Skydog Ranch A Sanctuary of Hope for Rescued Wild Horses and Burros in Oregon

A band of rescued horses trot through the vast natural landscape at the 9,000-acre Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary.

The fate of wild horses and burros in the United States remains a pressing concern for animal advocates. Thousands of these majestic creatures face the threat of slaughter after being rounded up from public lands or sold at auctions. Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary in Oregon offers a beacon of hope for rescued wild horses, providing a safe haven where they can heal, roam freely, and live with their families once again.

Three rescued burros stand in a flower-filled meadow at Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary.

The Crisis Facing Wild Horses and Burros

Each year, thousands of wild horses and burros are removed from their natural habitats by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These roundups involve chasing the animals with helicopters into crowded pens, causing severe stress and injuries. Some horses break their necks trying to escape or reunite with their families. After capture, many end up in holding facilities with limited resources, and some are sold to slaughterhouses in Mexico or Canada despite widespread public opposition.

A 2022 poll by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) found that 83 percent of Americans oppose the slaughter of U.S. horses for meat. The opposition spans all political parties, including 88% of Democrats and 78% of Republicans, according to testimony regarding the poll results from House.gov.

The ASPCA used these results to advocate for the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, a federal bill aimed at permanently banning horse slaughter in the U.S. and ending the export of American horses for slaughter abroad.

"West Douglas" is an image of the ongoing helicopter roundups of America's wild horses and burros by Scott Wilson. Learn more today at https://www.photoadvocacy.org/about

Yet, inhumane roundups of wild horses and burros continue. As of 2024, the BLM reports over 66,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities, highlighting the urgent need for compassionate solutions.

In Colorado alone, the 2026 roundup program targets 1,111 free-roaming wild horses to be removed. And, in nine western states the Bureau of Land Management will remove 14,378 wild horses and corral them in overcrowded holding pens.

Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary’s Mission

Spanning 9,000 acres in Oregon, Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary is a Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries accredited organization dedicated to rescuing wild horses and burros from kill pens and auctions. The sanctuary’s mission focuses on restoring the health, safety, and freedom of these animals while raising awareness about the challenges they face.

The sanctuary is home to approximately 300 equines, many of whom were separated from their families during BLM roundups. Skydog Ranch works to reunite these equine families, allowing them to live naturally in bands as they would in the wild. This approach supports the animals’ emotional well-being and helps rebuild the social bonds critical to their survival.

Rescued horses graze and drink from a watering hole in the natural landscape at Skydog

Two rescued horses interact, standing nose to nose in a natural environment during winter at Skydog

Life at Skydog Ranch

At Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary, rescued wild horses enjoy vast open spaces where they can roam freely across the property. The sanctuary is divided into seven main herds, each living in a natural environment that mimics their native habitat. While some equines require special care in rehabilitation facilities, most thrive in the sanctuary’s expansive pastures.

The sanctuary’s team provides ongoing medical care, nutrition, and enrichment to support the animals’ recovery and long-term health. By offering a safe and nurturing environment, Skydog Ranch helps these formerly wild horses and burros regain their strength and spirit.

A group of curious rescued horses living in freedom at Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary gaze into the camera.

Raising Awareness Through Compassion and Change

Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary is more than a refuge; it is a platform for education and advocacy. The sanctuary uses PhotoAdvocacy to share powerful images and stories that highlight the plight of wild horses and the need for humane treatment. These visual narratives inspire compassion and motivate people to support change.

By connecting the public with the realities faced by wild horses, Skydog Ranch encourages informed action. Advocates can help by spreading awareness, supporting rescue efforts, and urging policymakers to find sustainable solutions that protect wild equines from slaughter and neglect.

A rescued adult horse and foal gaze into the camera from their open, natural environment at Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary.

How You Can Help

Supporting sanctuaries like Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary is vital for the future of rescued wild horses. Here are ways advocates can make a difference:

• Donate to organizations that provide care and rehabilitation for wild horses and burros.

• Volunteer at local sanctuaries or participate in advocacy campaigns.

• Educate others about the challenges wild horses face and the importance of humane treatment.

• Advocate for policies that protect wild horses from slaughter and improve management practices.

  
  

Ultimately, every action, no matter how small, contributes to a larger vision of a world where wild horses and burros can live without fear of extinction or displacement. By fostering a culture of respect and stewardship for these incredible animals, we can create a legacy of compassion and responsibility that honors their place in our ecosystems. Through collaboration, education, and advocacy, we can work together to ensure that wild horses not only survive but flourish in the wild, embodying the freedom and majesty that they represent.

