Meet Nancy, an incredibly passionate, and dedicated volunteer on Nevada’s Virginia Range! Nancy sat down to tell us her story and how she got involved with protecting wild horses!
When my husband 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 and 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 manages the VR horses) to allow us to implement the fertility control program 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 four other volunteers to Montana to learn how the vaccine worked and how it 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 identification database. 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 with no one around for miles and coming up on a band or two of horses. Watching the high desert change season to season, from wildflowers of many colors in the spring, the cheatgrass changing from purple to green to golden, the fragrant smell of bitterbrush in the summer, the rabbitbrush brightening the mountains with its bright gold flowers from 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.
