Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund

Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund Protecting and preserving the wild horses in Reno, NV. If you would like to donate, please read our About section and then visit www.hiddenvalleyhorses.com.

Please, feel free to share your photos and experiences with these majestic creatures! The Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund is an all volunteer Nevada non-profit organization. It was organized in 2008 with the mission to protect and preserve the Wild Horses that settle during the winter months in the foothills surrounding Hidden Valley. For the past 19 years, volunteers have monitored herd

health, grazing availability, provided attention to sick and injured horses and foals, aided in state run adoption processes, and installed and mended fencing and cattle guards. Other volunteers are involved in ensuring federal and state departments are working within the statutes that provide protection and care for the Wild Horses. You can visit our website at www.hiddenvalleyhorses.com, where you can find much more information and links to help these wonderful horses. ADOPTIONS
Please visit our website at www.hiddenvalleyhorses.com and click on the “Adoptions” tab on the left to find a picture gallery of our horses as well as our adoption application and agreement. Just fill out the forms and email or snail mail them to us at [email protected] or HVWHPF, PO Box 20052, Reno, NV 89515. We thank you for taking an interest in our horses – adopting one of our historic Virginia Range horses is a huge responsibility. They are precious, innocent victims of some really bad decisions made by our current government. We are dedicated to protecting them and ensuring that they find good, quality, loving homes where they will be able to spend the rest of their lives. DONATIONS
We’d like to thank all our very generous donors for all the support and encouragement we receive throughout the year. As we’ve already mentioned, the Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to ensuring the safety, protection, and preservation of the wild horses that make their home in the western slopes of the Virginia Range, in the eastern part of Reno, Nevada. We consider ourselves very fortunate to watch over these beautiful, gentle creatures – our historic Virginia Range wild horses. This winter has seen a record lack of precipitation and that is clearly reflected in the dried remnants left from last year’s cheat grass. Where we would hope to see tiny green sprouts emerging from the ground by now, is only dry, crumbling stubble. We continue to monitor the health of the horses on a daily basis and help where we can but are restricted with what we can do without a cooperative agreement with the State of Nevada, Department of Agriculture. We continue to reach out to Director Barbee in the hopes of entering a positive dialogue that would allow our organization to better manage the horses and take a larger role of responsibility. Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture is not responding to any wild horse organization at this time. Your support and encouragement with our endeavors is truly appreciated and vital. We remain grateful and encourage you to check our website often for news and updates. Donations are the life blood of our efforts to sustain and fulfill the goals of our organization. Each year our budget is planned for various projects designed to benefit the horses, such as providing supplemental vitamins and minerals, and maintaining and installing the fences and horse guards across an approximate 8 mile stretch of land. We are also currently working on supplemental water resources for the horses and pursuing the development of protected areas with property owners. We also budget for emergency veterinarian care for sick and injured horses, as well as having to ‘put down’ injured horses and often provide for the removal of the body. We are able to accomplish all of the above and more through donations from individual and corporate sponsors. We ask you to look at all we do and join us in a most worthy cause

Looking forward to seeing this amazing documentary made possible by Clare Staples, founder of Skydog Sanctuary!!! Aweso...
11/21/2025

Looking forward to seeing this amazing documentary made possible by Clare Staples, founder of Skydog Sanctuary!!! Awesome work!!!! Thank you for all you do for the wild ones!!!

Blue Zeus tells the heartfelt story of a wild mustang’s rescue and the fight to reunite him with his family after a brutal government roundup.

TAKE ACTION - contact Boot Barn via email so they have a written record of your disgust for producing such an awful, one...
11/11/2025

TAKE ACTION - contact Boot Barn via email so they have a written record of your disgust for producing such an awful, one-sided record of how former BLM employees really feel about the program they were employed by. Slaughtering tens of thousands of wild horses and burros in captivity is just as short-sighted and unproductive as the BLM program that employed those people. CONTACT BOOT BARN NOW!!!

The story of a woman on the frontlines of America's Wild Horse Management debate, who challenges us all to set our differences aside

Read all about it!!!!! Nevada Wild Horses Goes After Wild Horses and Burros!!!
11/01/2025

Read all about it!!!!! Nevada Wild Horses Goes After Wild Horses and Burros!!!

