Year End Recaps
2024
2024 has been another busy one for us and for our Onaqui wild horses. Our mission and vision of preserving and protecting them both on and off the range has come to mean more to us with every passing year. It seems that as time goes on more challenges arise that need to be problem solved and overcome to try to ensure they are living their best lives.
Nearly every month another Onaqui has surfaced who needs help and Red Birds Trust has endless gratitude for the network of supporters, rescuers and home placements who have stepped up to help RBT continue to help our beloved Onaqui.
Below is a quick summary of what this year has looked like and there are always other issues going on behind the scenes which may or may not make it to the forefront publicly, but are equally as important as what we’re able to share here with everyone.
January 20th after several weeks of waiting, anxiety and anticipation north herd bachelor stallion Johnny Cash arrived back home in Utah after being found in an Oklahoma kill pen scheduled to ship to Mexico for slaughter. RBT was able to pay his bail, arrange for his transportation to a quarantine facility and subsequently his final trailer ride back to Utah where his loving forever home was waiting with open arms to welcome him and introduce him to 2 Onaqui mares from the 2019 roundup who had been rescued and rehomed there in late 2021.
February 25th was the fateful day that north herd mare Spirit arrived at her final forever home in California to be reunited with her best mare friend from her life in the wild, and her time spent in the BLM holding facilities. RBT helped cover Spirit’s initial adoption costs during the 2021 online auction so she could travel to a wonderful program called Mustang Journey in Ohio. After an in-house placement fell through there, and Spirit had been fully trained, she found herself looking for a new home to meet all her needs. Spirit is without question one of the loveliest mares around and RBT had been keeping in close contact through all steps of her journey. RBT then was able to reach out to the loving owner of her best friend who made the leap to fly to Ohio right away to meet her in person. It was love at first sniff, and she committed without hesitation to reunite the two ladies so they can live out the rest of their lives together. Matchmaking at its finest.
March 21st south herd band stallion Cheveyo finally goes “home.” Six months prior our small, but mighty, band stallion Cheveyo was by no small miracle found in a Texas kill pen destined to ship to slaughter on the next truck out. RBT jumped into action and was able to purchase him from the kill pen late that same night, and the next morning his transportation out of hell was arranged and his life spared. He came back to Utah hoping that with patience and care he could be gentled, but upon arriving here he regressed in his interest in humans instead of progressing. It took a couple months of negotiation, but finally on March 21st Cheveyo loaded into his last trailer and started his journey east to be set free once again on 30,000 acres known as Engler Canyon Ranch. There he was reunited with 30 other Onaqui who were rescued by ECR after the 2021 roundup, and he’s been traveling with old friends from the south herd ever since. Cheveyo took with him a sizeable donation to help Engler Canyon Ranch with funds to put up more fencing to help continue to rescue more mustangs in need.
March 22nd a beautiful, but extremely emaciated sorrel Onaqui mare from the 2019 roundup was found dumped in a kill pen in Texas with only a few days to live before she was sent to Mexico for slaughter. It was found that she had been shipped from one kill pen to another in the preceding weeks and this was her last stop. RBT was able to quickly step in and purchase the mare, transport her to a waiting quarantine facility and then her next stop was to be headed to Mustang Journey in Ohio for care, rehab and gentling. Tragically, Cleopatra laid down only a few days into her quarantine and was never able to get up again. Everyone was devastated at this unexpected loss and hope she is running fast and free again in the skies.
May 13th Unbelievably yet another Onaqui mare from the 2021 roundup was found dumped in a Texas kill pen over Mother’s Day weekend. This striking black mare, “Raven”, was from our north herd and daughter to a gorgeous blue roan who was released back after the roundup and she’s the older sister to 3-year-old blue roan bachelor stallion Peregrine. This mare was sent to the kill pen with another mare from the Pine Nut herd and they had been adopted at the same time by the same family who subsequently sold them to a trainer who they felt to be reputable. A week later the two had been sold to the kill pen and had a date scheduled to ship to slaughter. Red Birds Trust quickly coordinated with a local adopter who immediately purchased the two mares directly from the kill pen. RBT arranged and paid for their transport from Texas home to Utah where they currently are living on a large property with other Onaqui and thriving in being gentled under saddle.
