Bobcat

Bobcat, the sweetest, friendliest mustang, was eleven years old when I rescued him from a kill pen in Texas at the end of 2020. Originally intending him to be my personal horse, I paid for him privately. Knowing I was getting too old to fall off and gallop, I wanted a super mellow, big horse. A good old boy, who’d be happy smelling the roses on slow rides. I had been looking for him for a long time. When Bobcat popped up in my messages looking so sick and sad, I knew he was the one.  

His brand was unreadable, at that point, so his background was unknown. A huge crack in his hoof, which we fixed with good farrier work and effort, could have made him lame. His asking price was high at the kill pen, so no one was interested in buying him. I hate to think what would have happened if he had ended up in the wrong hands and wasn’t the perfect riding horse.

A woman named Kathy nursed him through serious illness in quarantine. Then he was hauled by my dear friend Marlene Dodge. On the road, she stopped off at a place to rest him. When he got out of the trailer, a man asked if he could bring his elderly, disabled mother to see him as she’d had mustangs when she was younger. She sat with Bobcat and he dropped his head, let her pet him all over. She wept as he stood quietly healing her heart.

Bobcat has several whorls, including two that are high, tight, and side-by-side between his eyes. I looked this up and it indicates a horse that is super focused and talented - but can be challenging and difficult in the wrong hands.

He started out in Malibu with lots of interaction with loving volunteers. He enjoyed begin able to stretch his legs and run on the slopes with Georgie. It was always a joy to have him follow me around. He’d look up from his hay bucket when he heard my voice, then trot towards me for a pet.

A previous owner of Bobcat contacted me after learning he was at Skydog. She said she’d bought him for $300 in 2018 and named him Dirty. She loved him, but couldn’t afford to keep him as he was so big and needed a lot of feed to keep on his weight. She sold him to a man, who promised he would give him a great home, but turned around and sold him to a kill buyer.  She also told me he was fine when he was ridden at a walk, but he started bucking at the trot or gallop.

Bobcat wasn’t meant to be a riding horse in Malibu. The wild life in Oregon was right for him. No matter how big the space he’s on with his herd, this big teddy bear of a horse still comes over when he hears my voice to give the best hug.

#skydogbobcat

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 2023 (H.R. 3475 in the House / S.2307 in the Senate). 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.

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.

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.