cheyenne, Sierra & Snow

Three beautiful mares from three different herds in three different states met on their journey to hell and back. Their bond was forged by surviving the most heartless animal cruelty from the roundups to criminal AIP adopters to the kill pen, where we found them. They were our second save in 2024, the Year of Kill Pen Saves.

Cheyenne, Sierra, and Snow fell into the hands of an organized ring that breaks the law by adopting mustangs from the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). Touted as a way to give mustangs and burros good homes, the AIP pays adopters $1000 per animal, ostensibly to help with their expenses. More often, what it really does is pay middlemen to take wild equines off the BLM’s hands and dispose of them - no questions asked. It’s a “Pay to Slay” program. Since its implementation in 2019, there has been an explosion of unhandled mustangs and burros turning up in kill pens. This is what happened to these three mares.

Each member of this group adopted 4 horses. They were paid $1000 per mare in taxpayer dollars and received title after one year. Instead of giving them good homes, they bred them to increase their weight with pregnancy to make more money on their meat price. The names of these people, all repeat offenders, are printed on the titles, which we received when we saved them from the kill pen. We reported them to the BLM, which is supposed to ban them from adopting again, but the AIP attracts many people who do this.

When we saw Cheyenne, Sierra, and Snow in a video at the Oklahoma kill pen, they were nervous, jumpy, very defensive, and stayed close together. We were told the owner had bred them with an Appaloosa stallion, but you can never believe what they tell you. We don’t think they’d ever met humans that had any respect for them from the day they were rounded up. They were amazingly trusting and cooperative about being loaded and hauled one more time, never knowing what would be waiting at the next stop. They came bolting out of the trailer when they arrived at Skydog and headed up the hill to explore their woody enclosure. A stop at the fence to meet their happy, healthy, calm new neighbors must have been reassuring. Before long, they released and relaxed with a good roll in the mud to wash the stench of the pens off their bodies and reconnect with the natural world.

Cheyenne and Snow both looked and tested pregnant. Sierra did not. If it is not too stressful for them, we like to gentle the mothers so they can accompany their newborns to the vet clinic, if necessary. We didn’t expect any babies ‘til spring, so we supported them with specialized nutrition and veterinary care. They were all pretty wild, so we gave them their space to settle in - but these three have been full of surprises!

#skydogcheyenne #skydogsierra #skydogsnow

Sierra

Sierra is a beautiful dun mare born in 2018 and rounded up in Utah. As soon as she bolted out of the trailer at Skydog, we could see that there something different about her.

We knew Cheyenne and Snow were expecting, but Sierra tested negative. That was just as well, we thought, as she was the wildest of the three and gentling might have been too stressful for her. As her friends’ bellies swelled, Sierra gained some weight, but she had come to us so thin that we didn’t think anything of it. She certainly did not look like she was carrying a baby - famous last words! On May 3, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we found her standing with her adorable, peaceful newborn mule, Shasta, at her side!

Sierra had delivered Shasta the wild way, but we brought them all in as a precaution. Those first 24 hours after delivery are always delicate and critical, especially when the mothers have been mistreated and spent time in kill pens. So when we saw little Shasta was struggling and not getting milk, we had to take her to the vet clinic without her wild mother. Shasta received excellent care that saved her little life, as well a nurse mare, Priscilla, who stepped right in to love, nourish, and nurture her. We don’t know why Sierra was unable to nurse her foal, but we are grateful to Sierra for carrying Shasta to term through dangerous and frightening situations. It hurts to think the abuse she suffered in human hands might have played a role. Whatever the reason, motherhood at Skydog was not her destiny. With Shasta safe and sound, we turned to Sierra’s peace of mind and happiness.

Our first thought was to keep her with Cheyenne and Snow, but Sierra doesn’t like humans one bit. Her jitters made her friends nervous and caused them all to run and panic a little. She would not have been happy with them in the baby pen, where people are frequently present. Sierra wanted to run wild. 

On July 4, 2024, we released her onto 1200 acres with none other than Blue Zeus and his family. Sierra is such a strong, fierce, and confident mare, we knew she would do fine - and she did. When the herd ran at her, she wasn’t scared. She held her ground and then ran with them. She didn’t hesitate to set boundaries when Blue Zeus came too close. These days, we sometimes find them eating together. This is what Sierra needs and she has plenty of space and freedom to fully embrace it.

#skydogsierra

Snow

Snow is a beautiful white appaloosa born in 2016 and rounded up in Nevada. She was age five when she was removed from the range, so I'm fairly sure she had babies in the wild.

She is the most submissive and curious of the three mares. She followed Sierra into the trailer when they were loaded, but was the first to jump out when they arrived at Skydog. She was the first to stop and take interest in other sanctuary equines when they called to her from the other side of the fence.

Snow must have been standing in muck and mud for a long time, which literally rotted her soles. She had thrush so bad it had worn her frog down to sensitive tissue. Thanks to the hydraulic chute, we were able to trim her bleeding hooves and her feet began to heal.

Unlike Sierra, Snow both tested and looked pregnant. Her swollen belly made her big as a barn - as big Red Lady when she was carrying Bodhi. At the kill pen they said all three mares were bred to a leopard-spotted Appaloosa, but so far we had one baby mule, so we had no idea what to expect. All I cared about was helping a healthy mother deliver a healthy baby. On August 3, 2024, in the quiet of the night, she delivered her beautiful mustang boy, Frost. Snow is a wonderful mother, loving, patient, and understandably very protective. We respected that and gave her space. Thankfully, there were no problems in her foal’s early, delicate days. Frost latched on right away to get that vital colostrum and she’s had no trouble giving him all the milk he wants.

Cheyenne stayed with Snow and naturally stepped into her role as auntie. Snow and Frosty follow her everywhere. Maternal mares in the pen next door, Rosa and Violet, would meet them at the fence daily to admire the handsome boy. They looked like little old ladies knitting as the elders advised the young mother on how to raise her mustang colt properly. When Frosty was big enough, Snow and Cheyenne moved with him to the baby pen, where he has playmates and Snow can commune with other mothers.

#skydogsnow

Cheyenne

Cheyenne is a beautiful sorrel overo (paint) born in 2015 and rounded up in Wyoming. It was clear from day one that she was the lead mare of this group. She decided when they ran and where. She is always watching out for her friends.

Like Snow, Cheyenne looked pregnant and had continued gaining weight at Skydog, but then we all noticed that she was starting to look less pregnant. There was some speculation that she may well have been the real mother of Shasta. In all the videos, Shasta was glued to Sierra, but we never saw her nurse, which is why we intervened. Shasta was born in the middle of the night when nobody was around, so we don’t know. It's a possibility. Or maybe Cheyenne had just had a baby taken off her before the kill pen and was still looking large from that. It’s a sad thought, but the five lives we saved from the kill pen that day are all thriving and happy in their new lives at Skydog.

Snow and Frost follow Cheyenne everywhere. She decides where they should go, while Snow focuses on keeping Frost safe. If Snow moves away and Frost isn’t paying attention, Auntie Cheyenne steps forward to make sure he catches up with his mom. When we introduced the three of them to the baby pen, Cheyenne blazed a path through the group to announce the arrival of the newcomers. Cheyenne is devoted to Snow and Frosty, so we are keeping them together. When Frost is big enough, they will all be turned out onto open space with a herd to continue his wild education.

#skydogcheyenne

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.