how I could always tell him apart from the other buckskins in the valley.  His sire was the black and white Canyon Phantom who roamed the range for over 21 years who had many mares and offspring. To tell the history of one horse always involves sharing about the lives of other horses on the range, as they are all intertwined in some way and Shaggy is connected to so many wild ones here in Stagecoach Valley.

Maxey was Shaggy’s dam and one of the Canyon Phantom’s mares when Shaggy was born.  Shaggy’s “half-sister” Saddle Shoe was also born that year to Canyon Phantom’s mare Broken Hinds.  On summer days I would go to the canyon and watch Shaggy and Saddle Shoe play together, get drinks from the spring, and nap in the shade of the pinyon pines.

Shaggy and Saddle Shoe remained close for the first few years of their lives until Shaggy finally became a bachelor in 2014 and left his birth family.  Shaggy’s best bachelor buddy was Flashy and for over a year they would run together all over the range. 

Shaggy has many other “half siblings” still living in Stagecoach Valley.   His younger half- brothers, Godfry (born 2018), Dark Shadow (born 2019), Mini (born 2020), and Bryson (born 2021), all share the same dam, Maxey.  Maxey and her colt Bryson are now living with Black Hawk’s band. Godfry and Dark Shadow belong to Glaze’s band and Saddle Shoe is now in Tracker’s band after spending most of her life living with Two Socks.

Over the years of knowing Shaggy, I saw that he was very determined when it came to getting what he wanted. When he was still a bachelor, he fought his best buddy Flashy and a few other stallions, Goldie and Two Socks, for custody of Bodie Braveheart’s band when Bodie suddenly died.  Bodie’s band wandered the range in confusion without him for several months until these stallions took turns trying to keep them engaging in daily stallion battles.   

One evening I saw that Shaggy had finally managed to win the band when Two Socks and Grandpa, (Grandpa is Two Sock’s sire who was also his Lieutenant) started up the hill to where Shaggy had the band.  Without hesitation Shaggy went charging at both of them!  Shaggy fought the aggressive duo, chased them away, then he returned to guard his new family.  Near the end of 2016 Shaggy did lose this family to Flashy for good this time and Shaggy was a bachelor again. For several years after that I would see him once in a while but he was always alone.  

Then two years ago I was in the canyon photographing some wild horses and realized that the large band in front of me on the hill with many mares and new foals was Shaggy and his new family!  He wasn’t alone anymore and I was so happy to see him. Shaggy now has ten members in his band, including himself. Granny and her colt Dublin, Fergie and her fillies Krista and Jamille, Frosted and her filly Sutro and her colt Buckley along with Atsa who just joined the family recently.   Shaggy still has his determination to guard his family watching them through his very shaggy forelock and his coat still has that copper shimmer making him easy to spot from far away.