What does BLM mean?
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for managing federal Public lands and the horses and burros who live on them.
What does AIP Stand For?
Skydog Sanctuary The Adoption Incentive Program is a program started by the BLM in 2020 which gives an adopter $1,000 to take a mustang. Very sadly, as anticipated, the programhad led to hundreds of mustangs landing in 'kill pens' and shipping to slaughter. Skydog spent 18 months rescuing over 150 horses out of pans and auctions to get evidence that these were AIP horses and that the program was responsiblefor sending an enormous number of wild horses to their deaths. It is essentially a pay to slay subsidy to slaughter program the BLM came up with to funnel wild horses into the slaughter pipeline after they had washed their hands of them.
What Is Canned Hunting?
In nearly half the states in the US, such as Texas and Florida, it is legal to kill exotic animals and sometimes even endangered species as there are no policies that restrict or ban canned hunting. Canned Zebra Hunting is the killing of captive-bred zebras while they are trapped in small enclosures. After being bred and raised the zebras are released into enclosures that are large enough for them to roam around, and small enough for it to be easy for a an amateur “hunter” to find and kill them for a lofty price tag (thousands of dollars). There is no concept of “fair chase” as these animals have been raised by (some bottle-fed), and are therefore are desensitized to humans. Often times the animals are feeding, or tied to a post, when they are brutally shot and killed; brutally because oftentimes the hunter is not skilled at shooting to kill so the animals suffer through their final moments.
How Big Is The Sanctuary?
Skydog Sanctuary is an 9,000 acre ranch in Bend, Oregon. We also have an 11 acre ranch in Malibu, California where the horses that aren't ready to, or are not capable of living in a herd enjoy their life.
How Many Horses Are At Skydog Oregon & Skydog Malibu?
As of January 2023, we have 220 horses at the ranch in Oregon and 6 at the ranch in Malibu. We also have 57 donkeys, mules, zonkeys and a zebra spread between both ranches.
How many herds are there at Skydog Oregon?
There are over 20 different herds at Skydog Oregon. They include The Blue Zeus Herd, Buddy's which is also known as 'The Big Herd' and includes The Main 3, Phoenix's Herd, Hawk's Herd and Bear's Herd. In addition, there's Champ's, Blaze's, the Boys Lower/River's Herd, the Boys Middle/Apollo's Herd, as well as Stetson's Herd also known as 'The Hard Keepers' and Samson's Pine Nut Herd. In addition, on smaller areas there's also Maestro's Family, Firefly's Herd, Goliath's Herd, Blue Moon's, Big Samson's, Lightning's and Read's Herd along with Boomer, Sarge & Monty, Rocky & Pegasus and Soleil & Nugget.
May I Visit The Sanctuary?
We welcome our sponsor's to visit either the Malibu location or Oregon location once per year if he or she chooses to do so. We are not open to the public to protect the horses from intrusion and because our staff is incredibly busy caring for the horses. Every tour of our sanctuary takes at least an hour and takes staff away from their daily tasks for the horses and donkeys which every day include feeding, mucking, checking waters and of course herd checks on the actual animals. As we take a lot of equines with special needs there is also bandaging, treatments, doctoring and administering meds to horses who are on vet care and also training and gentling for wild horses who need handling. We work very hard to keep our social media feeds full of updates of horses and herds people want to see and regularly ask that people request who they would like to see if they haven't seen a certain horse or donkey for a while. We do also offer a weekend or day at Skydog as part of certain tiers on Patreon which is at www.patreon.com/skydogsanctuary
How Do I Become A Sponsor?
Please visit the SKYDOG SPONSOR PAGE to sponsor a horse or the SKYDOG DONATION PAGE to make a donation. Any contribution is greatly appreciated! Our sponsorship program is one of the best and most wonderful ways people choose to help us keep doing the work we are doing. By donating $100 a month you are literally helping us continue to rescue and save horses and donkeys by supporting the ones we have already rescued and are in our care. The expenses for this operation are enormous and we could not keep doing it without your help. If you are able to sign up to sponsor a horse or donkey it would be amazing and help us and allow you the oppprtunity to join us at the ranch and meet the crew and animals.
What Does It Mean To Be A Sponsor?
By committing annually to a $100/month sponsorship of a mustang or burro, you help us enormously in ensuring that the horse or donkey you pick will allow us to take more. When the equines we have already saved are financially supported by people who care about them, then Skydog can become home to many more wild horses still in danger or in need of being reunited with their families.
Are The Male Horses Gelded?
Yes the BLM gelds all the stallions after rounding them up before they are adopted out. Any baby boys born at Skydog to pregnant mares we have rescued, are gelded at the appropriate time.
I've Fallen In Love With A Skydog. Is It Possible For Me To Adopt Him or Her?
Once the animals reach Skydog Sanctuary we provide each one with their forever home. There are so many animals out there at risk and in need though, so please don't let that hold you back from rescuing your forever animal. If you would like help finding out how to rescue a horse or donkey either from the BLM or from a kill pen we have information pages on both you can request by email at contact@skydogranch.org
How Do I Rescue A BLM Mustang?
