Starbucks & Courage

In 2024, Janelle went to a ranch in Nevada to pick up Libby. While she was there, she noticed some horses were in serious need of hoof care. We knew we had to do something to help, including take a portable hydraulic chute so Janelle can help out with farrier work. The wonderful woman, Carol, who runs this ranch had been saving mustangs for years - this is the same ranch where Boomer kept jumping the fences to be with the mares. For health reasons, she reached the point where she could no longer care for all the animals on her ranch. We're grateful for the incredible work she has done - and continues to do - and were delighted when she reached out to us for help.

Starbucks and Courage had extreme club feet that looked as bad as Waldo’s. Miraculously, they were still able to drag themselves around. Surgery is expensive, rehab lengthy, and every rescue organization has limits on the level of care they can provide. Thanks to everyone who donated - and a little extra help from our Patreon funds - we were able to cover their costs and needs. It was an honor to be able to take Starbucks and Courage over from Carol and help them through the next stage of their lives.

Starbucks and Courage are both from Nevada. The former, a beautiful paint, was roped by a man and dragged behind a truck when he was young. He suffered terrible injuries, but survived. The BLM would have euthanized both mustangs had it not been for Carol.

These boys had been living with these feet for years without intervention. Many people would have looked at them and thought the situation was hopeless, but we had been through this before. Dr. Wade Walker at Alamo Pintado, the brilliant surgeon who helped Waldo, used his skills to give these boys normal lives again. With that experience and the incredible capacity for healing of mustangs, we knew we could help them and made the commitment to doing so.

Janelle and Meghan hauled them them home slowly with thick shavings and plenty of stops to rest. They were both nervous, but open to making new friends. Curious and sweet, we were able to gentle them so those feet could be fixed sooner rather than later. I held a vision of them running the hills at Skydog with a wild herd.

The club feet looked like ball weights on the end of their feet. An impediment to walking that the poor horses could not possibly have understood. Dr. Walker performed several surgeries on each of them that included cutting the digital flexor tendon to allow the massive club foot to be trimmed off and turned forward.

Both mustangs were nothing less than heroic. They handled each stage with fortitude. facing the unknown with grace. Starbucks had three surgeries to loosen up his digital flexor tendon to allow the leg to straighten, and cast after cast, which he handled like a champ. Courage also struggled with adapting to his new walk and keeping his heel down on the ground instead of rolling onto his toe.

There were definitely times when we worried we were entering new territory, but Dr. Wade helped us keep the faith with his optimism. As long as they were moving in the right direction, we kept our eyes on the prize. Every step they took that placed their hooves flat on the ground with heels down was counted as a huge victory. Dr. Wade was pleased and impressed when they started walking correctly. “They need to keep up the habit and then the foot can start to grow correctly and the whole leg can remodel and adjust.” He was written papers about these operations so other surgeons can see what he did.

Starbucks and Courage did rehab in Oregon, taking two walks a day. They made such good progress with Janelle that she took over their trims and shoeing. They let us know when they felt ready to have more room. Starbucks bucked with excitement. On Christmas Day, they were both let loose to run in a small pen. How good it must have felt doing flying lead charges and turns in direction, even ducking under trees as they ran. Every instinct was firing on all cylinders as they test-drove their new legs. After all the love, time, effort, and energy our team had poured into their healing, seeing them romp with joy for the first time in years was the greatest gift of all.

This was never going to be a quick fix. There are still months of corrective shoeing ahead to keep working on the angles of the foot, but we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We are delighted that The Dodo made a video about their incredible journey: Two Rescued Horses With Curved Clubfeet Never Galloped In Their Lives Until Now

#skydogstarbucks  #skydogcourage

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.