board of directors
Clare Staples - Founder + President
Clare Staples has one of the most interesting and unusual stories. This former English socialite turned her back on a glamorous and envied existence, swapping a Hollywood lifestyle, famous friends, and the things most people dream of acquiring, to dedicate the second half of her life to helping the wild horses and donkeys of America. In the footsteps of other inspirational women, she completely changed her values and lifestyle to devote herself to saving and caring for the animals she loves and rescues. Clare has transformed her life into one of service and devotion to those less fortunate who have ended up abused, discarded, mistreated, and overlooked. As well as reuniting many equine families who would have never seen each other again if it weren’t for her tireless work.
Many people find their passion and purpose in life but Clare is lucky enough to live and breath it every day saving these deserving and needy sentient beings she so admires, loves, and respects.
Clare is the Founder and President of Skydog Sanctuary and has been working with wild horses for over 10 years. Clare is a qualified EAGALA Equine Therapist and helps manage the two ranches where the sanctuaries call home. She is a long-time wild horse advocate and Skydog is the culmination of a lifelong passion to save and protect wild mustangs now and forever. Clare eats, breathes, and sleeps Skydog. She manages the social media, answers emails, fundraises for each rescue, cultivates donors and celebrity supporters, takes photographs and videos of the rescues, and is hands-on in every aspect of the Ranch from head to toe.
The knowledge she has acquired of wild horses, their plight, and the political manipulation and abuse of these cherished icons of the American West over the last decade makes her one of the leading experts on mustangs and wild horse issues but she has never lost her personal hands-on approach to each and every equine Skydog rescue. Clare has used a lifetime of being around some of the brightest and best to apply what she has learned for the benefit of wild horses and has grown Skydog Ranch from nothing to the leading Wild Horse sanctuary in the World. Skydog was recently verified with a coveted blue tick, as a brand leader, a social influencer, and famous around the entire world raising awareness for the American Mustang in every corner of the globe.
Clare divides her time between the two sanctuaries in Malibu California and Bend Oregon spending quality time at both to make sure all aspects of Skydog are running smoothly. Her voice is instantly recognizable on social media posts although she likes to stay in the background, with the focus being on the wild horses and donkeys in her care rather than raising her own profile or seeing attention. The horses and donkeys are the star of this sanctuary and no one person is more important than their care and attention.
JANELLE HIGHT - TREASURER
Janelle has been the Equine Director of Skydog Sanctuary for four years. Her skills with wild horses are unmatched. She does the feet of the wild horses, she gentles completely wild horses we take in needing medical care, as well as many other things involved in the running of Skydog Ranch. Janelle is an invaluable member of the board and she has a huge say in the management of the wild horses in our care.
Whenever we take in a new horse, Janelle is able to determine whether we can accommodate another equine and determines timelines on when to turn them out with a herd, all done in conjunction with her knowledge and expertise. With her Assistant Equine Director, she is an incredible asset to the wild horses and donkeys who are our lifelong residents. We are all thrilled with her input and wealth of knowledge adding to our already dynamic and professional team. Janelle lives on site at Skydog Oregon with her husband, Koal, who also works part-time on the Skydog staff taking care of the ranch and horses. Janelle is known to most of our followers as she is regularly features on Skydog videos, whether she is training Moose, Smokey and Renegade’s grandsons or hauling water and providing medical care to our horses and donkeys, so it is incredibly important that she also be involved at a board level with our decisions and growth.
JAMIE BALDANZA - SECRETARY
Jamie and Clare bonded a few years ago over their separate love of wild horses. The first time they spoke they were on the phone for hours trying to find a solution and their places in the wild horse advocacy world.
Jamie thrives on driving creative ideas from beginning to end. As an Art Director/ Creative Director over the past 14 years, she has helped develop some of the most recognizable brands in the world. A horse lover since birth, Jamie quit her job to follow her passion - photographing wild horses all across the Western United States. With a greater outreach from a growing Instagram following, she has been inspired to do even more.
Utilizing her talents, Jamie created her own production company that concentrates on bringing animal causes to the public through film & photography. Jamie's latest project, the docuseries “Wild Lands. Wild Horses” (Formerly called "Taking Back The West") will help bring awareness to the wild horse cause. Skydog Productions and This Mustang Life joined forces to make their first short film called Pass the SAFE Act where they traveled to Texas to rescue two mares. This has just been followed up two years later with a new version of the movie where they traveled to Colorado to rescue three mares.
RACHEL HUNTER - BOARD MEMBER
Rachel Hunter is a long time horse lover and supporter of Skydog Sanctuary. She had horses of her own and retired them to pasture when they were no longer able to be ridden. Rachel has an enormous love of animals, nature, and this beautiful planet we share. She brings a huge wealth of experience regarding celebrity outreach and has helped us to bring like-minded horse-loving people to raise awareness for the plight of wild horses in America.
Rachel has helped raise awareness to promote our social media platforms by regularly posting about our sanctuary. We are thrilled that she has taken on this role and we are happy to expand our board to encompass creativity and awareness of what we are doing here at Skydog. Her deep connection to the pursuit of spirituality brings the most beautiful, peaceful and harmonious energy to our ranches that she regularly visits. And her intelligence and intuition about what is best for our organization and the residents here is invaluable.
ARIELLE KEBBEL - BOARD MEMBER
We first met Arielle when she reached out to come visit Skydog Malibu. Since that day, when she also signed up to sponsor Swazye, whom she fell in love with, Arielle has been one of our biggest supporters and has regularly posted about Skydog Sanctuary to raise awareness about the plight of America’s mustangs. She joins the board as an informed and involved member of the team and we are thrilled to have her with us, helping with celebrity outreach and donors in particular.
Her love of wild horses and concern about their future is hugely inspiring to us and she regularly visits our sanctuaries to keep up with our intakes and horses in our care. Arielle has a life long love of horses, with wonderful knowledge and experience that helps when making decisions for our wild ones and their well being. She is a huge asset to our organization and comes with ideas, suggestions, outreach, and education that we are very lucky to utilize.
BIBI BELIN - BOARD MEMBER
Bibi Belin found Skydog thanks to her amazing mustang Smokey who became part of her family in Switzerland in 2020. Since she was a little girl and people asked her what she wanted to do growing up her answer was to rescue horses.
Horses and donkeys have always had a special place in her heart. She got her first horse just after her 4th son was born and thanks to the amazing soul of this horse called Chamane, she had the energy and strength to raise her four boys and run the family household.
Her sons grew up and in 2020 she found Smokey. He was rounded up in Frisco, Utah, from a small herd in January 2017 and was adopted in 2019. When Brigitte found Smokey he had just been sold to people in California. After the initial sadness of not being able to buy him, she got a phone call saying that the sale fell through and that Smokey was all hers if she wanted him. It was true destiny and Smokey had decided he had a story to tell.
The day she met Smokey in Switzerland she felt a bond like never before and knew Smokey came into her life for a reason. So amazed by this beautiful mustang she started doing research on these horses, as, being from Switzerland, she didn’t know much about them. She was so horrified by what was being done to these horses that she knew she had to do something about it and made a promise to Smokey that she would.
That’s when she found Skydog in early 2021 and a partnership with Clare began. With her husband and two of her boys she came to visit the Oregon sanctuary in the spring of 2022. Seeing these horses roam free, watching them gallop through the fields, getting to sit down surrounded by donkeys, and meeting incredible people dedicated to help theses animals was an amazing experience. Her heart was filled with joy and she knew right there and then that she could realize her inner child’s dream by helping Skydog financially and continuing to do so for years to come. Smokey had delivered his message and helped make this dream come true.