It is my great pleasure to formally introduce the newest member of the SAFE Harbor team: trainer and barn manager Brittney Stewart. Brittney joined SAFE as its second full time paid employee on the first of January, and already she has had a tremendously positive impact on our horses and our organization.

Brittney working with new intake Cameo

Brittney works full time at SAFE Harbor Stables, dividing her time between managing the barn and training our horses. She brings more than 20 years of experience to both of these positions. She’s trained with a number of notable equestrians, including Jeremy Steinberg, Leigh Cochran, Amy Tryon, Debbie Fornia, Wendy Carlson, Alexis Lind, Janet von Pressentin, Kathleen Raine (US Olympian Alternate), Bonny Bonnello (Canadian Olympian), and Mette Rosencrantz. She also worked for a period of time as the Barn Manager at Traumhof Dressage in Carnation. She’s spent the past 5 years working in Corporate America as an IT Professional, but her desire to ride and train led her to turn her back on that world and return to horses full time.

Although she’s ridden nearly every equestrian discipline imaginable, her true calling is in Dressage. Her current mount, a gigantic 13 year old Hanoverian gelding called Connor, was supposed to debut at Prix St George last season, but a diagnosis of kissing spine put those plans on hold for a while. as a trainer. Dressage can be a world of expensive, purebred horses, but Brittney credits trainer Wendy Carlson as the person who opened her eyes to the possibilities offered by horses of less than noble breeding. She points out that Wendy competed in dressage at the Pan Am Games on a backyard grade horse costing $200. So Brittney can appreciate a diamond in the rough, and sees potential in each of the rescued horses she works with at SAFE.

Brittney’s personal training philosophy is an ideal fit for the horses she works with at SAFE. She recognizes that horses want and need strong leadership from the person in the saddle, and that they work best with fair and clear communication from their rider and trainer. She has a great deal of experience working with horses that bolt, buck, and even rear; and uses the basic fundamentals of dressage to work through these problems, rewarding good behavior generously, and doling out quick but fair punishment for bad. She’s much more apt to use her voice in a growl or a sharp tone—rather than her whip, hands, or legs—to establish herself as the alpha horse in the relationship. She teaches horses that respect is a two-way street, and the horses respond very positively to this approach.

I spent some time at SAFE Harbor last week watching Brittney ride Lola for the saddle fitter. It was an interesting experience because Lola is going through a troublesome phase of testing her rider and pulling out all the stops to attempt to get her to dismount. Brittney tells me that now that Lola is 4 years old, she’s at a point where she wants to challenge authority and is acting quite a lot like a rebellious teenager. That day, she really, really wanted to buck, but Brittney kept her well in hand and just calmly kept sending her forward, until finally, after several minutes of attempted belligerence, she gave up and started relaxing forward into a pretty trot. Brittney says that this is part of her routine at the moment, but the periods of resistance are getting shorter every time. Her patience and calmness win out in the end, and Lola is gradually beginning to understand that her hijinks won’t get her what she wants.

Watching Brittney working with Lola, I realized just how lucky we are at SAFE to have someone like Brittney working for us. Truth is, we pay her a very modest salary, which is all we can afford at this point. But what we get back from her in return is absolutely priceless. Her affection and devotion to these horses is completely evident in everything she does. Our volunteers really enjoy working with her, too. Brittney’s work will have a huge impact on our ability to find great new homes for these horses. This, in turn, will allow us to open our doors to more neglected and starved horses, giving them the same chance at a much better future.

As always, it is the people who support SAFE with their kind donations that have made it possible for us to hire Brittney as our second full time employee (the other being myself, Executive Director Bonnie Hammond). We are so grateful to each and every one of you. Rest assured that Brittney and I, along with the devoted members of our all-volunteer Board of Directors, will be working hard to keep SAFE running smoothly and making a difference for horses in need.