Jacquelyn Hieber: Mustang Advocate Extraordinaire!
Jacquelyn Hieber's journey from a horse lover to a mustang advocate is a tale of passion and determination. Her story begins with a simple question about the absence of wild horses in Red Rock, Nevada, leading her to a mission that would change her life and save 13 mustangs from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundups.
Supporter Sunday: Jacquelyn Hieber
Jacquelyn has always loved animals, especially horses, but she didn’t become a mustang advocate until she went riding in Red Rock, Nevada, a year ago and wondered where all the wild horses were. The answer to her question set her on a course that would not only change her life but also save 13 very special mustangs who lost their freedom in BLM roundups.
“I found out that all of the wild horses in the Red Rock area had been rounded up and that the BLM had put them in holding pens. As an animal advocate, I found that unacceptable,” Hieber told AWHC in a phone call Friday.
When she returned to her home in Ohio, where she cares for two horses rescued from slaughter, Jacquelyn and her husband Darren began to research the wild horse issue and came upon the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in South Dakota. They traveled to the sanctuary and asked what they could do that would have an impact. “Spread the word,” said Susan Watt, the sanctuary’s director. But when she asked sanctuary founder Dayton Hyde for advice on the one thing that she could do to help wild horses, he didn’t give her an answer. “Like a good leader, he wanted me to figure it out myself,” she recalls.
Taking Action
And figure it out she did. On Facebook, she learned of the BLM’s internet auction of wild horses captured in a February 2015 roundup in Utah’s Sulphur Herd Management Area (HMA). She was particularly taken with the senior stallions, including a stunning 26-year-old, known as Grulla stallion #3907, who had become an Internet sensation. “Everyone wanted the BLM to set him free and was complaining about how terrible it was that he was captured. I agreed with that but I also thought, ‘the BLM is not going to set him free, and someone has to do something. I even posted about it on Facebook. Then I realized…. I had to be that someone!”
She got approved as an adopter by the BLM and reached out to Susan back at Black Hills to ask if they would help her get some recently captured senior mustangs to freedom. She recalls:
“These old boys fought for over twenty years to protect their mustang families. They reminded me of [Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary founder] Dayton Hyde himself. Strong warriors. Fighting for freedom. But, this time, the warriors were in trouble. They had been captured by helicopter...they fought bravely. They tried to escape, but not this time. I cried when I saw their photos...the senior stallions still prancing majestically in the holding pens that were now their prison...their families gone...separated forever...I couldn't stand by and do nothing. I had to help them fight. So, I took a chance.
‘Will you help me get them to freedom at your sanctuary?’ I asked Susan. A few days later came her simple reply, ‘Yes, they can come here.’ I literally screamed with excitement. It was then that the one thing I could do to help wild horses became clear – I had to get these elder mustangs to freedom.”
The Auction and Beyond
The bidding started. To her dismay, the bids for Grulla #3907 got very high, as a breeder in Washington state drove up the price. When the price exceeded $1,000 – well out of range for kill buyers -- Jacquelyn asked herself, “Do I keep bidding for #3907 or do I use the funds to save the other senior stallions? The pretty ones get all the attention; I decided to take the ones that no one wanted.”
When the auction ended, Jacquelyn had adopted three Sulphur stallions, including the oldest one captured. But Grulla #3907 was not among them. The breeder was the high bidder and his future was in her hands.
Eventually, Jacquelyn also adopted three Sulphur mares and their foals from the BLM’s Delta Corrals in Utah, where the captured Sulphur horses were being held. She organized the fundraising and hauling to get the horses to Black Hills. And although they live in Ohio, Jacquelyn and her husband traveled with the horses from Delta to Black Hills in South Dakota – four trips total, so far.
But she never forgot Grulla #3907. “I’ve watched over this horse ever since, something just told me to,” she says about her multiple trips to the Delta Corrals and conversations with BLM staff there.
Recently she received some news about the Grulla mustang – the high bidder had reneged and the second highest bidder also declined to take him. Jacquelyn was the third highest bidder and Grulla #3907 was hers. He was going to the Black Hills sanctuary to join his herdmates! She was beside herself with happiness.
“Things have just fallen into place,” she says. “You can’t control things. I asked the spirits to guide me on this journey and this is where it has led.”
Continuing the Mission
Jacquelyn also adopted two additional horses in the BLM’s April Internet Adoption. Ten curly babies from Nevada had caught her attention; all but one was adopted. She adopted him and named him “Little Ricky” for his curly hair. Jacquelyn had him shipped from BLM’s Palomino Valley Corrals near Reno, Nevada to a BLM holding facility in Elm Creek, Nebraska. Then she set out to find a travel buddy for Little Ricky, knowing that transport is less stressful for a mustang if he or she has a friend.
Jacquelyn explains, “I intended to get a colt, but when I got to Elm Creek, a little filly on the opposite end of the facility from Little Ricky caught my eye. It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized that she also had curly hair. Then I read her tag number and it was very close to Little Ricky’s. When I got to the office, I found out that they were from the same herd in Fish Creek, captured on the same day. So I adopted her too. The first time they saw each other when I was loading them on the trailer, they just snuggled. I have a picture! They definitely knew each other. When we unloaded – they were touching all the time.”
Little Ricky and Lucy, the name Susan at Black Hills chose for the filly, are pictured at left on the trailer on their way to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. “She follows him or he follows her. They’re still together all the time!” Hieber says of the yearlings who are now living with a group of other young horses at Black Hills.
Grulla #3907 is set for transport to Black Hills in August. Jacquelyn has adopted another Sulphur gelding, a three strikes horse, to travel with him, bringing the number of Sulphurs she saved to 11 – a little herd. But Jacquelyn is not finished with her mustang advocacy yet.
“I work all day, and I don’t want my tax dollars used to round up and remove mustangs from their homes on the range,” Jacquelyn, a senior manager for a medical device company, says. “People just don’t know what is happening. We have to spread the word.”
As part of their mission, Jacquelyn and her husband have each vowed to tell ten people a day about the plight of America’s wild horses and burros.
“As taxpayers, we can’t allow this to continue to happen.”