Goliath and Red Lady

For me, there is no greater love story than that of Goliath being reunited with Red Lady. It's so amazing for me to look back on all that happened to bring them to this point of peace, happiness, and their growing family. Here is the link to the movie we made about them or you can watch it below.

The film won at the International EQUUS Film Festival in Missoula Montana earlier this year. Every success it has means more people become aware of what is happening to our wild horses and hopefully educates them as to what to do to help others. Most people seeing the movie and watching their story ask "What can I do?” and we have plenty of steps you can take here and here.

Read on for the story behind the story of Goliath and Red Lady….

In early 2018, SKYDOG SANCTUARY decided to do all we could to realize a dream we had from the beginning - to reunite a family of mustangs after they had been rounded up by the BLM and separated. This was no easy task as often the horses rounded up have no history documented on them to figure out what stallion is with what mares and family bands are almost impossible to reunite. The only times this is possible is when photographers have identified a band before roundup and followed them through several seasons. SO it was extraordinary when we were first informed about Goliath being rounded up as so many people were aware of him and his family and history and family tree.  

We were determined to do all we could to bring them back together, and from the moment he was captured, after exhausting attempts to re-release him we found out he was put up on the Internet Adoption for the BLM Delta Coral. And then it just really took on a life of its own.

We became aware of an amazing lady, Andrea Kneale, who had adopted Goliath's lead mare who was pregnant with his last foal, as he was gelded by then. She selflessly and lovingly decided to re-assign his mare to us so that we could reunite them if we won the bid. We were aware that being so well known, he might be the unknowing subject of a bidding war so we fundraised to be able to have enough funds to purchase him and transport him and his mare to us in Oregon.

Red Lady traveled easily to Oregon and awaited her sweet love as we chewed our nails off during the bidding process. The outpouring of love for this horse and the donations we received were testament to how many people cared about reuniting them and being a part of this love story.

We won the bid on Goliath and on March 6th, 2018 he arrived at SKYDOG SANCTUARY Oregon.

The arrival of goliath

Our incredible hauler, Carla Lays, who had also brought Red Lady from Colorado, picked up Goliath at the Delta Utah corrals and brought him to Oregon.  Goliath traveled quietly and safely and then here he was. Over 750,000 people viewed the video of his arrival followed by his reunion with Red Lady. And since his arrival over 19 million people have seen his story on The Dodo and the movie we made about them on YouTube.

REUNITED LOVE

These two horses had been together in the wild for years and it was possible they would not remember each other, but when Goliath spotted Red Lady he ran the entire length of three football fields to reach her. It was the most incredible sight - if anybody ever doubted the bonds these horses make they were gone after this reunion.

We had just let Red Lady out of the barn she had been living in and she trotted up the hill and then turned to see him galloping towards her. I will never forget the beauty and overwhelming joy there was to see them together again. The first thing Goliath did when he reached Red Lady was touch his nose to her belly twice which was beginning to swell with their first foal.  

BODHI AND EMBER

Two months after Red Lady was reunited with Goliath, she had their final foal together and we let the followers of Skydog choose his name by raffle. Bodhi was the name out of the bucket and the name fits this noble and strong young horse. A year after Bodhi came into the world, a lady reached out to us to say she had seen her mustang on the video we had made about reuniting Goliath and Red Lady. Somehow I had never noticed the second red mare who had walked across the screen but sure enough, another member of Goliath’s family was found. Her adopter asked us if we would consider taking her here to reunite and we said yes. It was the truly most selfless and generous act anyone could have done as Ember turns out to be Goliath’s daughter and she loves being back with her family. What another happy ending for this group and who knows what the future holds for more additions to this group. We hope one day to add others and complete this amazing band.

FAMILY PHOTO ALBUM