Scarlett

Scarlett is looking great! The combination of leather pads on her front hooves and weekly massages with Lori McMasters have brought her a tremendous amount of relief. With the pads and no pain in her front hooves she has been able to take some stress off her hind quarters and balance the distribution of weight more efficiently. The massages have helped her relax her back and deal with any tightness she had from compensating from her past injury and her front hoof pain. Lori has taken a great amount of care in Scarlett and her many hours of volunteer body work is a blessing to Scarlett and to SAFE!

I took a look at her riding in the arena with a volunteer and she was looking great. She offered without any trouble walk, trot and canter/lope. Scarlett is looking and feeling great!

After some time off we are back to riding Scarlett. She has been such an amazing girl through everything. We had her flex tested a few weeks ago and got the all clear to start riding her again. She picked it back up like she hadn’t missed a beat. What an ANGEL! We are actively looking for her forever home. Her ideal adopters would be someone who is looking to love this mare into her senior years. She is suitable for light walk, trot and canter work but nothing too strenuous. She would still benefit from hock injections but they are not necessary for her to continue as a pleasure riding horse. Adopters should be willing to give this mare a forever home and understand she would be their horse for many light riding and companion years.  Please put in an application online or email adopt@safehorses.org with questions about this lovely mare.

Scarlett has continued to be a good girl for her handwalking rehab. She shows signs of being very stiff in her hocks. We are continuing to monitor her through her rehab and look for ways to make her more comfortable. We recently had a new set of shoes put on Scarlett and Marla Karabinos made some wonderful changes that are already helping her feel better. Because her hocks were sore, Marla had us stand Scarlett on an incline with her front feet on the topwhile Marla trimmed her hinds. It worked great and took the pressure off Scarlett having to bend her hocks too much. She was much happier for the trim in this position.

SAFE volunteers have been caring for Scarlett and everyone loves to help with her handwalking. We recently had 9 year old Neil, the son of one of our volunteers, come out for the afternoon with his mom. While he likes all the horses, his favorites are Khianna, Cameo, and Scarlett. He and his mom groomed Scarlett and then Neil helped handwalk her. Here are a few photos of Neil giving Scarlett some much needed TLC. She was such a sweet heart!

We have really enjoyed getting reacquainted with this pretty little chestnut! Unfortunately, Scarlett came up lame at the end of July, so we had Dr. Devine, from Pilchuck, come out to evaluate her. After flexion tests and nerve blocks, the lameness was localized to the region of her suspensory ligament in the right hind.Ultrasound examination of that area revealed mild tearing at the origin of her suspensory. She also showed moderate pain upon flexion of both hocks, and intermittent locking of the right stifle. Dr. Devine explains the diagnosis:

“There was mild fiber disruption in the center of the suspensory ligament just distal to the origin in the right hind limb as compared to the left side. The ligament itself was not enlarged compared to the contralateral side…. Scarlett has some mild tearing at the origin of her suspensory ligament in the right hind limb. The most important thing that is necessary to heal injuries in this area is rest with small amounts of work to help the ligament heal properly. The mare needs to be kept in a stall or stall with a small run to minimize exercise…. Hand walking is beneficial to help the ligament heal with the strongest possible fiber alignment…. To further work-up this condition, we could block her hock and radiograph her hock to see how much pain is coming from that area as well. However, rest and rehabilitation is a good plan for this mare too…. Hind limb suspensory ligament injuries can be difficult to heal in horses. Fortunately, there is not a large lesion on ultrasound, meaning that this injury may resolve with time in a few months. However, some horses with suspensory injuries can take a year to return to soundness or may come around to being sound at all so this should be discussed with potential adopters.”

For now, she is being hand walked and getting quiet turnout. She’ll get a recheck in 60–90 days to see how she’s progressing and determine how much more time she’ll need to fully recover. We opted not to pursue radiographs of her hocks at this point in time, but have started her on intramuscular pentosan injections to help arthritis pain.

Since returning to SAFE Scarlett has been getting a thorough going over. Dr. Finn, from Equisport Medicine, came out to the farm and took a look at Scarlett’s old withers injury. Poor Scarlett has a lot of tight muscles around her neck shoulders and hindquarters as well. Dr. Finn did some chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture and other muscle releases to help Scarlett free up some of this scar tissue. She was very well behaved for Dr. Finn and you could tell she welcomed the relaxation that Dr. Finn was helping her achieve. Dr. Finn showed us a few stretches and light massage that we are able to continue to do as she is on rest. She also suggested a different vitamin for Scarlett that has a few components to help her with tight muscles.

SAFE had Dr. McCracken, from Rainland, out to give Scarlett a much-needed dental. She had several sharp points and a few ulcers along her cheeks. Again she was a perfect patient and all the vets have enjoyed working with her. We are working now with our farrier, Jake Cowden, to find ways to better support her hind end. She drags her hind toes and proper balance in the hind will help support her hocks. All this and lots of TLC from SAFE volunteers will hopefully give Scarlett the support she needs to heal and become strong. She has had a life filled with many different people and places, she takes it all in stride and is very accommodating to those around her. It is our goal to find her a wonderful adopter, who will love her for who she is and for the rest of her life she will never be re-homed again!

There’s a new face at Safe Harbor Stables, but it belongs to a horse that first came to SAFE way back in 2010. She was a 1997 registered Quarter Horse mare named Peppy Skippa Jewel, but we just called her Scarlett. She was originally signed over to SAFE by Animal Control, and we were able to quickly rehabilitate her and find her an adoptive home. Fast forward three and half years. SAFE is contacted by Scarlett’s adopter who due to health reasons is going to need to rehome her. We’re always pretty heartbroken to hear that a SAFE horse is being moved on to a new home, but rehoming is allowable under the SAFE Adoption Contract, provided that the new owner meets SAFE’s standards of care and housing and is willing to sign our Adoption Contract themselves.

To make a very long story short, Scarlett was rehomed by her adopter under those terms. Subsequently and through no fault of her own, she was rehomed two more times in rapid succession. For Scarlett, the third time WAS the charm, and she became part of a family in which she was loved, valued, and well taken care of. Scarlett’s days of upheaval and change were over, and she was home.

Unfortunately, after a year in her new home, we were contacted and told that Scarlett was going to need to be rehomed yet again. This time, we felt we owed it to Scarlett to bring her back into SAFE and give her a fresh start. At this point it seemed to us that Scarlett was three times removed from the person who originally signed her adoption contract, and although each subsequent owner had also signed our contract, it didn’t feel like the contract was adequately protecting this mare anymore. Yes, we are all about Owner Responsibility and we set those expectations in place before we send a horse off to a new home. But sometimes you just have to do what’s right for the horse, and bringing Scarlett home felt right.

So Scarlett was delivered to Safe Harbor this past weekend, and we began the process of getting her know her again. Truthfully there aren’t too many volunteers at SAFE who were around the first time Scarlett was a SAFE Horse, so for a lot of us, she is a new friend. Scarlett was able to participate in last weekend’s clinic with Michael Sparling, doing in hand work with Terry. She did well in the clinic, showing a willingness to learn that was quite encouraging. We’ll be reviewing vet records and looking into her soundness and suitability over the next few days, and once we know what we’ve got, we can start making plans for Scarlett’s new future.