Apollo, Aslan & HermÉs

Legends of the Fall

Sometimes our pleas to the BLM fall on deaf ears. When they hear us, we are hugely grateful to the people who work with us for the good of the horses. It was Fathers Day Weekend and we were incredibly fortunate that Steve Leonard at the BLM Cañon City prison facility allowed an adoption event during COVID for some older mustangs. Going into it, we faced an impossibly difficult choice: Which of the 64 Red Desert mustangs would we bring home to Skydog with Blue Zeus? We decided to focus on the oldest and wildest, who would not be a good fit anywhere other than sanctuary.

Apollo, named for the Greek god of the sun, was a former king of the Red Desert. Fierce, beautiful mares like Hera graced the band of this warrior. At age 22, he was the oldest, and extremely wild, but we could see he depended upon another horse. We later learned this was one of his sons, Aslan, and they were deeply bonded.

When wranglers went to move and load Apollo, he was overwhelmed with fright. He tried to go over the top of gates several times. He ran into panels, bending them with his sheer force and power. It was incredibly stressful. There have been fatalities during these external events of horses doing the exact same thing. The mental and emotional well-being of any horse takes priority. We do everything we can to comfort and reassure the animals through this alien process. Apollo needed Aslan, so we loaded them together, which calmed Apollo down. #skydogapollo

Aslan is named for a noble character in Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, a magnificent lion with kind eyes. He’s a wise and a powerful force for good, but Narnians will tell you, “He’s not a tame lion.”  Aslan, like his father, is definitely not tame and should always be handled with caution. The fight or flight instincts in horses can be very dangerous if you don’t respect them. #skydogaslan

Apollo’s son, Hermés - named for the Greek messenger of the gods - was also in that pen. He was pretty beaten up with a lot of bite marks across his back. We knew what we had to do. It wasn’t the plan we went in with, but we couldn’t let Father’s Day be the last day Apollo saw what was left of his shattered family. #skydoghermes

Those few days were very long, emotional, and draining, but our incredible hauler, Carla Lay, delivered them safely to Skydog. We call these three - and the other Wyoming boys - Legends of the Fall.

Once they were all ready, we brought Aslan and Apollo back together with Hera and her deeply bonded friend, Strongheart. They had all known each other on the range. The reunion was exciting. It was wonderful to watch them call to and and run around with each other, but it didn’t take long to see it wasn’t what any of them wanted. The father-son relationship was most important to Apollo & Aslan, so they returned to Hermés in a very wild band of boys - Noble, Spartan, King, Joker, Frost Moon, and Drifter.

For a while, they refused to come through the gate to join the other boys on the lower ranch. Apollo has a wary spirit and healthy suspicion of humans. He never voluntarily moves toward us, but he does observe some of the other boys do it. We don’t want to put pressure on him unnecessarily. He’s in great shape, so we let him be.

There are a lot of videos of their journey on our Patreon page, where you can become a Skydog patron for as little as $2 a month. We post content there that we don’t share anywhere else on social media and the funds from those monthly donations help us enormously.

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 canned hunt ranches in Texas & Oklahoma, bringing an end to the BLM using Sale Authority to funnel wild equines into the slaughter pipeline, and stopping production of Premarin & other drugs made from pregnant mare urine.