16 / Sport and Trail Magazine
Calabasas and Malibu, California and Outside Bend, Oregon
Clare Staples is a long way from Malibu! She’s on a snow-covered hill in the middle of Central Oregon watching a herd of rescued mustangs acclimate to a new pasture and a new friend. The new arrival has just been released from a month in quarantine after being rescued from a kill pen in Washington. His name is Kennedy. He came to them with Strangles and influenza and had a pretty rough time in his first month at Skydog Sanctuary. All that is forgotten now as he runs circles around his new herd kicking up his heels.
Skydog Sanctuary is the culmination of so many dreams belonging to this determined and imposing looking woman originally from a small town in England. “It’s the first thing most people ask when they meet me”, laughs Clare “how did a girl from England end up running a wild horse sanctuary in America!” Her story began with a childhood filled with TV shows about cowboys and Indians, her favorite show being Champion the Wonder Horse about a band of mustangs. “I was transported by this show into a world of wild horses and for about four years of my childhood I galloped everywhere on an invisible horse called Champion. He saved my life. I could disappear into this fantasy world and escape my not so happy childhood with thoughts of finding that horse and running off into the sunset!”
As fate would have it Clare’s career took her to work in America for most of her adult life. Horses came in and out of it as she flew around the world. When she finally settled in Los Angeles fifteen years ago, she decided to realize a dream she had, to have her own mustang named Buddy. That dream started Clare down a road of adopting mustangs, which in turn opened her eyes to their plights, being rounded up by the BLM or to the fact that so many of them
are ending up in the slaughter pipeline, shipping to death in Canada and Mexico.
And so, Skydog Sanctuary was born. Starting at her ranch in Calabasas, California with five horses and then spreading to another ranch in Malibu with more land, Clare realized that to save more horses, she was going to need a lot more land!
Skydog Ranch near Bend, Oregon is 9000 acres of heaven for horses. “These horses are special and people change spending time with them. They are both teachers and healers”, Clare says, gazing lovingly at the horses around her. “I spent a lot of years volunteering at various rescues and sanctuaries around the LA area and saw for myself the healing taking place. Both in the people who worked or volunteered there and through the different programs run to help veterans with PTSD or addicts in rehabilitation or sober living programs. It was incredible, the profound insights and shifts damaged people were having by interacting with these wild horses.”
Clare believes that mustangs are the very best therapy horses, as they too have been to dark places, through abuse, neglect, starvation and cruelty. Coming out on the other side, as a testament to the fact that you can heal and forgive and move on, live a meaningful life having been through such experiences. Clare and Skydog Ranch already has a volunteer program up and running for several combat veterans who come out to the ranch for the peace and serenity and healing they find there.
Skydog is a very special place. It is a sanctuary for both the horses on the grazing peacefully on the hills and for the people who come here to spend time with them. To date they have saved 44 horses from at risk situations, 13 of those from kill pens that were hours away from shipping to slaughter. They also try hard to find mustangs before they get into the hands of the “kill buyers” by attending all the local auctions to pick up any mustangs before they go to the feedlots.
One of the first horses Skydog saved was Reed, from a kill pen in Oklahoma. Clare recounts “Reed had one of the worst embedded halter injuries I had ever seen and I knew right away that I wanted to help him. His halter had grown so deeply into his face that his nasal cavities were open to the air. After consulting with the veterinarians, we all agreed that he would be best left in his current state. At the age of 22, he is doing so incredibly well. The other horses don't see his face as damaged and don’t treat him any differently, which is a lesson for us all. Horses are always teaching if we slow down to listen to their lessons of wisdom.”
Another favorite rescued herd is Bear and his mares Aerial and Pammie. Bear was a stud when Skydog agreed to take them all if they quarantined and gelded Bear. Thankfully, it was too late to stop the pregnancies of his two mares that became apparently clear to us in mid-winter. On a freezing cold January night Aerial had her foal Whisper, quickly followed by Pammie having Mariah. They are a huge hit with the 8,000 Facebook followers that Skydog has amassed. People love to follow the antics of these two foals, who would never have been born if their mothers had been loaded onto the slaughter truck bound for Mexico.
Clare heads back to the barn and opens the gate for Sarge, a 25-year-old mustang. He runs without a halter to the stall he knows is his and tucks his head into his bowl of goodies. Clare says, she is still fattening Sarge up. We used to put a halter on him and lead him in everyday, but he was so grumpy about it, the same as when we tried to put a blanket on him in the cold. He looked at us as if we were insane. He’s a mustang, tough and knows perfectly well the routine here, smart as any horse I ever met. He takes himself to bed every night, sometimes running a couple of laps around the barn first saying goodnight to all his friends and showing off to the young mares. He is such a character and looks like a different horse than the one we rescued.
Skydog Sanctuary is a 501c3 and although they are a young rescue they have a great team of caring people working for them, most of whom have also left their lives in California to come on this adventure for the horses. Skydog was the name given to mustangs by Native Americans when they first encountered them. Recently, they have found some artifacts at the sanctuary so Clare feels as though their horse’s ancestors are watching over them and taking care of them just as much as they are.
While there is no end to the wonderful work and projects Skydog can do at their sanctuaries, it has been a hard winter and like most nonprofits, would benefit from additional donations. Skydog has some great merchandise on their website with proceeds going towards their hay fund. For more information on Skydog Ranch visit www.skydogranch.org