A Malibu woman has ditched her high profile Hollywood lifestyle in favor of mucking stalls and the hard work of rescuing horses on the brink of slaughter.
Clare Staples-Read is devoting her life to saving horses by opening Skydog Ranch where at-risk and abused horses are rehabilitated in Malibu and Calabasas, and ultimately set free for life on a 9,000-acre ranch in Oregon.
Growing up in England, Staples-Read said she always had a love of horses. After moving to Los Angeles and working in the entertainment world, she bought a horse and then another, a mustang, and soon discovered the dark side of American wild horses.
“They are in a lot of trouble,” she explained. “The government has stockpiled pretty much 50,000 wild horses that they’ve cleared off public lands for cattle and sheep. There used to be two million mustangs across America.”
Now, she said, there’s probably 25-35,000 in the wild.
“The government rounds up the horses on public lands so that cattle ranchers can turn more cows and sheep out for oil and mining interests,” Staples-Read continued. “They’ve become a victim of financial constraints and budget issues. The horses are rounded up and separated from their families. They’re kept in holding pens for the rest of their lives, which is super sad.”
But it gets worse, according to Staples-Read: The new government is proposing euthanizing those horses, “which basically means shooting 50,000 horses, which is obviously something that’s massively horrifying.
“It’s a scary time for the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program.”
Most of the horses at Skydog Sanctuary come out of kill pens where buyers are looking to sell them for meat. They are then shipped to Canada or Mexico for slaughter, and served to diners mainly in Europe and Asia.
“They’ll go to auctions and buy an old horse, a sick horse or a really young healthy horse that no one else bids on,” she said. “Then they take them to a feedlot to fatten them up. I think if people knew where those horses were coming from and what they looked like before, I don’t think they would eat them. But, there’s a huge trade for that.”
Sometimes the rescues come from abuse situations where they have been neglected or starved. While The Malibu Times visited the sanctuary, “Real Housewife of Beverly Hills” star Kim Richards was volunteering.
“We had one that came here that had a halter on for so long that it was embedded in him,” Richards explained. “Clare got him to the vet and the halter taken out. It’s very sad when they first come here.”
Richards, who has been volunteering at Skydog for a year-and-a-half, seemed very comfortable with horses that tower over her. She does everything from shoveling excrement to bridling and bathing them.
“It’s the most beautiful process when you see the transformation from when they first arrive and once we work with them and Clare does her magic,” she shared. “It’s an amazing feeling to be a part of this experience and see once they’re set free and how they’ve changed. I get chills just thinking about it.”
So far the ranch has been operating word of mouth.
“We’d love to have more volunteers to help look after the horses we have. We can’t save any more without volunteers,” Staples-Read said.
An open house is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 16, in the afternoon at the Malibu ranch.
“These horses haven’t had a lot of love, so to be pampered and have their mane and tail braided and fussed over and bathed—the horses are so happy to be loved after the treatment they’ve had before when a hand has usually meant something violent or painful,” she shared. “It’s a dream I’ve had for a long time and seeing it happen—I want it to be a community thing.
“You can’t help but be transformed working with them. You have to slow down and change your energy. They have a grace and a dignity that’s contagious and a forgiveness that’s inspiring.”
