Meadow

This is the first time we’ve agreed to take a gelding from a kill pen, only to have the horse turn out to be a mare. The pen didn’t realize it until looking under her tail while making a video. Meadow is an unhandled, 24-year-old dun from Sand Wash Basin in Colorado. As the Sale Authority crisis burns hot around young mustangs, but we will never turn our back on seniors, even in this difficult time. They are incredibly vulnerable, much less likely to be adopted, so they will always be a critical area of rescue for us.

I don’t believe Meadow had a name out there as she was free before they started naming horses on the range. I’m sure she was a foundation mare for the herd. In the wild, horses need hierarchy within their band and Meadow would have been a fierce lead mare. I looked up her brand and learned she was rounded up, then spent six years in a BLM holding facility before being adopted and then reassigned a year later. I bailed her so fast, so they didn't even post about her. She was in and out of the kill pen quickly. 

With high gas prices making hauls more expensive, we hoped to add Meadow to the trailer that was bringing Xanadu and Dorian to Skydog. We normally leave 2-4 weeks between fundraising so as not to ask too much too often, but this time, we fundraised the very next day. We usually receive lots and lots and lots of smallish donations, but Meadow inspired a handful of people to donate incredible amounts. Maybe that's not a coincidence - there is something magical about this mare.

By the end of the day, we were very relieved to see video of Meadow with Xanadu and Dorian in the trailer. Even in hauler Steve Egner’s gentle, comforting hands, she didn’t want to be touched, but she was not at all the horse we were expecting. It’s almost as if she knew she was home as soon she unloaded at Skydog. She sauntered up the aisle until she turned the corner, saw the view of Sheeps Rock, and looked back at me to say, “YES.”

I'm not often lost for words, but Meadow is out of this world! Huge and beautiful, she possesses great intelligence, dignity, and grace. There is an aura of quiet confidence about her like a Queen, or a Goddess. I think wherever she chooses to be, she will step back into the role which is her destiny and birthright: A true leader, inspiring confidence and strength in all who need it. She has some to teach us and I can't wait to watch her work her wonder everywhere she goes. I also have a strong feeling she is going to look extraordinary when she loses her winter coat.

My favorite thing in the world is quietly spending time with new rescues so I can get to know them - and they me. Meadow is gentle and takes cookies. What a total thrill to be able to touch her. I suspect that she was well taken care of and much loved until fairly recently, which makes me both happy and sad. Did her owner pass away, leave for college, or did circumstances change so they could no longer care for her? We most likely will never know. Still, it's a comfort to believe she hasn't lived a long life of abuse or neglect when many of our rescues arrive broken, their lights dimmed. Queen Meadow did not have to pay too high a price to get here and can impart her strength to others.

The first touch she granted me was connection to Skydog and the energy she will encounter daily: respect, kindness, understanding,  compassion communicated in soft voices. Those are the values I hold dear and maintain at our sanctuaries in everything we do, both here at our ranch and out in the world too.

While looking up her brand in BLM reports, I noticed the section on the dashboard that lists what holding facilities had the horses - and at which adoption events they were purchased - was taken down. I suspected this was a deliberate attempt to hide the numbers of federally protected animals being funneled to slaughter. After I posted about this, the section was added back. We are now the biggest voice for wild horses in America and we are using it daily to communicate with the BLM and demand they implement better safeguards for our mustangs and burros.

#skydogmeadow

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.