One man’s mission to preserve his heritage.

Many years in the making, the Choctaw horse rescue project has been a lifetime passion for Bryant Rickman. With technical assistance of Phil Sponenberg and the Livestock Conservancy, the program has been a great success for the breed but still faces challenges for the future. Learn about what it took to secure this important population and how lessons learned will help a new effort with the Choctaw hog.

Speakers: Bryant Rickman, Phil Sponenberg

More about Bryant: Bryant Rickman has been diligent over decades to seek out and save the Choctaw ponies he knew from his youth and from long years of work with Gilbert Jones. His dedication to the horses has secured their future, and has been supplemented by work to assure that Choctaw Hogs and local Cur dogs also have a future in both the local and national agriculture.

More about Phil: Dr. Phil Sponenberg is the Livestock Conservancy’s Technical Advisor and acts as lead on the organization’s rescue effort of the Rickman herd of Spanish mustangs. He is a long-time collaborator for the conservation of Spanish mustangs with the Rickmans and with the late Gilbert Jones. With the data accrued on the Rickman herd, Dr. Sponenberg has developed a conservation breeding strategy to ensure the genetic diversity and the long-term survival of the irreplaceable genetics represented in the horses.