Skydog Ranch and Sanctuary

Learn a little about Clare Staples, Founder and President of Skydog Sanctuary, who is featured in this video by The Dodo published on YouTube on Nov. 3, 2024. "These horse rescues will make you believe in miracles. When a family of wild horses got captured and separated, one woman dedicated her life to tracking each one down so they could be free together again."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaOca4lzdaw

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All images Copyright Scott Wilson and © PhotoAdvocacy-all rights reserved. Cannot be reproduced for any purpose without permission from Scott Wilson and © PhotoAdvocacy

#wildmustangs #rescuedwildburros #equinewelfare #animalwelfare #Skydog #SkydogRanchandRescue #protectwildhorses #PhotoAdvocacy #WeAnimals #equustyle #equustylemagazine

The Intersection of Art and Advocacy: Photographer Scott Wilson's Passion for Wild Horses

"Hazard" shows a mare and foal being chased over a barbed wire fence by a federal helicopter

EquuStyle: How did your encounter with the iconic stallion Picasso inspire you to become a PhotoAdvocate?

PICASSO THE LEGEND

Scott Wilson: Witnessing Picasso in full battle mode in Sand Wash Basin certainly piqued my artistic interest in wild horses, but my efforts on the PhotoAdvocacy front began a number of years prior, using my platform as a landscape and wildlife photographer to build awareness of colon cancer, the benefits of early detection, and the need to reduce the age of funded screening eligibility from 50 to 45. 

Encountering Picasso cemented my desire to train my wildlife lens on wild horses. It was a few years later, with the impending helicopter roundup in September 2021, that I really found a voice as an advocate and cause-related photographer for wild horses.

EquuStyle:  In what ways do you believe photography and photojournalism support animal welfare causes?

Scott Wilson: There is a virtuous circle created by photographic art and photojournalism where the art plays a key role in helping to make us more aware and appreciative of the wild lives with whom we share the planet, while photojournalism brings home the conflicts, threats and human menace impacting their livelihoods and habitat.

EquuStyle:  Please give some examples of ways your images not only informed, but drove action or specific changes to benefit wild horses.

Scott Wilson: Real change, at the legislation level, often requires a tipping point when legislative efforts meet public momentum. It’s rarely one moment or a single act that will create the change, but a plethora of actions and noise. That’s where advocacy, and within that PhotoAdvocacy, have key roles to play in building the head of steam that will eventually blow the lid off the pressure cooker.  

The helicopter roundup at Sand Wash Basin in September 2021 stopped two days early, due to the weight of advocate pressure and outspoken political leadership from Governor Polis while images of incidents such as a wild mare and her foals being driven into barbed wire at Piceance Basin, in 2022, while being chased by a federal helicopter achieved front-page coverage adding to the weight of public opinion in favor of a different approach.

"West Douglas" is an image of the ongoing helicopter roundups of America's wild horses and burros. Learn more today at https://www.photoadvocacy.org/about

Real change, at the legislation level, often requires a tipping point when legislative efforts meet public momentum. It’s rarely one moment or a single act that will create the change, but a plethora of actions and noise.

In 2023, Colorado passed the first state-funded Wild Horse Working Group into law which has seen $1.5m state dollars invested into a more collaborative approach to wild horse management. My hope is this becomes a model for federal-state collaboration which other states will follow. 

The world’s largest photojournalism agency, We Animals, has built a collection of wild horse roundup images, supported by extensive editorial captions, which is made available to media outlets covering wild horse issues. I also provide roundup images to American Wild Horse Conservation and these are used to highlight extensive flaws in an inhumane federal management program which is stockpiling wild horses in costly off-range holding ($105m in 2024) while more affordable in-the-wild conservation measures remain dramatically underfunded.

There are myths perpetuated by livestock special interests and the roundup industry that wild horses neither have a sense of family, nor feel suffering when they are separated through roundups. PhotoAdvocacy helps to challenge some of those myths. 

Perhaps one of my most evocative roundup images, Wild Unfree, captured moments after a family band of mares and foals were confined in holding, while their band stallion ran free, evokes all of same fear and emotion in their newly-captive faces that a human separated from his or her family would feel and affirms wild horses as sentient being deserving of our respect and their place on the landscape. 

EquuStyle:  You contribute images to support We Animals, the world’s leading Animal Photojournalism Agency. How does We Animals help organizations tell their stories?

Scott Wilson: We Animals’ global investigations and stories expose our complex relationships with animals. They work with NGOs, media and advocates to initiate ethical and cultural shifts in society, and empower human capacity for compassion and change.  The We Animals stock platform is a free global resource for anyone helping animals. They empower campaigners, writers, researchers, students, and activists with the visual tools they need to increase and engage their audiences.

