ONYX & Pearl

Cinnamon & Nutmeg

The Gems & Spices

On Giving Tuesday in December 2022, our donors said YES to saving four skinny mares from a kill pen in Kansas. Three of them were from Nevada herds and one is from Four Mile Idaho.  The Black, the Grey, the Dun and the Bay, as we first referred to them, were victims of the Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Incentive Program. The adopter took the thousand dollar incentive money and then sold them to slaughter. Kill pen mares are often bred by their owners to add weight to increase their meat price. We expected they might be pregnant - and they all looked pregnant - but none of them were. As joyful as it is when foals are born and raised at Skydog, the fact that we only needed resources for four instead of eight, allowed us to help other mustangs in need.

We couldn’t have picked up these four mares for the haul to Skydog without the help of Thor & Athena’s Promise. We needed to leave our truck and trailer somewhere safe for a few days. The sanctuary once posted a comment offering help, if we ever needed it. You never know if people are serious when they leave comments, but I reached out and they could not have been kinder. It is wonderful to be part of such a supportive network of animal rescues.

It’s a tragedy what these beautiful mustangs went through after being rounded up from the wild. They were from different herds in different states, but bonded by the experience of being trucked from the corrals to the adopter, from the adopter to auction, from auction to kill pen, and from there to quarantine and Skydog. We were relieved when they arrived in Oregon, where we could give them a space to rest and decompress. Sometimes I think about the horses who have made their way to Skydog. It often comes down to inches and seconds that they climb onto our trailer and not someone else’s. These four are hardly recognizable from the ones we picked up at the kill pen. Cinnamon had a body score of 2.5 and was sick with strangles. What a sight to see them return to themselves, to step out of their scraggly winter coats and shine in the sun. To be the self-assured horses they were born to be, living their best lives wild and free.

We named the girls Onyx, Pearl, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg and it’s easy to guess who is who. We refer to the group as the Gems & Spices. Onyx is the wildest of them. Nutmeg and Cinnamon are very spicy. Nutmeg is the boss who runs up to meet new mares face to face as she did when Cedar, Cricket, Eden, Wildflower, and Honor joined her band. The way horses determine dominance is by making the other horse’s feet move. It’s fascinating to watch this supreme moment when their position in the herd is established. It was always Nutmeg winning the game until she met Honor, who made her step back.

Right around Christmas in 2023, a curious gelding, Splash, dared to seize the day and pass through an old wire gate that was open. He left his boy band and best friend behind to see what he’d find on the other side of the hill. He came upon this group of gorgeous mares and decided to give being their leader a whirl. Like Pearl, he is a grey. During a herd check, we thought we were looking at her when a second grey appeared to our great surprise! The Gems & Spices swooned over him. Cricket and Cedar kept to themselves. Cinnamon was the most obsessed and he was most possessive of her. He shared his hay with her. It was a sweet, winter interlude, but come the spring, Splash decided he’d rather return to his boys.

At one point, we added Jorja and her colt, Tupelo Honey, to this group of mares while waiting for Cruiser to arrive. As blissfully happy as that little family was to be reunited, Jorja returned to the fence to commune with her mare friends. She was telling us something and we listened as we always do when our rescues express a preference for placement. Cruiser leaves it to his mares to decide who will - and will not - be accepted. They have all been added to his band where peace and harmony prevail, gems sparkle, and spices sweeten the air.

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