June 8th Red Birds Trust hosted another annual range cleanup for volunteers where we removed a large dump truck load of barbed wire fencing, old planks filled with screws and nails, dilapidated wooden gates and hundreds of nails from the north herd area to make it safer for travel and use by the wildlife and wild horse who call it home.
July 9th An absolutely beautiful, but very gaunt, grey north herd mare was found left in a kill pen in Kentucky and assigned a date to ship to slaughter. A scramble began to find a way to save her, and in a matter of only hours a family who had gone on tour with me the previous night to meet the north herd unequivocally committed to her quarantine, rehab and forever care. They placed the fateful call immediately to purchase her and RBT helped make connections to a hauler so she could start her journey home to be a surprise gift for a very talented 14-year-old girl who named her Kopal (meaning rose bud) and loves her to pieces.
August – October RBT published numerous educational pieces relating to choosing a reputable sanctuary/rescue organization, Onaqui HMA etiquette, HMA horse health (relating to colt Shikoba) and how to report HMA concerns or horse injuries.
November 10th Red Birds Trust donated $5,000 to the total reward being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person/s responsible for the brutal and senseless shooting death of our south herd bachelor stallion Glory.
December We have a WONDERFUL surprise to share, but it’ll have to wait until the beginning of the year. We have been coordinating another forever home placement for an Onaqui in need starting back in mid-November so stay tuned for a feel-good story to start out the new year on a high note.
2023
2023 was another an incredibly busy year.
In June we hosted a range cleanup event for volunteers to help remove a very old, dilapidated catch pen in the north HMA with endless amounts of broken posts, wire and glass making that area safer for not only the wild horses, but all the wildlife calling the west desert their home. Then in October we hosted another event at Wild Heart Sanctuary in Park City to help get this beautiful property prepped and ready for winter for the 9 wild horses calling it home, including 4 Onaqui mares.
With the help of our donors, private adopters and sanctuaries we were able to:
- Make a contribution to Skydog Sanctuary to provide for south herd band stallion Ariat's purchase price and subsequent transport to live the rest of his days wild and free with Clare at Skydog in Oregon.
- Contribute $5,000 to the reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person/s responsible for the murder of south herd stallions Jasper and Arshan.
- Coordinate & cover transportation costs for two south herd Onaqui mares (Lily & Sadie) found in a Pennsylvania sales barn to their forever home in Texas where they were reunited with 2 other Onaqui geldings from the same 2021 roundup.
- Find sanctuary placement with LifeSavers Wild Horse Rescue for a traumatized and abused north Onaqui mare named Zora and provided her transportation from Wyoming to the sanctuary location in southern California.
- Cover the costs of bail, quarantine and transportation for Johnny Cash, a beautiful black north herd Onaqui gelding found in an Oklahoma kill pen. He is returning home to Utah from Oklahoma where he will spend the remainder of his days with two other Onaqui mares in his forever home.
- Cover the costs of bail and transportation for Cheveyo (thanks to Skydog for covering his quarantine costs) who was found in a Texas kill pen and scheduled as a direct ship to Mexico for slaughter. Cheveyo has returned home to Utah and will spend as much time as he needs decompressing and learning to trust humans again.
- Cover the purchase costs of a south Onaqui mare and north Onaqui mare (Sage & Cinnamon) who were shipped back east and repeatedly left standing at BLM facilities after being passed on by adopters. They ended up in Florida at a storefront and with help, we were able to purchase them from the storefront and cover the costs of transportation from Florida to Ohio where they found a safe, soft landing at Mustang Journey 501c3 in Goshen, Ohio.
- Donors helped us make a contribution towards emergency colic surgery for one of our Onaqui mares (Esme) from the 2019 roundup who was left on the side of the road abandoned. This mare, and her best friend who was abandoned with her, was subsequently seized by BLM and once the court proceedings concluded they were both adopted to their new, loving home.
