Noble was among more than 50 wild horses relocated to RTF’s sanctuary in 2000 in their intact family bands following a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service roundup, conducted on horseback, at the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. Now about 30 years old, this kindly gelding with Standardbred bloodlines has proved devoted to his lead mare, Angie.

The Sheldon horses are descendants of a combination of draft horses who worked hard to develop ranchos in Nevada’s Great Basin along with Standardbred, Morgan and Thoroughbred breeds raised in that region during the 1920s and 1930s and made available for the cavalry. Many of these horses were turned loose and left to survive alone in the rough terrain and varied weather of the refuge area. They returned to a natural state and survive some of the most inhospitable regions of our federal lands.