Please check out the BLM WEBSITE for a detailed "how to" list. Some other useful links are the REQUIREMENTS and APPLICATION.
What Is The Difference Between A Burro And A Donkey?
No difference! Wild donkeys tend to be referred to as burros by the BLM and historically but are the same animals as donkeys.
How Do I Follow Along On Each Animal's Journey?
You are welcome to follow along at @SkydogSanctuary on Instagram or Facebook where we regularly post about the animals! We also use the hashtag #skydog(insert name) for each post to do with each animal.
Who founded skydog
The founder is Clare Staples who started Skydog as a non-profit in 2016. She has built the sanctuary into the most well known and well loved non profit organization whose quality of care for the resident horses and donkeys has become the gold standard. With over half a million followers on Facebook and now over 165,000 on Instagram the world is now finding out and falling in love with the American Mustang and wild burros. Half of our mission statement is to save and rescue at risk wild horses and burros and the other half is to educate and raise awareness for the plight of wild horse and burros in the Western United States.
How Many Staff Work at Skydog Oregon and Skydog Malibu Taking Care of The Horses and Burros?
There are 10 staff members in Oregon and 3 in Malibu.
What does PMU stand for?
Pregnant Mare's Urine (PMU) is used to produce the horse estrogen-based Premarin family of drugs. Premarin horses suffer horribly for the production of this drug. The horses used to produce Premarin rarely have an opportunity to bond with their foals after giving birth. Year after year these mares stand in horrible conditions, on concrete, in tiny stalls unable to even turn around being forced into pregnancy again and again until their bodies give out. #endpmu
DO YOU TRIM FEET OR DO ANY MEDICAL CARE?
Yes, we bring all the herds and horses and donkeys in twice a year for foot trims, wormer and once a year vaccinations. Most of the horses trim their feet naturally on the rugged landscape as they would in the wild, some horses are gentle enough to trim their feet like normal on the ground by lifting their feet and trimming them, and a wild few are run into the chute and tipped on their sides to have their feet quickly trimmed with a power tool. It’s quick easy and stress free. Janelle does all their feet and keeps an eye on feet during herd checks to make sure they are all looking good.
HOW LARGE ARE THE AREAS THEY ARE IN?
The first pens we put them in vary between a few acres to forty acres, where the new horses acclimate to their new surroundings and get in the habit of being fed daily. When we consider them ready, or they have been introduced to a small herd first, we turn them out on to large areas. With 9000 acres, the areas vary in size from a few hundred acres for the smaller herds, to over 1000 acres for larger herds. They are varying sizes depending on the horses and their needs and wildness. We are constantly fencing more of the lower ranch for us to be able to comfortably house more horses and burros on healthy land.
HOW MANY BALES OF HAY DO YOU FEED IN ONE YEAR?
That is impossible to say. The number of horses is always changing, the needs of the horses is regularly changing too. The donkeys are fed timothy or orchard hay and the horses are fed mostly orchard with some alfalfa. We fill our hay sheds 2-3 times a year and receive over 100 tons of hay each time which is an enormous amount of hay. With the price of hay increasing every year and having tripled in price since we began it’s very expensive to feed these horses. During Spring and Summer we let the horses graze the grasses but it totally depends how long that lasts with when it rains to make new forage and how dry the summer is.
WHY ARE THERE BABIES BORN AT SKYDOG IF YOU DON’T BREED AND DO YOU GELD THE COLTS?
We regularly rescue mares from kill pens or BLM corrals who can turn out to be pregnant and have babies once they are with us. All the stallions are gelded by the BLM when rounded up and the baby boys (colts) are gelded at between 6-9 months depending on when the first cold snap is, so the flies are gone which helps with an open draining wound.
DO YOU WEAN BABIES?
We do not wean babies from their mothers, unless for medical reasons. We leave it to the mothers to wean their own babies which they will when they want to. Donkey mamas tend to be pretty insistent on the babies weaning within a year but the horses all differ and some like to go on nursing. Our longest ever nursing was Maestro’s son Legacy with his mother Gracie. She let him nurse until around 3 years old which was beautiful.
HOW DO YOU READ THE BLM BRAND?
I like to explain it like this. Imagine a square and cut off each corner and each of those corners stands for a number - two is top left, four is top right, six is bottom right, eight is bottom left. Then imagine a diamond shape and the top tip is three, right hand tip is five, bottom tip is seven, left hand tip is nine. Then one looks like an eleven with two upright lines. The zero is an equal sign with two parallel lines. LINK: BLM Freezemark – Wild Horse Education
WHAT IS A KILL PEN?
A place where horses are bought cheap or free by the “kill buyer” and taken before they are shipped to slaughter in Mexico and Canada. While at the kill pens or “feedlots” many have Facebook pages where they advertise the horses, donkeys, mules, zonkeys to be rescued.
WHAT IS A KILL BUYER?
