Commodore & Valor

Giving Tuesday 2025

The 3rd and 6th saves of Giving Tuesday 2025 were Commodore & Valor, respectively. This day would not be complete without saving a South Steens mustang in need. We have some beautiful photos of Commodore on the range taken by two wildlife photographers, Mustang Meg and our friend Shannon Phifer. Shannon loved seeing this horse in the wild, so it gives us the added pleasure of restoring his freedom at Skydog, where she can continue watching him run free.

Commodore is coming to us at the age of 10. He lost his family and freedom during the last South Steens roundup, which was devastating. I appreciate his adopter, Alex, who had loved him in the wild and wanted to give him a soft landing. When she went to the BLM corrals, she was told he had suffered an eye injury, which left him blind on one side. If she had not taken him, he would have been euthanized, which is what they do in the event of real or suspected vision impairment. When you compare the photographs of him in the wild to the photograph of him the day he was picked up (top row above), you can see that his spirit had nearly been extinguished. 

Alex has successfully gentled hundreds of Mustangs, but she told us:

This guy is just downright depressed and heartbroken after losing his family and being able to run free for 10 years of his life. I have mad respect for this horse and I followed him on the range for years and would love nothing more than to give him freedom for the rest of his days.

When our donors said yes to taking Commodore, she also told us about a second mustang, with whom he had bonded. A very experienced mustang trainer had made no headway with this beautiful, black, wild horse, also from South Steens. Named Valor by his adopter, he had no name on the range. Shannon Phifer told us she only saw him once in the back country. We believe it is important to keep bonded pairs together and we are so happy our donors agree. Commodore and Valor are gloriously wild boys. They have come to the right place to get back what they have been asking for all along: to stay wild and free, untouched, unhandled, untrained, and un-traumatized.

Every year, we pick an overall theme for our rescues. This was the Year was Mustangs from Oregon & Wyoming, but as time went on, vision impairment became a leitmotif!  So many horses this year have blindness issues and that's the way the universe presented them. Our excellent vet from Bend Equine, Dr Findley, will examine Commodore to determine if his bad eye needs to be removed or if he can live with it as is. Arizona and Jack Sparrow each lost one eye and live out with herds traversing rugged terrain without any issues. So Commodore can live a wonderful, meaningful life here. Once he’s cleared by our vet team, we intend to turn him out with his best friend Valor to meet Rango, Commander and other South Steens mustangs.

#skydogvalor  #skydogcommodore

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.