Numbers Update

As of June 30, 2022

Total Mares Treated: 1,741
Total Primers: 1,846
Total Boosters: 4,223

Wishing Greg All The Best!

The beginning of June marked a new chapter for AWHC’s Greg Hendricks as he started his retirement! AWHC and the team are sad to lose him from the everyday team, but they suspect he may help out with some projects in the future. With a newly acquired lake cabin, their two mustangs, and their dogs, Greg and his wife Margie have some fun plans for retirement. In the meantime, we asked Greg some questions about his time with AWHC and his impending time as a “retiree”:

Tell us how you got involved in wild horses?
I wrote a paper on them covering history, science (habitat and diet competition) and management for a wildlife course in College.  I got a C- on it and then I realized some wildlife folks don’t like wild horses, including my professor.  So, that got me interested in why.  So, I went to work after graduation for the BLM in Nevada which just so happens to have ½ the wild horses in the west to manage. Seemed like a good start.  Many years later after I was laid off due to budget cuts, BLM rounded up our neighborhood herd, the Deer Run Horses with total disregard to community concern and real management opportunities.  After that, I promised myself I was going to do something about that, and I never stopped trying to get them to manage horses on the range and not in round- up holding pens.

What was your favorite part of working for the American Wild Horse Campaign? 
I have worked with some wonderful and smart people but I have to admit the Wild Horses and spending time with them out on the range is my favorite part of this job.  Wild horses are good for the soul and time spent with them is time well spent.

Why are wild horses special to you? What do they represent to you?
I think I value their love of freedom and family which is something many Americans value as well and hold dear.  They represent the wild nature and roots of American history and a strength for survival that few can doubt and not respect. 

What other background do you have that contributed to your position with AWHC?
I had about 10 careers in my many trips around the sun that helped me prepare and land the position of Director of Field Operations for AWHC. Every one of these jobs helped me prepare for this role and made me better at doing it.  The big ones were at age 12 thinning apples in Yakima, WA. (my first child labor job that taught me about hard work, LOL),  working for a Forester as a tech during High School summers on the Olympic Peninsula, (I was the guy who got in the dirty stream to clean out the logging road culvert plugged by beaver), graduating from Washington State University as a Range Conservationist/Wildlife Biologist and working 7 years for the Carson City BLM till budget cuts took me out, various sales jobs like working for the Airlines (PSA and USAir),  Reno Gazette Journal (our local paper), selling pots and pans (which I still have),  and working for Western Union. Add in some Project Management for new Drug development working with a Cardiology Safety Lab with the HPV vaccine as one of my wins, (I learned about data here because FDA demands it), and finally transition and AI development as a contractor for MS, and this all got me to my dream job working to save wild horses with AWHC.  Not a bad run I would say.

 Do you have a favorite memory from the range that you can share with us? 
Not sure I can narrow it down to just one but I do know my favorite memories rest in my work on building things on the range be it water developments, seedings for fire rehab., or one of the biggest and best examples of fertility control for wild horse management on the range in the world (the Virginia Range).  When you are finished, you got something to show for it and that is a good memory.

Tell us something you are really looking forward to doing now that you are retired?
I will do all the normal retirement things like work out, lose weight, ride my bike, horse and ATV, fix things, fish at Eagle Lake, travel to Ireland, etc., but I will never stop working to save wild horses.  I will volunteer with the BLM, Northern Nevada Resource Advisory Council representing Wild Horse and Burro interests giving them some much needed advice on fertility control for horses, and I’ll help with some wild horse fertility control planning and darting as well with my volunteer buddies.  You know..the fun stuff.

Okay, aside from horses, what is your favorite animal?
Domestic is dogs, with cats as a close 2nd and wild is also close with elephants as my winner and wolves a close 2nd.

If a theme song played every time you go out on the range, what would your theme song be?
Let ‘Em Run by Lacey J. Dalton with musical support from my talented friend, Dale Poune 
Let 'Em Run/ Lacy J Dalton - YouTube

Does pineapple belong on pizza? Yes or no?
If you have Canadian Bacon as your partner, it is a winner.  So, the answer is YES sometimes.  Mahalo

Pictured below: Greg and Margie, Greg and co-workers Tracy Wilson and Deb Walker