rowdy
ROWDY & MESTEÑO
We know we can never replace Renegade. He was too special and one in a million. But we have a deep desire to honor his freedom and the love so many people had for him. The photographs of him running on green grass the day he was released are as far away from the photos of Rowdy as you could imagine. This boy was adopted out and also went to a trainer, but like Renegade could not adjust to domestic life. He is the same age as Renegade when rounded up and this boy was returned to the BLM corrals and deemed unadoptable as he had injured his trainer. He was slated to go to a long-term holding facility, but we just loaded him in the back of our trailer. We want to give him the freedom he wants back. We want to take that sadness away. Rowdy wants to stay wild and it’s the most honorable way for us to remember Renegade, taking a horse who has a similar story and give him the same gift. Nothing will bring our boy back or heal our hearts or stop our tears but this helps. We can’t take them all and it doesn’t change the world, but for this one boy Rowdy, well his whole world changed. And just maybe we had one more surprise back there in our trailer.
Well, of course, Rowdy had a friend, Mesteño ❤️ You know we would never leave a horse’s best friend behind. I had never seen a sadder photo of that poor horse so to juxtapose that with where he will end up just seemed so right. Mesteño is the Spanish word for wild and untamed and we know nothing about this boy other than he was rounded up at 17 in the emergency gather last year. What an age to lose your freedom and family.
Rowdy and Mesteño are now out with Bobcat, Jasper, Donatello, Spirit, Charlie, Lionheart, and Stetson. The boys of summer are doing great and it’s so interesting to watch the herd dynamics and new relationships and friendships form. Rowdy has become good friends with Bobcat, and Mesteño was happily grazing with Charlie last night, but these two are still the best of buds.
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.