Little Miss

age: 15 years old (approx YOB 1995)
sex: mare
breed: Thoroughbred
color: dark bay with small star and two hind socks
height: 15hh

Surrendered by owner to King County Animal Control; awarded to SAFE on January 2, 2008

Status: Available for Adoption as a companion horse
Adoption Fee: $1

Located in Monroe, WA

Little Miss is one of three mares that were surrendered to King County Animal Control in a neglect case, and awarded to SAFE. She is a 15h dark bay mare, with a small star and two hind socks. She came to us in fairly decent shape despite the neglect she suffered. She was quite lame on her front feet upon rescue but has improved since then, and it appears that her issue was mainly sore feet. She does have strange callouses on her front fetlocks which could be from lying down on them for excessively long periods of time. Her lip tattoo is unreadable, but we were told she is possibly a sister to Cedar County Queen. She is very sweet, friendly, and easy to handle. Due to the burrs in her tail, her tail was cut off while she was with Animal Control.

Little Miss was somewhat green under saddle, and initially, a bit unsure of leg aids. However, she proved to be very willing, quiet and attentive when being ridden. She is short but fairly stocky for a TB, and might be well suited for hunters, dressage or trail riding. Perhaps even a polo pony?

Little Miss has blossomed into a very beautiful mare. She seems very sound on the grass and has improved even more with the front shoes that she now has on. She has one hind fetlock that clicks when she walks, but there is no sign of any lameness when she trots.

Foster Update 2/4/08:
Little Miss looks fantastic! She still could use just a touch more weight but not much, her butt is nice and round and she has a nice neck (unlike Cedar). Temperment-wise, she is a bit more nervous than Cedar. She will weave in her stall if Cedar is taken away from her but she is getting better about that. Both mares still have a bit of diarrhea but hopefully the Panacur I brought out will clear that up. Little Miss still has scratches on her hind legs and won't let us pick up her back feet, but for everything else she was a very good girl. She gave us a scare when we took her out of the stall as the first thing she did was slip on the cement floor and fall to the ground, and then thrash around for several seconds before she was able to get herself back up. She seemed to be just fine though, although we were all (her included) a bit shook up by the ordeal! After that though she stood nicely for her beauty treatment.

We took her into the round pen and took some photos and video of her. She is a very cute mover! Lots of hock action on her. After several minutes trotting around she started to look a little bit off on her right front so we stopped, and then decided to just put some tack on her and see how she handled that. Well, she stood like a statue, even looked a little bored with the tacking up process. She was easy to bridle as well and totally calm. Julie then worked her a little more with the flag and she was moving more sound again by that time. Allison decided to go ahead and mount her and she was completely unfazed with that as well. Julie led her around at the walk and then let her go. Because she was a bit outchy earlier all she did was walk but Little Miss was a superstar, totally quiet and relaxed, and also came rather naturally on the bit as well. Allison worked on just walking, halting, and turning and she did very well, typical for a track horse but completely at ease.

Update (4/19/08):
Little Miss is looking well. Her only physical issue is the condition of her feet. Our farrier, Daphne thinks they will need some time to develop a concave profile, and that work will actually help the side walls to strengthen and grow. Right now her flat soles bear more weight than they were designed to, and she was ouchy on the gravel of the round pen, so we moved her to the grass. On grass, the touchiness disappeared.

Little Miss is extremely sensitive to body language and quick to move off of pressure. Her foster mom has a nice touch with her, and Little Miss seems settled and happy, despite having taken on the leadership role in her small band of mares.

Under saddle, she is still a little rusty, however she did go where I asked without fuss, if not always elegance, following the cues of body weight better than those of the leg. We tried her in Janice's Western bridle with a brass snaffle with a french link, slobber straps and rope reins. The bit was a little large, or perhaps heavy for her. I trotted her for evaluation purposes - she seemed sound and willing. She was not tense or cranky under saddle at all and went where ever I asked her to. There was no buck or bolt in any of her responses - the biggest I got was when she did a little bounce when I urged her through a muddy spot she was beginning to balk at - about a 1 out of 10 though. As with any very sensitive horse, a secure seat and a light hand keep her relaxed.

Training Update (8/5/08):
I rode Little Miss yesterday!!! She was so, so, so good!! Good to tack up, stood pretty well to be mounted, very good under saddle!! I tested her a bit to see what she knew; she understands leg and seat aids very well. She was halting from just my seat, and did head-to-wall leg yield perfectly both directions. She was very sensitive to my aids, responsive, and forward.

My conclusion is that she has had under saddle training - and I'm guessing it was western training (?). She seems to know about side passing and lateral leg aids, but not much about flexion and contact. (Although she did start to seek the bit nicely in the trot, especially to the right)

We did W/T/C both directions. She picked up both canter leads correctly from the trot, and was relatively balanced at the canter. We only did a few 20m circles both directions, but she didn't break until I asked her to trot. I am excited to continue riding her, she is very well behaved and has a lot of potential to be a Pony Club horse! She has such a good brain, and is so cheerful and willing to work. Someone will be very lucky to adopt her!

Training Update (8/23/08):
Little Miss went to the SAFE Benefit Horse Show today and competed in English Pleasure classes. She performed very well for her rider, and won several ribbons! Big thanks to Leah A. for getting Little Miss ready for her show debut and for doing such a fantastic job with her in the ring!