- Rip was a north herd band stallion adopted in the '21 BLM Internet Auction who was later put up for sale in Oregon. He was purchased by a wonderful Good Samaritan who reached out to us to see if we knew where his wild family had ended up. It just so happened that we did, because we had assisted in the placement of 2 of them and were in touch with the other placement. We were able to put the Good Samaritan in touch with Grace Reins Sanctuary in Colorado where one of his mares and their colt was living and assist in the cost of transportation to get Rip from Oregon to Colorado where he will live out his life with his mare and colt in this beautiful sanctuary setting.
The stories above are in addition to the 138 horses total in 16 months we were able to help in 2021 and 2022. Needless to say, efforts to keep these precious wild ones safe is always ongoing.
2022
As 2022 finally draws to a close we reflect back on the year and how much gratitude we have for SO many donors and volunteers who have opened their hearts and believed in us along the way. And with that given us the ability to try to reach out far and wide to help as many Onaqui horses as possible.
Red Birds Trust has had a very busy year both in 2021 and 2022. Some of our work has been public, a lot has not.
We collaborated with several wonderful photographers for the 1 year anniversary of the Onaqui roundup who traveled to various sanctuaries kind enough to open their doors and hears to members of our heard. This project featured current images of where they now and highlighted details about each of these amazing facilities and how you can step up to help them continue to help our Onaqui as well as others. Weekly features with stories and images can be found on our Red Birds Trust facebook page.
Much thought goes into reasons for doing it both ways. It gets back to the simplicity of what’s best for the mustang and being able to help others further down the road.
In a nutshell, we worked in coordination with 9 sanctuaries to rescue/adopt 64 Onaqui wild horses and another 33 individuals to rescue/adopt 53 Onaqui for a total of 117. We were involved in helping an additional 21 Onaqui get to safety after their initial placements fell through for various reasons or they were found in a kill pen.
That’s 138 horses total in 16 months.
Red Birds Trust is a locally based organization. Being locally based was incredibly important to me when founding the 501c3. We are here on scene, and able to help immediately if a horse is in trouble on the range or otherwise.
Of our board members, 6 out of 7 can be on that HMA in case of emergency in about an hour, assuming we aren’t already out there somewhere. I feel incredibly fortunate to have met such lovely humans were willing to join the team and who believe in these wild ones and in doing whatever we can to help them.
Speaking of lovely humans – we’ve now had 3 successful range cleanup removing many miles of dangerous barbed wire fencing and t-posts from both the north and south Onaqui HMA. To do that we’ve had the help of volunteers from 13 different states all the way from the west coast to the east. All of them making the journey to Utah to try to make a better life for the wild horses and other wildlife who call the Onaqui HMA home.
During the cleanups we’ve also been joined by members of 6 other local and national nonprofits.
2023 will bring two more range cleanups and the dates will be announced as soon as we have them but one is anticipated to be late May/early June and the other later in the Fall. We plan to give as much notice as possible so new volunteers as well as the regulars can join us out on the range for a day of fun, cleanup and mustang viewing.
In light of the numerous injuries found on the range this year and beloved horses we lost we want to remind everyone that we are nearby and here to help. Below are numbers you can call in case of emergency or if you’d simply like to ask a question or report an injury to our local team members.
You can message us here on Facebook, email us at: redbirdstrust@hotmail.com or if time is of the essence text to the numbers below.
(1) Tooele County Sheriff Land Line: (435) 882-5600
(2) Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse & Burrow Specialist: (801) 419-4552
(3) Red Birds Trust: (808) 214-6252
(cell phone listed so we can receive texts with photos/videos)
A heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has loved and supported these special horses and wishing everyone a safe, healthy and Happy New Year!
2021 Onaqui Online Auction & Recap
It seems like a lifetime since the fight to Save the Onaqui began. After months of first trying to stop the round up and permanent removal of over 300 of our cherished horses our work then focused on trying to determine what horses remained in the Delta Holding Facility awaiting adoption. The 6 months that the Onaqui spent in the BLM's Delta holding facility I (Jen) made the 4 hour round trip drive weekly and typically more than once a week to take cell phone videos for adopters, sit with the horses and work on hand feeding them and help select recommendations for sanctuary placement of those horses who clearly were not interested in transitioning to a domestic life.
