honey palouse
Honey Palouse is a beloved, beautiful appaloosa mare. She’s a study in forgiveness, a lesson in grace in the face of humiliation. We found her starved and emaciated In a kill pen in Louisiana. There was a video of a man standing on her back, jumping on her to show she was gentle. This is something I have only seen done at kill pens. The sight and sound was appalling. It had to be painful for her, but she was so good and obedient, it broke my heart. We had to get her out of there.
They listed her as 10 years old, but we could see from her brand that she was actually 28. No horse deserves to be thrown away in their senior years. She was quarantined in Texas, then travelled to us in Malibu and was so excited to arrive. She looked at the ocean views and sang to ranch residents as we walked her all the way down the hill. From kill pen to coastal hills, love, care, and kindness, she quickly became everyone's favorite.
Honey Palouse still pins her ears back at meals. Starvation understandably left her food aggressive. She’ll also pin them if she thinks anyone is trying to move in on her pets and scratches. She’s a crotchety old girl with other horses, but she just adores affection from people. I go out to pat and stroke her until she closes her eyes and dozes off into sweet dreams. This dignified old girl has earned all of the love and comfort we can give her.
She has such wisdom in her eyes and a lifetime of experience - and what those eyes have seen! There is pink around one eye, a condition fairly common in appaloosas, which can cause vision problems in older horses, but Honey Palouse sees just fine out of both eyes.
She stayed in Malibu for a full year, then moved up to Oregon where she flourished. She relished being wild and free again in Sheldon’s herd. As the matriarch, she bossed the babies around and taught them to be mustang strong. We eventually brought her in with some other older horses when she started losing weight due to having fewer teeth. She could no longer get the calories she needed from forage. The persnickety old girl turned gentle and sweet with the draft horse, Samson, perhaps sensing his sadness at the passing of an old friend. He welcomed her company and they stood close together, even during meals of extra hay and soft mashes.
Today, Honey Palouse lives just with my former riding horse, Springsteen. Another senior, they get along well and make a sweet couple. They both have arthritis that is not helped by Oregon winters, so we’re planning to move them to the new ranch with a warmer climate in California.
Honey Palouse currently has a sponsor
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American 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 two Senators to urge them to support these bills. 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
Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2025 (H.R.1661 in the House and S.775 in the Senate). This bill would amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the “Farm Bill”. There are several important provisions for animals in that omnibus federal law, including the Cat and Dog Meat Trade Prohibition Act. It is currently illegal to slaughter, transport, possess, purchase, sell, or donate dogs and cats, or their parts, for human consumption. The SAFE Act would extend the ban to equines and 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. 4356) The bill would eliminate the use of helicopters in rounding up wild horses and burros, and require a study into alternative methods for humanely gathering the animals.
Ejiao Act of 2025 (H.R. 5544). 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.
See our How to Help menu for other actions to ban zebra hunting at US canned hunt ranches and stop production of Premarin & other PMU drugs.