Update (3/23/09):
Little Miss has been having some issues and we aren't quite sure what is going on with her. Some of it appears to be pain-related and some of it appears to be behavioral. She started bucking under saddle and got worse and worse about it. It really did seem to be behavioral because she had been so good before, and because she was acting out at other random times as well. For example, most of the time she's totally sweet in the cross-ties, but if she gets bored, she'll suddenly get ornery and pin her ears, even nip or threaten to kick. So we've taken a step back with her and were just doing some lunging with side reins. Allison and I had noticed that she moves completely differently going left, where she is comfortable and balanced at the canter, than the right, where she is off balance, can't bend, and will throw herself onto the forehand. And my friend that has been working with her during the week noticed that she had a big knot in her neck. So today Dr. Hannah did some bodywork and chiropractic on her. She was out in her atlas and in her neck on both sides. But when got on the stool to try and adjust her back she started pinning her ears and being very aggressive, and when Hannah touched her she swung her haunches at her and double barrel kicked. She didn't get Hannah but she did get her foot caught in the stool and got loose. Hannah felt she was pretty sore in her back as well, so we are going to set up another session for her. She was scheduled to get her teeth done today but didn't because she was in such a poor mood. Hannah also speculated about perhaps a uterine cyst or tumor as her behavior is so hot and cold and it was such an overreaction to being touched on her back. To add to the issues, Little Miss also has a problem with her knees not locking when she sleeps and she falls down. I thought she was narcoleptic but Hannah said true narcoleptics will go from wide awake to falling down, and with her she will start to nod off and then fall to her knees. She does this often (in fact she did it right in front of us while we were talking about her), and she usually has mud on her front legs from falling on them. I feel pretty certain that this is a long-standing issue and this is why she has the callouses on her front fetlocks.

Update (4/26/09):
We got Missy's test results back and they were negative so we know there is nothing hormonally out of whack with her. Dr. Hannah's been working with her, doing bodywork, lunging, groundwork, and she's responding well to it but still gets pissy about being touched in certain spots. She's also crabby about just having her blanket put on. Dr. Hannah thinks that there probably is some back/neck pain going on but her reactions are a bit over the top and some of her issues are behavioral. She does respond however to a verbal correction immediately. When I was putting her blanket back on tonight, every time she would pin her ears I would give her an "nuh uh!" and her ears would immediately fly forward.

Dr. Hannah and Daphne are also experimenting with some glue-on shoes for her feet (which unfortunately didn't stay on very long) but she's not wearing shoes right now and they are going to try and see if we can't get better angles on her. Dr. Hannah also put her on some special herbs. I know they are documenting her progress with pictures and videos so I hope she does turn into a big success story!

Update (7/16/09):
Little Miss got another bodywork session yesterday and she was SO much better, both behaviorally and in terms of being "out". Instead of her entire ribcage being very out, she just needed a couple minor adjustments. She was very good for her adjustments as well and did not need to be sedated, in fact other than a couple very minor ear pinnings she seemed to enjoy the entire session, so that tells us she is feeling better. Her biggest issue right now is her feet - taking her shoes off isn't working for her, she is so sore on the rocks that she will stop and refuse to move. So we are going back to shoes - either glue ons or regular shoes, at least in front. She's fine in the arena, and we now have the go ahead to start light riding with her again. Hopefully we will see an attitude improvement under saddle now that she is feeling better! We have been lunging her several times a week and she is total sweetheart on the ground and being lunged.

She also got a chondroprotect injection, and she continues to be on Cosequin and a biotin supplement. I also recently discovered something called "bed sore boots" (thanks to Bonnie who bought them for her horse and donated them to SAFE). The ones we had were too big so we ordered her some in her size. I am hoping that will protect her front fetlocks and perhaps allow them to heal.

Update (8/15/09):
We finally had some time to work with Little Miss today. We cleaned her up, tacked her up (and she was great for all of it, a little ear pinning when the saddle went on but that was it). We put a western saddle this time on her and she looked adorable western. She was great to lunge, even her canter to the right, her bad direction, was much improved. Allison got on her first and leaned over her back, mounted and unmounted and tried to provoke a reaction but really didn't get much of anything other than a slightly less than pleased look on her face and she stood perfectly still. Once she mounted, she walked off just fine, ears up, our old Little Miss again! She was fine with walking but she did get a little cranky when asked for the trot. Not much, a little ear pinning, a little trying to be balky, but she never bucked and knocked if off as soon as you gave her a little verbal correction. Allison also rode her with a bat and gave her a tap on the neck when she got pissy. Her pissyness was ONLY on the transition from walk to trot - once in the trot she was fine. So, she was ridden about 40 minutes doing nothing but walking and trotting with a lot of transitions, and towards the end she had pretty much stopped any crankiness at all. We were trying to use voice commands and clucking rather than a lot of leg, which seems to be what she objects to.

I feel pretty optimistic that we can get her through this now...as long as we can work consistently with her (the real challenge, with 5 horses here needing to be ridden regularly).

For more information about Little Miss, please click here.

Visit the Horsebytes blog at the Seattle P-I website for updates on Little Miss and the other two surrendered mares:
Big Miss and Little Miss (Jan 3, 2008)
Tractors are for Old People (Jan 4, 2008)
Mares' Teeth Tell Tales (Jan 20, 2008)
Doing Things the SAFE Way (Feb 4, 2008)
NEW! Little Miss' Big Promotion

If you are interested in sponsoring "Little Miss", click here to learn more about our sponsorship program.

Send email to adopt@safehorses.org if you are interested in adopting Little Miss.

Please read SAFE's adoption policies prior to submitting an adoption application for any SAFE horses listed on this site. SAFE Adoption Policies can be found HERE. SAFE has a strict no-breeding policy.