Alder

Alder moved to Arizona with his family about two years ago. He is doing well and living the good life with a pal on two acres of grass.

With Jill’s daughter, Halle, in school Alder hasn’t been ridden much. Jill is looking for a trainer to re-start him. There are plenty of opportunities to ride in their neighborhood. That’s what the plan is after Alder’s re-start.

A wonderful family picked up Alder back in November. Halle, who is 16 years old, is the PERFECT energy match for this young adventurous boy. They are going to have a blast together and hopefully we’ll see him at a few WASET shows in the future. The family is wonderful and are dedicated to giving their horses a great life. So happy for Alder to have made such progress at SAFE, becoming a great riding horse thanks to Kaya’s dedication and landing an amazing loving family of his own! They are already so in love with this boy.

from Kaya M.

Alder continues to impress me with how accepting he is of new experiences and learning new things. I think I have been underestimating him! I was a little nervous about the clinic because we’ve never ridden with so many other horses or horses from outside SAFE, but he was a champ! Casey and Fancy helped us both get through a little of those nerves. Alder and I rode up to Fancy and Casey pet him to show him it was okay to approach other horses. This helped us both tremendously and we were able to settle into the class with relative ease. We worked mostly on getting accurate hindquarters and front quarters, and improving our soft feel. By the end of the clinic we had a much smoother turn around and were stopping on two reins with accuracy. I’m so proud of this boy! He’s proven that he is so adaptive and ready to work with whoever is riding him. I’m so excited for his adopter to help him through the next phase of his education and build a partnership with him!

Alder has done a great job during this first weeks of being a riding horse. This video was taken around the 15th ride. Since then, he’s been getting smoother transitions and a better trot for our volunteer rider. He is now available to meet prospective adopters who can continue his education and experiences as he matures as a riding partner. Fill out an application at www.safehorses.org/adopt

This month, The Limelight Pet Project featured Alder in a spotlighted video as seen on Q13 News. Alder is an amazing guy and still looking for an adopter! Fill out an application if you’d like to meet him.

While Limelight was here to see Alder, they took some great photos:

Many thanks to The Limelight Pet Project and Dirtie Dog Photography for visiting SAFE and sharing the video and photos.

Here’s an update from Kaya, who worked with Alder while Joel Conner was in town:

Alder learned a ton during this last clinic! I’m so lucky to be able to work with this smart, sweet gelding. We worked on freeing up his feet, roping, and saddling prep. Alder even wore a saddle two of the days, before developing a saddle sore that kept him saddle free the rest of the clinic. With this sore healed, I’m excited to keep working on saddling Alder and hopefully he can be ridden for the first time at the June clinic! Alder has a lot of try and really enjoys finding the right answer. He’s going to make a great riding horse! Right now, we’re working more on changing eyes and helping Alder pick up the correct lead when going to the left.

Thank you to volunteer horseman Kaya M for this update on Alder. Don’t tell anyone, but I think she’s in love…

Alder is a smart, thoughtful gelding with an active mind and an intense desire to find the right answer and do the right thing. Working with him on beginning groundwork exercises to eventually prepare him for a rider has been an incredibly fun and educational challenge! While he is still a little herd-bound to Pearl and has a bit of a hard time focusing around other horses, when I get his attention, he locks right in to me. He is sensitive right now and can react quite intensely sometimes, but he seems like the kind of horse that could easily become dull if his trainer isn’t careful, so this is something that I am focusing on a lot in myself. Alder seems a little unbalanced at the trot and has a hard time picking up a canter, but I’m hoping with more conditioning and groundwork it will get easier for him. At this point, he is understanding a flag really well and doesn’t seem to have an issue with ropes flying around him. I can’t wait to see his horse reach his potential and I’m so honored to be a part of his journey!