Email from Nevada Wild Horses Exciting NEWS!!!!! We are now NEVADA WILD HORSES!!!! October 31, 2025 WELCOME TO THE NEVADA WILD HORSES AND BURROS NEWSLETTER FROM NEVADA WILD HORSES formerly Hidden Vall

Come join in the fun, learn more about what Nevada Wild Horses will be doing, eat some delicious ice cream, have fun, me...
11/01/2025

Come join in the fun, learn more about what Nevada Wild Horses will be doing, eat some delicious ice cream, have fun, meet the people involved, and help Nevada's Wild Horses and Burros - Handel's Ice Cream in south Reno at the Summit Mall this WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH 5:00-8:00pm

We invite our longtime (past and present) Donors, Supporters, Friends, Volunteers, and Board members to join us as we move forward on this great adventure to make a difference for our Nevada Wild Horses and Burros!!!
We will “Celebrate Wild Horses and Burros” over the next 2 years with various events, presentations, and special projects!!!

We are kicking off this 2 year celebration with a very sweet and special gathering for our

NEW NAME, NEW FOCUS, & ALL THINGS WILD HORSES AND BURROS

at HANDEL’S ICE CREAM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5th
from 5:00 – 8:00 pm
13987 S. Virginia Street in south Reno
at the Shayden Summit Mall - near Mt Rose Highway and S. Virginia

Please join us and bring the flyer below for this fun event, or better yet save it to your phone so you can present it to the cashier.
This will ensure 20% of your ice cream purchase will go to start our fund to benefit the Wild Horses and Burros across Nevada!!!

Get more information, eat some delicious ice cream, have some great fun, and help the wild horses and burros!!!!

It is with deep sadness and sorrow that we share the passing of one of our very long time and stalwart supporters - Dona...
07/28/2025

It is with deep sadness and sorrow that we share the passing of one of our very long time and stalwart supporters - Donalde (Don) Molde, MD. Don was a longtime Hidden Valley resident and wild horse lover and advocate. Please read this beautiful tribute at Project Coyote https://projectcoyote.org/in-tribute-to-wildlife-defender-don-molde/
Don loved life and wild life and saw a better future with wild animals protected and admired, instead of killed "because we can"(quoted excerpt from a NV Wildlife Dept commissioner).
Don will be greatly missed by many people and a great number of animals. We will do our best to continue his work and to protect the wild horses and burros in Nevada.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of long-time Project Coyote supporter, dear friend, and fierce wild carnivore defender, Donalde (Don)

The beginning steps for justice for the neglected horses & burros rescued last week!
07/14/2025

The beginning steps for justice for the neglected horses & burros rescued last week!

STOREY COUNTY, NV - On July 12, 2025 at 1500 hours, Storey County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at a residence in Gold Hill, Nevada to serve an arrest warrant issued by the Virginia Township Justice Court.

Deputies made contact and placed Sally Summers under arrest pursuant to the warrant on 20 counts of animal abuse/neglect and one count of resisting a public officer. Summers was safely taken into custody and booked at the Storey County Detention Facility, with a total bail of $20,640.00.

This is still an active and ongoing investigation. Further charges are pending.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Please stay safe & warm, enjoy friends & family! ~♥~
11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Please stay safe & warm, enjoy friends & family! ~♥~

08/08/2024

REMEMBERING 12 YEAR AGO!!!

THIS ACTION FALLS SUSPICIOUSLY CLOSE TO
WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR WILD ONES IN 2012

I am drawn back to think about the horrific days of 12 years ago.

On August 13th, 2012 I received a call from Betsy, one of our Board Members at the time, at about 6:15 am letting me know she had run into an NDA trap with 18 horses in it. That was the beginning of a fight that changed my life and the lives of the 149 wild horses removed from the range by the NDA. The NDA lost that battle and they will lose this one too.

12 year ago, I took part in my first but not last livestock auction. Our volunteers and supporters scrambled to raise money to support our new charges, find placement for them, and provide the best care we could to ensure their continued health and safety. The 149 wild horses we rescued as a result of the NDA trap and grab set ups, were ALL taken out to the Fallon livestock auction, where they were put up for sale.

We had to bid against kill buyers and the owner of the livestock auction who was representing the NDA and ran the auction bidding up to over $1,200 for a mare and her foal before someone nailed who he was and what he was doing! We eventually got the bidding down to no more than $250 per horse. But we got each and every horse back. It took 6 months to rescue them all and unfortunately, none of those horses were allowed to ever return to the range – never to be wild and free again.

Back then, the NDA tried to convince the public that the horses they were grabbing from the range would go to the prison training and adoption program in Carson City and they would all live happy lives forever and again. That was not true then and it is NOT TRUE today.

