barney

Barney is our biggest mustang in every way. He was rounded up in Twin Peaks California and was adopted by a fancy dressage barn in Southern California where he gave lessons and rides to beginners and taught many people the basics of dressage and hunter jumper basics too. This was one all round solid and steady boy who people trusted with their kids and felt safe on his back. After 18 years of dedicated service to this barn he lived at he went lame and had to be taken out of being ridden. Sadly now that he wasn’t making money for the barn they decided to euthanize him as he was costing money to keep.

Thankfully some ladies at this barn who had loved Barney for years stepped up to try and find him a home and retirement to stop him being put to sleep. We went to visit Barney at his barn and we knew this wasn’t the right ending for this horse. He had become resentful and angry at being kept in a stall and was dangerous to handle now. He would have hurt people so we gave him the one thing he needed to survive and live on. Space. Barney runs with the boys herd and rules the roost - now his kicks have to be watched for especially at feeding time but the more he lives the good life the more content and happy he gets. Big old Barney is one enormous teddy bear in the winter and we adore seeing him running the hills with his friends. He may be the fanciest mustang we have but to us he is just another wild boy. #skydogbarney

American Mustangs and Burros Need Your Help!

In addition to supporting our work by donating, becoming a patron on Patreon, or sponsoring a Skydog, there are several important pieces of legislation to protect American equines currently moving through Congress. It only takes a few minutes to contact your Rep and Senators and urge them to support these bills:

Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2025 (H.R.1661 in the House and S.775 in the Senate). This bill would amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. Commonly known as the “Farm Bill”, this omnibus federal law includes several important provisions for animals. Among them, the Cat and Dog Meat Trade Prohibition Act, which makes it illegal to slaughter, transport, possess, purchase, sell, or donate dogs and cats, or their parts, for human consumption. This SAFE Act would extend the prohibition to equines. Specifically, prohibiting a person from knowingly slaughtering an American equine for human consumption; or shipping, transporting, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donating an American equine to be slaughtered for human consumption. This bill will shut down the slaughter pipeline that sends some 20,000 American horses and donkeys to savagely monstrous deaths in foreign slaughterhouses every year.

You can Contact Members of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121‬, submitting contact forms on their individual websites, or sending one email to all three simultaneously at www.democracy.io

See our How to Help menu for other actions to ban zebra hunting at US canned hunt ranches, stop production of Premarin & other PMU drugs, and defund the Adoption Incentive Program.

You can also tell your Rep and Senators that you want these bills from the previous Congress introduced again this session:

The Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act of 2023 (H. R. 3656) This bill will prohibit the use of helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft in the management of wild mustangs and burros on public lands, and require a report on humane alternatives to current management practices.

Ejiao Act of 2023 (H.R. 6021). To ​​ban the sale or transportation of ejiao, a gelatin made from boiling donkey skins, or products containing ejiao in interstate or foreign commerce, which brutally kills millions of donkeys primarily for beauty products and Chinese medicine.