Magnolia

Coco, Sugar, Two Spots & Willow

In 2018, a lead on a grey mare, who might have been a member of Goliath’s family, led us to a private facility. She was not there, but we spotted a cremello mare who had been rounded up from Wyoming a year prior. She had given birth in holding and her newborn was at her side. When we posted their photo, so many people asked us to take them. Sadly, the beautiful foal died while they were still in holding, which made everyone even more determined to bring Maggie to Skydog. She is a truly terrific mare. Sweet, gentle, approachable, we all fell in love with her. Our hearts broke for her loss, so we focused on her recovery and restoring her freedom.

Days after the Warm Springs roundup had completed in Oregon, the BLM Burns corrals asked us to take some injured and orphaned babies in need of intensive help. They told us they would be dead within days if we couldn’t take them as they were all in bad shape. We said yes and drove to the corrals to get them. That same day we picked up Grace and her baby Sunshine, making it the biggest rescue we had done at that point in time. The vet came to examine them immediately. Willow’s jaw was shattered. Sugar had major lacerations on her back legs, open wounds that were trampled in the roundup pen. Coco and Two Spots were both weak from not nursing. We worried for them all, but especially the tiny girls who had diminished almost to the point of giving up.

We had all four of them in a double stall in the barn. It was mid-winter and we had to gentle these wild babies before we could treat them. Sugar in particular needed daily cold hosing, ointment and meds for infection. They all needed constant handling. Janelle worked her magic and we nursed them back to health, then turned them out in the arena together.

The babies took long naps in the sunshine and kept each other company, but they needed a mother’s love and guidance. We decided to introduce them to Magnolia and hoped it would be a good fit. It was miraculous. She took all four of them under her wing and they followed her like a little line of ducklings. She taught them how to be wild mustangs, albeit with a lot of human loving. The whole sweet family has stayed together in Sheldon’s herd.

#skydogmagnolia  #skydogcoco  #skydogsugar  #skydogtwospots  #skydogwillow  #wild&free

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.