“Wild Unfree” is a disturbing image of two panicked and exhausted Colorado mustang horses moments after being rounded up a helicopter. Authorities shepherded them into holding pens to await shipment. PhotoAdvocacy / We Animals

Alongside images, We Animals includes interviews, research, data, and stories to educate us about animal sentience and behaviors, so all the information needed to spark conversation, awe, and change accompanies the image.

In 2024, We Animals carried out 22 assignments in 11 countries, shedding light on critical animal welfare issues. Over 38,000 visuals were downloaded from the We Animals stock site, contributing to advocacy campaigns worldwide and more than 350 media publications featured work by their Animal Photo Journalists, including The Guardian, Vox, and The Dodo. 

EquuStyle:  How did you capture the photo Anger Management that won the Top Natural World and Wildlife prize in the 2022 World Photography Awards?

Scott Wilson: At the natural history level, Anger Management depicts the drama and tension of a wild Colorado stallion pounding the dirt in his home in Sand Wash Basin, in the northwest corner of the state.  It’s the middle of summer and he has just emerged from a mud pool which is beginning to cake on his body as he kicks up the dust demanding his place at the water hole.

"Anger Management" received the Natural World & Wildlife Award at the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards, organized by the World Photography Organization.

At a higher level, Anger Managements is intended as a statement piece about the challenges wild horses face in the American West, where they basically are under permanent threat of roundup while their land is cleared for the livestock industry. 

Thankfully, the judging panel agreed and the awards coverage helped raise awareness of wild horse issues in 140 countries worldwide. 

EquuStyle:   At the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards, you won Open Photographer of the Year. How did this award influence your photography going forward?

Scott Wilson: I was asked a similar question a couple of years ago, while giving a talk to photography students at a High School in Colorado and it really helped me process the role the award played in helping me to break out of a purely artistic pursuit, to focus more heavily on the advocacy merits of my work and heightened my interest in the photojournalistic side of the wild horse question.

EquuStyle:  Through the Window is a dramatic visual journey. What is the story behind this project?

Scott Wilson: When I was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2016, part of my treatment regime involved an immunotherapy drug called panitumumab. The side-effect of the drug is an extreme photosensitivity meaning I had to avoid sunlight entirely, which threatened to put a stop to the landscape photography pursuits which I knew would be essential therapy through my treatment. It was then that I recognised the abundance of wonderful wildlife in state parks on our doorstep which I could view and photograph from the protective shade of my car. I began shooting ‘through the window’ between chemotherapy treatments and compiled a book of  wildlife images, accompanied by tales of my cancer journey.  I published the book as a fundraiser for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance in the Fall of 2017, just after I was confirmed to be NED (No Evidence of Disease).

EquuStyle:  As a resident artist at Gallery 6 in Denver, you create Art & Advocacy Events. What was the response to the recent event to support ZUMA'S Rescue Ranch's equine-assisted therapy program for people affected by cancer?

Scott Wilson: It has been a dream to combine my advocacy passions – horse protection and cancer prevention – to support the development of a mental health program that tackles the many challenges that come with a cancer diagnosis for patients, survivors and families.

My own children, Andrew and Alba, were 14 and 10 when I was diagnosed with a ten per cent chance of living another five years. I wanted to see more resources that might have helped them process that life-changing news at such a young age.

My familiarity with sanctuaries has taught me the extraordinary connection between horse and human, and the proven therapeutic benefit that veterans suffering PTSD – which has well-documented parallels with the trauma of cancer - have found in equine-assisted mental health programs, such as the Zeal series at Zuma’s. 

Licensed mental health therapist, Misty Sherbondy LCSW, used her experience with veterans at Zuma’s to develop a dedicated cancer-focused program covering topics such as shared experience, coping skills, working with feelings of loss, reducing anxiety and continued healing for patients, survivors and families.

My own children, Andrew and Alba, were 14 and 10 when I was diagnosed with a ten per cent chance of living another five years. I wanted to see more resources that might have helped them process that life-changing news at such a young age.

We held an Art & Advocacy event in Denver in March, 2025, designed to raise awareness and funds to launch a pilot for the Healing Herd Program. The support from attendees was fantastic and we exceeded our target for the pilot which launched at the end of April. 

I am so grateful to Jodi Messenich and the team at Zuma’s for their commitment to bringing the program together. 

EquuStyle:  In what way has surviving cancer motivated you to share your story with others?