We hosted a televised rally at the Utah State Capital building in the days leading up to the roundup and removal of our horses after our ongoing efforts of communication with state and federal officials fell on deaf ears. This rally was attended and co-hosted by: The Cloud Foundation, Animal Wellness Action, Center for a Humane Economy and had Western Watersheds and Wild Beauty Foundation as additional guest speakers.
We have been so blessed to make new friends, forge new business partnerships, and help special adopters find even more incredible horses to try to ensure happy, healthy forever homes. For several months we fielded emails and questions from private adopters and sanctuaries looking to work collectively to help the horses, learn more about the lives, bonds and personalities of particular horses in the wild, and make the best choices for the horses needs.
In the end we were working on placements for well over a hundred horses – mostly into private homes. Now that the auction is complete and we’ve been able to follow up it looks like about 75% of those placements came through and won their Onaqui horse which is really heartwarming to know. Some adopters had literally been waiting since the roundup began in July – 5 months of waiting just doesn’t come quickly no matter how you slice it.
Red Birds Trust has been overwhelmed with support from donors, sponsors and just plain amazing humans throughout this entire process. We take our mission super seriously and always want to do the very best for the horses with whatever donations are received. We are not a sanctuary – therefore we did not and will not be adopting horses. Jen Rogers, founder, personally adopted 2 Onaqui and 1 swasey however these are personal horses and personal purchases – they do not belong to Red Birds Trust.
Red Birds Trust was formed to help the horses on and off the range. To be able to step in if an emergency arises for one of our Onaqui horses whether it be to help with costs of hay, farrier, vet bills, transportation or adoption. We want to be a safe place to reach out for help rather than having to return a horses who’s loved to a BLM facility or worse.
Because of everyone’s support we were able to ensure that 6 special horses made it to their forever homes and are working to help a 7th if the stars align. We are also covering the cost of transport locally in a couple cases and can’t wait to keep building on our goals and over the years help so many more.
All members of the board simply volunteer our time to this organization which each of us hold closely to our heart. So ever dollar received goes straight back to helping the Onaqui. We have another range cleanup tentatively planned for April 30th and as other events or volunteer opportunities arise we’ll be sure to let everyone know.
To see that every single last horse received bids was so touching. And to know that there are individuals and sanctuaries still waiting in the wings to take care of any horse who isn’t paid for or picked up from the Delta facility is even better. A “catch all” is in place.
No horse left behind.
We’ve been receiving a lot of requests privately to see if we have information and/or photos of adopters horses while still in the wild. It’s going to take a little time to get to everyone, but we will so please be patient. I (Jen) am going to put up a gallery of images for people who have and do reach out about seeing their horses in the wild. Prints will be available at a discounted price via my business www.WildHorsePhotoSafaris.com. Red Birds is a labor of love as I’ve said, but unfortunately I still need to buy hay and dog food so the prints and Onaqui photo tours are how I’m able to do that.
I speak for the team when we say we simply can’t thank everyone enough for their kind words of support, being willing to share their knowledge of internet auction process, Carey with BLM allowing us basically unlimited access to the horses in the Delta Facility (within reason of course), Travis at the BLM Online Auction being a wealth of knowledge into the system itself and sharing it freely, and all the others who gave such thoughtful donations and maybe most importantly are using their voices to spread the word of the plight of the wild horses so hopefully someday groups like ours aren’t needed anymore to get mustangs out of pens because they’re living happy and wild.
We give special thanks to those sanctuaries who stepped up to give space for special horses who very much needed it. Not every horse is a good fit for a domestic home and these sanctuaries were the final piece of the puzzle to provide a safe landing to horses of concern. You can follow them and their journeys at:
And a special thanks to Clare Staples and Skydog for even though they did not participate in this Onaqui adoption, her guidance and support through the entire process as well as her willingness to step up and help wherever and however she was needed was not only invaluable, but could have quite well saved my sanity many times over.
It takes a village and a village we thankfully had.
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