Mostly men - these horse traders are as old as time and usually old cowboys who view horses and donkeys as livestock and nothing more than a way to make money. Selling them for pity or selling them for meat. These kill buyers will also answer craigslist ads for free horses and convince the owner of the horse they are going to send them to a therapy ranch, to a ranch for disabled children, or to keep for their own kids. No lie is too hideous to get the buyer to preferably give them the horses so they can make more money off them.
WHAT IS YOUR CHUTE AND HOW DO YOU BRING HORSES IN FOR TREATMENT?
We have two hydraulic chutes which are similar to the ones used at the BLM. We gently push the horses into the hydraulic chute after three bucking chutes, where they can be held until the first horse is done. Inside the hydraulic chute, they can be squeezed within huge thick cushioned pads, even tilted onto their side. Doors on one side can be opened to treat any place on the horse’s body or face. We can even float teeth like this or doctor wounds or just worm them. We have managed to treat every horse we have had for every single various issue they have and it’s about the most valuable piece of equipment for dealing with wild horses.
ARE THEY COLD IN THE WINTER?
No. Wild horses, in particular, are used to much colder temperatures than we have in Oregon and of course Malibu. They have shelter and wind breaks with the trees and there is an interesting link here to show how they stay warm. LINK: The Hardy Horse: How Horses Handle Winter – The Horse
WHAT KIND OF COOKIES DO YOU GIVE THE HORSES?
Mrs. Pastures Horse Cookies - which are quite hard. So, to the younger horses or seniors, with no teeth, we give A-Z Blonde Cookies, which are amazing.
HOW DO I FIND THE STORY OF ANY HORSE OR DONKEY?
On Instagram, you can go to #skydogphoenix or the name of whatever horses you want to see, and it will bring up all the past videos of them which tell their stories. We also have a “Then And Now” page on this website. LINK: Mustang Stories — Skydog Ranch & Sanctuary
WHAT IS THE HIP BRAND?
The hip brand is the four numbers of their tag number and is put on there to mark them for BLM long-term holding or off-range facilities, to identify them easily from a distance.
WHAT IS SALE AUTHORITY?
A Sale Authority mustang is a horse over 11 years old or who has been offered for adoption three times. These horses cost just $25 and have less protections than the adoption horses who need to be kept for one year to get title. When you have title to your horse you can sell it to anyone, including to slaughter.
CAN THEY EVER BE ROUNDED UP AGAIN AT SKYDOG?
No. We own the land they live on and they are safe forever. Our ranch is entirely perimeter fenced and cross fenced to keep them safely inside.
IS BABY BLUE THE SON OF BLUE ZEUS?
No. Baby Blue is the son of Blue from the Pine Nut Mountains, Nevada.
WHAT IS IN THE MAGIC MASH YOU FEED THE SENIOR HORSES?
For hard keepers we feed up to: 6lbs soaked Timothy pellets 4 times a day. For really hard keepers you can do 3 lbs soaked Timothy pellets and 3lbs soaked alfalfa pellets at each feeding. (Weights are before being soaked in warm water.) And 3lbs soaked Purina senior active at each feeding (if the horse has good teeth the senior active doesn’t necessarily need to be soaked, but it doesn’t hurt anything).
We also add 2 cups Purina amplify nuggets to the grain for each feeding to add extra fat.
As the horse gains weight and becomes an acceptable weight these portions can be cut back or cut out one of the feeding times for the day.
If the horse is only on mash though and no hay, I recommend at least 3 feedings throughout the day so that they constantly have food going through their digestive system, as horses that are fed hay or are eating grass are constantly eating throughout the day. - Janelle
WHERE IS SKYDOG RANCH LOCATED?
We have 2 separate ranches, an eleven acre ranch in Malibu and a 9000 acre sanctuary in Central Oregon near Bend.
WHO ARE THE LEGENDS OF THE FALL?
They are a group of older geldings from the red desert Wyoming who were rescued alongside Blue Zeus and we took to calling them that and it stuck.
DO THE HORSES HAVE SHELTER IN THE WINTER?
The horses are all wild mustangs and all grow incredible winter coats to deal with the cold temperatures. They are so smart and they find gullies and shelter in the trees to get out of the cold to use as windbreaks.
DO YOU ONLY RESCUE FAMOUS AND FLASHY HORSES?
This is a total falsehood and completely untrue and inaccurate. We have 220 horses at Skydog and only very few of them were named before they came to us. Those include Goliath, Red Lady, Maestro, Blue Zeus, The Pine Nut band and Renegade. Regarding color we have way more Bays, Browns, Sorrels, and Black horses than any Paints or Palominos, Roans or Appaloosas. We don’t pick for color. We take those in need and we have mostly kill pen and auction save horses, trainer and owner relinquishment’s, special needs or seniors or sale authority mustangs.
WHERE DOES THE NAME SKYDOG COME FROM?
Here is the explanation (LINK): Why Skydog — Skydog Ranch & Sanctuary