sierra

Sierra is a beautiful dun mare born in 2018 and rounded up in Utah. Fate threw her together with two other mares from two other states, Cheyenne and Snow. All three mares are very pretty in totally different ways. Sierra is definitely the wildest. Their bond was forged by surviving the most heartless animal cruelty from the roundups to criminal AIP adopters to the kill pen, where we found them. It is our promise that they will know only love, respect, and kindness for the rest of their days.

Like thousands of mustangs, Sierra was dumped in a kill pen by unscrupulous adopters in the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). Touted as a way to give mustangs and burros good homes, it pays adopters $1000 per animal. More often, what it really does is pay middlemen to take wild equines off the BLM’s hands and dispose of them - no questions asked. In this case, a group of adopters broke the law by adopting 4 federally-protected mustangs each, then breeding them to add body weight to their meat price.

It was hard to watch Sierra, Cheyenne, and Snow in the video from the kill pen. Nervous and jumpy, very defensive, they stayed close together. We don’t think they had ever met humans that had any respect for them from the day they were rounded up. Yet they were amazingly trusting and cooperative about being loaded and hauled one more time, never knowing what would be waiting at the next stop.

Sierra was given the time she needed to enter the trailer and she did when she made up her own mind to do it. As soon as she leapt off the trailer at Skydog, we could see she knew that something was different. The sense she got from her new equine neighbors must have told her she had nothing to fear. Soon she gave in to the simple pleasure of having a good roll and washed off the filth of the pens with some good, clean mud.

Sierra is full of surprises - quite literally. We knew Cheyenne and Snow were expecting, but Sierra tested negative. As her friends’ bellies swelled, Sierra gained some weight, but she had come to us so thin that we didn’t think anything of it. She certainly did not look like she was carrying a baby - famous last words! On May 3, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we found her standing proudly with her beautiful, peaceful newborn mule, Shasta, at her side.

These three mares were very wild and only came near people at feeding time. Sierra delivered Shasta the wild way, but we brought them all in as a precaution. Our normal procedure is to gentle pregnant mares - if it doesn’t stress them too much - so they can accompany their foals to the clinic, where veterinarians can care for them, if necessary.  Those first 24 hours after delivery are always delicate and critical, especially when the mothers have been mistreated and spent time in kill pens. So when we saw little Shasta was struggling and not getting milk, we had to take her to the vet clinic without her wild mother.

Shasta received excellent care that saved her little life, as well a nurse mare, Priscilla, who stepped right in to love, nourish, and nurture her.  We don’t know why Sierra was unable to nurse her foal, but we are grateful to her for carrying Shasta to term through dangerous and stressful situations.  It hurts to think that the abuse she suffered in human hands may have something to do with it. Whatever the reason, motherhood was not her destiny. With Shasta safe and sound, we turned to Sierra’s peace and happiness.

At first, we felt the best thing was for her to stay with Cheyenne and Snow. Sierra, however, doesn’t like humans one bit. Her jitters made her expectant friends nervous. The baby pen, where her friends would be with their newborns was clearly not the right place for Sierra. This very wild mare needed to run free with a very wild herd. On July 4, 2024, we released her onto 1200 acres with Blue Zeus’ family. Some horses might find this overwhelming, but Sierra ran to them, fearless, with her head held high. She led them in circles as they raced to meet her and ran with them. She held her ground and didn’t hesitate to set boundaries with Blue Zeus when he got too close. This is Sierra’s destiny and she has all the space and freedom she needs to embrace it.

The right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are words often spoken on the 4th of July. At Skydog, we fight every day to restore these rights that were stolen from America’s wild mustangs and burros. This was Independence Day and watching Sierra run free was the perfect way to celebrate.

#skydogsierra

 Helping Mustangs & Burros

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 Senators and urge them to support these bills:

Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2023 (H.R. 3475 in the House / S.2307 in the Senate). This bill will 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. 3656) This bill will prohibit the use of helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft in the management of wild mustangs and burros on public lands, and require a report on humane alternatives to current management practices.

Ejiao Act of 2023 (H.R. 6021). 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.

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

See our How to Help menu for other actions to ban zebra hunting at US canned hunt ranches, stop production of Premarin & other PMU drugs, and defund the Adoption Incentive Program.