How it works
By committing annually to a $100/month sponsorship of a mustang or burro, you help us enormously by supporting our existing rescues so we can continue saving more.
SPONSORSHIP INCLUDES:
A personalized Certificate of Sponsorship with a photo of the horse or donkey you choose and your name.
A 60 minute one-on-one visit to Skydog Ranch to meet the horse or burro you are sponsoring, spend time hanging out with them, take photographs and ask questions of our staff.
If you sponsor more than one horse or burro, you will get one hour with each animal when you visit.
To visit your sponsored equine, you must be a sponsor for at least 9 months. Anyone who wants to see them sooner will have to pay for 9 months ($900) in advance of their visit. We regret that this has become necessary. We need to discourage those sponsoring for one month in order to visit the ranch, then canceling because they don’t actually care about supporting the animals or our work. These tours take up a lot of time from our staff and the important work they do caring for our rescues.
Choosing a Mustang or Burro to Sponsor
You can search for posts about individuals on Instagram or Facebook with a hashtag that combines the word “skydog” with their name (#skydogzebedee #skydognugget). You can also go to the Then & Now page on the website to see their photos and read their biographies. (Note: their pages are currently being updated.)
Sponsor a SKYDOG on Patreon
A great way to sponsor a Skydog is by becoming a patron on Patreon and signing up for the $100/month Lead Mare level. This automatically makes you a sponsor and gives you access to exclusive content that we don’t post on other social media platforms. Each new episode of the Horse Love Podcast is released there, as are special offers on merchandise, and breaking news.
Skydogs who need sponsors
Ariat
This glorious red roan from Utah was a much loved member of the famous Onaqui herd. Red Birds Trust shared his story on their Facebook page and it’s beautiful. They lost track of him for a while, which was worrying, but he finally turned up at the Burns corrals. They contributed to the donations for us to take him. He was with Metolius, Coyote, and Rogue, all mustangs returned to the corrals after they soundly rejected domestication. He’s aloof and always slightly apart from the others, but moves with them. He has a mountain to climb, woods for shade, lush grasses, cool water from streams and springs - everything he could want or need to live unencumbered by human demands. More about Ariat
Driggs
Driggs was rounded up from Saylor Creek, Idaho. He was 16 years old when we saw him on the internet adoption, where he was adopted in 2021. It’s harder for older wild boys to adjust well to training, but for those who can, we want them to have that chance.. At first, he was coming along in his gentling, but then went to a TIP trainer. After that, he sadly regressed to being fearful of people again. His family loved him and saw that he was unhappy, so they wrote to us about giving him back his freedom. Driggs met the Skydog wild boys with great confidence. All those years on the range served him well. In 2024, we had to bring him in for lameness. It turned out he had a fracture of the coffin bone and needed barn rest in a cast. When he had healed, we turned him out with Cooper in a small pasture to monitor him for a few days. He ran amuck, kicking up heels in joy at no longer being confined - and more of the same when he went back to his herd. More about Driggs
Bruno
Bruno is a dark burro. If not the handsomest in the herd, he’s second only to AJ. His ears are impressively long, second only to Dolly. We asked to take all 41 of the Warm Springs burros when they were rounded up, but they only let us take 10. Bruno is one of them and fairly easy to spot in a crowd with that dark coat and fuzzy ears! Warm Springs once boasted the last wild burro herd in Oregon. They were a unique and special group. It’s remarkable that these desert animals adapted to thrive up here in the cold winters. I have always believed they should have been protected and studied for the unusual physical characteristics they share. Lots of these donkeys have short stumpy ears, or one ear shorter than the other. Many don't have tails. It’s also unusual that some share the same double line on their back from their dorsal stripe. Perhaps these are signs of inbreeding, something the BLM used to care about back in the days when it managed for the genetic health of herds. Today, if they leave any on the range at all, it is in numbers so small as to prevent the genetic viability of the herd. More about the Warm Springs Herd
RESCUED MUSTANGS
THERE ARE OVER 250 HORSES AND 50 DONKEYS HERE AT SKYDOG
Click on the photos to find out more or read their stories on our Then and Now Page.
RESCUED DONKEYS, MULES, Minis, ZONKEYS & A ZEBRA
