Learn the origin of our horses and how they came to live at Montgomery Creek Ranch
In the summer of 2010, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rounded up and removed 174 wild horses that had migrated off protected public lands in the Pilot Valley and Toano Herd Management Areas in Nevada. As these mustangs were on private land, they lost their legal protection under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, and were put up for sale at a livestock auction in Fallon, Nevada. Bidding for over five hours against kill buyers from Canada, Ellie and Chris purchased every horse at the auction to save them from going to slaughter.
There were 18 mares with foals by their sides, two orphan foals, 76 stallions and 59 mares, many who had lost their foals in the roundup and a few that were pregnant .
After the auction, the horses were temporarily housed at a facility in Fallon, NV under the watchful eye of Mike Holmes, a former Nevada state wild horse manager. All of the stallions were castrated, the babies were weaned and gentled, and they settled into their new life on a feed lot. Being wild, these horses could not be handled and required chutes and heavy fencing to manage. Their days of roaming free on the Western range with their families were over.
In 2012, Ellie and Chris purchased Montgomery Creek Ranch (MCR) and founded Montgomery Creek Preserve. Nestled in the hills of Stonyford and Elk Creek in Northern California, Montgomery Creek is a 2,000 acre ranch with long valleys, rolling hills of chaparral, and steep ridges dotted with grey pines. There are creeks, springs and reservoirs that provide plenty of water for this herd of rescued mustangs.
The Toano/Pilot Valley horses arrived at MCR in July of 2012. Since that time, the original herd has expanded to 200 horses through the rescue of other wild horses in need, including:
The Deer Run herd captured from BLM lands near Dayton, Nevada.
Virginia Range mustangs, captured by the Nevada Department of Agriculture from private, state and local lands in and around Reno.
Ft. McDermitt horses, captured by the Paiute-Shoshone tribe from their lands and sent to an auction in Fallon, Nevada. These horses were purchased at the auction and saved from slaughter.
BLM mustangs from various states that were at risk of going to slaughter.
