The Spirit of Blackjack Mountain (continued)
ACTHA Monthly | April 2015 | 36
According to the conservation breeding program
developed by the American Livestock Breeds
Conservancy’s Technical Advisor Dr. Phillip
Sponenberg, the herd is divided into two main
breeding populations or strains within the herd;
the Gilbert Jones and Choctaw strains.
To understand the severity of the plight of the
Rickman Spanish Mustangs and The Friends of the
Heritage Horse Foundation Herds, you must first
become acquainted with the two men who have
devoted their lives to the preservation of this
breed, and a few other individuals who have made
it their life’s mission to aid in this undertaking.
GILBERT JONES
Gilbert Jones, founder of the Southwest Spanish
Mustang Association. Gilbert Jones was born in
1906 and given his first Spanish Mustang in 1914.
This gift gave birth to a lifelong dedication to the
preservation of the Spanish Mustang beginning
with his breeding them in the southwestern
United States. In the 1920s he began gathering
up and breeding his own strain, the Gilbert Jones
strain of Spanish Mustang. In the mid-1950s,
Gilbert moved to the Pushmataha County, OK area
bringing with him several Spanish Mustangs of the
Chickasaw, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache and Pueblo
bloodlines. In 1962 Gilbert moved to Medicine
Springs Ranch, located on Blackjack Mountain,
continuing the Gilbert Jones strain and adding the
genetics of the Choctaw horses. He also began
locating and speaking with the elders of the area,
seeking out the remnants of these historic herds.
Throughout the remainder of his life, Gilbert Jones,
worked tirelessly to prevent the extinction of this
strain.
The Choctaw strain of Colonial Spanish Horses are perilously close to extinction.
There are less than 250 alive today.
Photo by Jennie Sweetin-Smith