Meet The founders

When Gilbert H. Jones was no longer able to care for his herd, he asked his friend Bryant Rickman to make him a promise: to continue his life's work of preserving these horses.

At the time, the promise seemed simple enough. Jones's herd of approximately 600 horses was roaming freely across Blackjack Mountain, where they had access to open grazing land and were largely able to care for themselves.

But everything changed in 2007.

Landowners surrounding Blackjack Mountain discontinued the open-grazing leases, and the horses were forced off the mountain. Bryant, working alongside local ranchers, helped trap and relocate the horses to area pastures in an effort to protect them and preserve the historic herd.

What Bryant could not have known when he made that promise to his friend was the tremendous financial, physical, and logistical commitment it would eventually require.

Yet he never walked away from it.

For nearly two decades, Bryant Rickman has continued Gilbert Jones's mission, dedicating his life to preserving the foundation herd and other important Colonial Spanish bloodlines, including Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Huasteca.

He has meticulously maintained pedigrees, documented individual horses, collected DNA samples, and worked to protect the genetic heritage of some of the nation's most significant preservation herds.

Today, Bryant continues to care for approximately 200 of these precious horses, carrying forward a promise made to a friend and protecting a living piece of America's history.

The work Gilbert Jones began did not end with him.
Bryant Rickman kept the promise.

Bryant Rickman

During the 20th century, renowned horse preservationist Gilbert H. Jones recognized that many of the horses brought to North America by Spanish explorers in the early 1500s were rapidly disappearing.

For centuries, these remarkable horses had survived through the care and stewardship of Native American tribes, preserving bloodlines that trace their ancestry back to the earliest Spanish horses brought to North America. Many of these horses also endured the forced relocation of Native peoples along the Trail of Tears.

Through decades of dedication, Jones assembled and meticulously documented one of the largest remaining collections of these historic horses. His herd roamed freely across Blackjack Mountain in southeastern Oklahoma, where he worked to preserve their unique bloodlines for future generations.

Gilbert H. Jones founded the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association (SSMA) and served as its president until 1997. His life's work established a foundation for preserving these horses and the history they represent.