One week. One auction. 32 wild horses who are alive today because of you.
This is the whole story, from our first day at the auction to the day the horses stepped off our trailers. We filmed it as it happened, in a three-part YouTube series called No Horse Left Behind. You can watch every part right here.
Every month, we drive to a horse auction in Bowie, Texas. Wild horses end up here from roundups, from reservations, and from people who don't want them anymore.
Here is how the week works. On Friday, the horses start to arrive. On Sunday, every wild horse goes through the sale ring. A kill buyer sits in that room the whole time. Any horse nobody else buys, he takes. And on Wednesday, his last truck leaves for slaughter.
That gave us five days.
On Friday, we met the moms and babies. They were so skinny you could see their spines. The babies huddled in the middle of the pen, where the moms could keep them safe.
We also met a reservation mustang family: a big blue roan mare named Moonrise, and her yearling son, Echo.
Watch: No Horse Left Behind, Part 1
On Saturday, the wild horses were run through the processing chute to get their tags.
Moonrise was terrified. She reared up and went down. And when it was over... Echo was gone. He had been split off from his mom and put in the baby pen. All alone.
In that same chute, we saw a wild stud with only one ear. Nobody knows how he lost the other one. He stood frozen with fear. We named him Uno.
Sunday is sale day. Every wild horse goes through the ring, one after another. We get only seconds to decide.
Moonrise went through the ring without her baby.
Some horses we didn't even notice until they were in the ring. A terrified mare we named Honeybee came through, and she was sold to the kill buyer.
But Sunday had wins, too. We kept five moms and their babies together, all from one pen. Tallulah and her baby Roam were one of those pairs.
A wild pinto stud named Desperado came through the ring, too. His mare, a buckskin Appaloosa named High Noon, never left his side. We saw his wild spirit, and we knew their bond had to be saved.
And there was one horse we bought right there in the sale ring, because of his story. We kept him a secret until the very end.
After the sale, many of the wild horses were in the kill buyer's pens. We had until Wednesday to get them out.
Uno was there. So was Honeybee.
Dusty Rose, a dun mare, had spent the whole weekend alone. After the sale, she found two mares whose tags showed they came on the very same trailer. All three were sold to the kill buyer.
In the baby pen, there was one tiny colt who didn't run from us. He was more than a year old, but he was the size of a foal, because he never got enough to eat. We named him Ennis.
And Moonrise? She was put in a pen full of strangers. There, she found a friend: a buckskin gelding named Sundown.
Every dollar you gave was matched, up to $50,000. And you showed up.
Watch: No Horse Left Behind, Part 2
Wednesday was the deadline. The kill buyer's last truck was coming that evening.
By the deadline, 32 wild horses were safe. And together, we hit every single match.
Moonrise, Echo, Mystic and Sunflare. Desperado and High Noon. Uno. Honeybee. Dusty Rose. Ennis. Sundown. Tallulah, Roam and the mamas. And so many more.
Three trailers carried all 32 horses to quarantine.
Moonrise stepped off the trailer. And Echo ran straight back to his family.
And remember the secret? His name is Bo. He is a black mustang who spent 18 years as one family's backyard horse. We bought him right there in the sale ring. Now he will never stand in one again.
Quarantine is where they rest, eat and heal. For the first time in their lives, nobody is sorting them, selling them, or loading them onto a truck.
Watch: No Horse Left Behind, Part 3: They Made It
We fought for every horse on our list. Two of them did not come home with us, and you deserve to know why.
Firefly found a great home with another rescue.
Lawless was bought by a buyer who took two horses. She is with her bonded buckskin sister. The buyer would not sell her back to us.
Now you can stay with them for the rest of their lives. When you sponsor a mustang, you become their long-distance adopter, starting at just $5 a month.
32 wild horses are safe because of you. We have $56,000 left to fully fund all 32 rescues.
Nirvana Mustang Sanctuary is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit · EIN 87-6699274