Snow

Snow is a beautiful white appaloosa born in 2016 and rounded up in Nevada. She was one of three mares, each from a different state, that ended up together in a kill pen in Oklahoma. All three were adopted via the BLM’s corrupted Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which pays adopters $1000 per horse in taxpayer dollars with the agreement they will give them good homes. Instead, she was taken by a large, organized ring that adopted four horses a piece, took the federal money, and then bred them to add weight to their meat price. They’ve been reported to the BLM to prevent them adopting again, but there are so many horrible people who do this. The AIP is directly to blame for placing thousands of federally-protected mustangs and burros in kill pens.

Snow seems to be the most submissive and curious of the three, following the lead of Cheyenne or Sierra. She followed Sierra in to the trailer when we picked them up, but she was the first to jump out when they arrived at Skydog. She was the first to stop and take interest in other sanctuary equines when they called to her from the other side of the fence. Then she rolled with her friends to claim the earth as her own, once again, and she hide with them up in the trees to forage.

We thought all three mares were pregnant when they arrived. The AIP adopter, who sold them to the kill pen, claimed to have bred them with an appaloosa stallion. Sierra’s delivery of a precious little mule, Shasta, tells a different story. Sierra neither looked nor tested pregnant, but surprised us. Cheyenne looked and tested pregnant, but wasn’t. Snow both tested and looked pregnant, her swollen belly making her double wide.  On August 3, 2024, in the quiet of the night, she delivered her beautiful, healthy mustang boy. With a mother like Snow, we needed a wintry name for him, even though he was born in the heat of summer and wildfire season. The most popular suggestions on Patreon were Flurry and Frost, as in Jack Frost or Frosty the Snowman.

Snow is a wonderful mother, loving, patient, and understandably very protective. We respect that, give her space, and are thankful that there were no problems in her foal’s early, delicate days. Frost latched on right away to get that vital colostrum and she’s had no trouble giving him all the milk he wants. Cheyenne has her back. If the Snow moves away, Cheyenne steps forward. If Frost isn’t paying attention, she makes sure he catches up with his mom. The matrons next door, Violet and Rosa, are devoted to them and dote on the foal from the other side of the fence.

#skydogsnow

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 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.