Calls to Governor Lombardo’s office are receiving the same stupid story – the horses will all be adopted and live happily ever after. While there is a really good program at the prison (pairing BLM horses and non-violent inmates), it does NOT involve or have anything to do with the NDA!!!! And that program has NOT involved the NDA for over 25 years. This is just more misinformation and disinformation coming out of what appears to be an agency with questionable motivations. Horses removed from the range will be “processed” at the prison and then sold. How they think they will sell these horses, we can only imagine.

WE WANT EACH OF THESE HORSES IMMEDIATELY RETURNED TO THE RANGE WHERE THEY BELONG!!! NOT THROWN OUT AND SOLD OFF LIKE GARBAGE!!

That is why we have an historic Cooperative Agreement to Humanely Manage the Wild Horses of the Virginia Range!!!

We still have all those horses we rescued, plus the foals born to the pregnant mares we rescued. Some have passed on and we miss them very much. We are all still together. They make each and every day of my life fun and worthwhile. They bring me a sense of peace and tranquility. They are my friends. They have huge personalities. They experience love, joy, sadness, happiness (horses smile), goofiness, curiosity, anger, fear, insecurity, and much more.

We still have much work to do at The Haven, our wild horse sanctuary. But one day soon, we hope to invite those who have supported our organization and our rescued wild horses to the ranch to experience life with the wild ones. Stay tuned!!!!.

Thank you for your support of
Nevada's Wild Horses!!!

PRESS RELEASE FROM HIDDEN VALLEY WILD HORSE PROTECTION FUNDDATE: August 7, 2024CONTACT:Shannon WindlePresident, Hidden V...
08/08/2024

PRESS RELEASE FROM HIDDEN VALLEY WILD HORSE PROTECTION FUND
DATE: August 7, 2024
CONTACT:
Shannon Windle
President, Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund
775-297-2955
[email protected]
Virginia Range Wild Horses Removed from the Sunny Hills Development in south Reno
Reno, Nevada, August 7, 2024 - Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund (HVWHPF) condemns the actions taken by the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) under the authority of Director JJ Goicoechea to remove over 20 wild horses from the Sunny Hills Ranchos Development Property in south Reno today, Wednesday, August 7, 2024.
The actions taken today by the NDA violate the positive and productive spirit of the legal agreement signed between local non-profits and the NDA to provide the humane and effective management of the wild horses of the Virginia Range.
HVWHPF now questions how wild horse advocates working through various local non-profit organizations can continue to move forward and trust any statements, agreements, policies, procedures, rhetoric, coming out of the NDA from this day going forward.
The removal of these horses was without merit, reason, or justification and happened with no notice or reasonable justification from the NDA. Additionally, it violated the cooperative work that has been in progress for several weeks between the local non-profits and the NDA. Local volunteers had been working successfully for days to move the horses a few hundred feet north to a new source of water and away from the construction site. However, their efforts were thwarted when it was discovered the gate keeping the horses off the construction site was blocked. This allowed the horses to return to the construction site where they were then trapped on the property and removed from the range by the NDA.
The action taken today to trap and remove wild horses from this property is reprehensible, unreasonable, executed with disregard to the positive work that had been completed by volunteers, and violates the positive spirit with which both parties had assumedly been working under for several years.
As there has been a plan in place and volunteers actively working to move horses out of the construction site, we are calling for the immediate return to the range of all these wild horses removed from the range today, Wednesday, August 7, 2024 by the NDA.

Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund (HVWHPF) is an all-volunteer registered 501(c)3 non-profit Nevada corporation, officially founded in 2008. Our federal tax ID # is 80-0208865. For over 40 years, volunteers from the Hidden Valley community have led a grass roots effort to ensure public safety as well as the preservation, protection, promotion and rescue of the historic wild horses that graze the Virginia Range east of Reno, Nevada. Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund has rescued 168 Virginia Range wild horses and currently has 175 horses in its care. These horses were removed from the range by the state in 2012-13 and rescued from the Fallon livestock auction with support from American Wild Horse Campaign and donations from the public. For more information about Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund, please visit

Protecting Annie's Horses Join us To report an injured or at-risk Virginia Range wild horse call 775-352-3944OR Click here to report online Virginia Range Mustangs Haven Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund Virginia Range Mustangs Services Nevada Special License Plate Ghost's Special Fund Donati...

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PO Box 20052
Reno, NV
89515

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