Virginia Range Volunteers to the Rescue: A Tale of Heroic Wild Horse Protection

Virginia Range volunteers and the Wild Horse Connection team recently demonstrated their dedication to wild horse protection with a remarkable rescue effort. When a wild horse named Ngozi was found with a rope around her neck, the team sprang into action, ultimately saving her and her band from a perilous situation.

From the Pinto Post:

(Nov 9, 2022) The second week of October, Wild Horse Connection was alerted to a horse with a rope around its neck and made the call to LRTC’s rescue team.

The team has had these calls before. Sometimes it’s a long wind knot in the mane that at first glance appears to be a rope. In another case, a horse was dragging around a piece of clothesline someone had discarded, usually by illegal dumping. But this time, pretty buckskin mare Ngozi was most definitely roped. Rescue team member Debbi Engelke was able to get the rope loosened and off of the mare.

But that got WHC and the rescue team thinking - three horses were missing from Silver Ghost’s band - where were the other two? Had Ngozi escaped but the other two hadn’t?

Virginia Range volunteers are a dedicated bunch and they are as protective as they can be of these horses, so they started scouring the area. Bingo. The two still missing horses were spotted trapped inside a small enclosure. This band freely crosses the highway and they were outside the “boundary” they know nothing about so jurisdiction was a gray area. The next day, Animal Services made the resident release the horses and they made their way back to their family band.

Ngozi’s escape not only saved her but her band mates, too! It is ILLEGAL to “take up” (keep, or steal) free roaming horses or other livestock in Nevada. NRS 569.040