Scott Wilson: It’s all about prevention. If you are diagnosed with colon cancer at stage 1, you have a 90% chance of survival. If you are diagnosed at stage 4, you have a 10% chance of living another 5 years. Being in that incredibly lucky 10% gives you a very heightened awareness of how close you were to a different outcome. A colonoscopy will make all the difference, so I simply do not understand folks who are eligible for free screening yet delay or turn it down. 

EquuStyle:  The Sand Wash Basin BLM horse management area (HMA) seems to be a favorite spot for your work. What makes this place special?

Scott Wilson: It has become my human sanctuary. The remoteness, the wildness, the rugged beauty of the landscape and the incredible survival instincts of the wild ones. I often say “their freedom is our freedom” and it is truly liberating to spend time in their company.  

WILD PALOMINO PINTO STALLION METEOR © PhotoAdvocacy

DIAPHANOUS GOLD © PhotoAdvocacy

EquuStyle:  Tell us about your role as the Director of Strategy and Awareness at American Wild Horse Conservation.

Scott Wilson: Everything we do is built around a clear purpose to keep America’s promise to wild horses and to drive towards a vision of lifelong freedom where protected wild horses are able to live and die in the wild. 

Our policy and conservation programs are built around improving the standards and scale of in-the-wild conservation, such as humane fertility control, and rewilding of wild horse habitat which has been systematically diminished from 54m acres in 1971 to less than 27m acres today. 

That starts with leveling the playing field versus special interest livestock groups which dominate public lands lobbying and giving a voice to wild horse conservation.

"Midnight Blue" a wild Blue Roan stallion

America now holds more displaced wild horses in captivity (62,000) than there are running free in the wild (53,000), at an extraordinary cost to the taxpayer who funded $105m in off-range holding costs in 2024 alone. It is thirty times cheaper to treat one mare with fertility control, and keep her eating free in the wild, than it is to remove and confine one horse for life in holding ($48,000).

Most Americans are pleasantly surprised to learn that we still have wild horses roaming ten western states and have little or no knowledge of the permanent threat of roundup by helicopter. 

Our awareness role is opening the public’s eyes to the natural beauty, management failure and fiscal waste on their doorstep and motivating a movement that demands a better outcome for the nation’s protected wild horses and burros. 

Ultimately, we see a sustainable future built on in-the-wild conservation, habitat restoration, ecotourism and legislative recognition of the integral role wild horses play in a modern American ecosystem. 

Everything American Wild Horse Conservation does is built around a clear purpose to keep America’s promise to wild horses and to drive towards a vision of lifelong freedom where protected wild horses are able to live and die in the wild. 

EquuStyle:  You had an extensive career in the corporate world, particularly with Molson Coors Brewing Company. How has this experience influenced your current role at AWHC?

Scott Wilson: You might be surprised by some of the parallels I’ve observed between the worlds of alcohol and wild horses. Both are both high profile issues characterized by opposing views on how they should be handled. In the early 2010s,  I was asked by the UK Department of Health to lead the industry representation on a national effort to tackle alcohol harm in the UK and reduce levels of irresponsible drinking. 

It was one of the most potentially divisive projects, yet the shared mission and collaborative approach to problem solving turned out to be one of the most constructive and creatively rewarding processes that I have worked on. 

The coming together of radically opposing views, recognition that we all have a valid stake in the solution and that no one party will eliminate another, is a real enabler of common ground. 

I believe that’s the mindset driving progress with the Colorado Wild Horse Working Group and really underpins my belief that a sustainable long term solution can be built with the right people around the table. 

Freedom

EquuStyle:  Protecting wild horses and burros is a challenge you have embraced. How can people support their protection and preservation in today's environment?

Scott Wilson: When I talk about PhotoAdvocacy, I am always clear that there isn’t an expectation that everyone gives up their careers and throws themselves at their chosen advocacy issue. The key is identifying the cause that you believe in, where you believe you can make a positive difference,  and intersecting that with the skills and time that you have at your disposal. For some, that might be volunteering a few hours on a Saturday at their local wild horse sanctuary. For others it might be registering as a Volunteer Ambassador for American Wild Horse Conservation and engaging local policy makers on the issue and legislative solutions.  

I happen to have found a movement that allowed me to bring my experience in photography, advocacy, corporate responsibility and communications together in a hybrid career supporting a cause I believe in full-time. 

And the work is far from done.  

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All images Copyright Scott Wilson and © PhotoAdvocacy-all rights reserved. Cannot be reproduced for any purpose without permission from Scott Wilson and © PhotoAdvocacy

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