As winter approaches, more horses find themselves in precarious situations. Older horses and hard keepers become more difficult to maintain away from pasture, and we tend to get an uptick in calls from Animal Control hoping to place horses with us along with owners looking for assistance as the weather changes.
Being able to help with these requests is all dependent on our available space. Our available space is dependent on adoptions. We never rush the process of finding our horses their ideal homes, so you can understand how it’s feasible that we do not often have an excess of room at the inn. So as we head into these months of higher demand, we consider some alternative housing placements for some members of our herd.
We do not often foster horses out, as the typical candidates for foster are either a) horses in need of extra care who are beyond what the average foster has the time for, or b) horses who need to remain in training. But occasionally, the stars align and we find an ideal candidate for a foster home.
This is one such case. Tanya contacted us with a time constraint: her gelding was losing his buddy, and he was not the type to take being a lone horse very well. Could we help? As a matter of fact, we could! Arrow was that elusive “easy” choice, a horse who wasn’t in need of much management. So we’d give it a go.
The property is a spacious 5+ acres with some lovely pasture, a horse’s dream. Both the property owner and Arrow’s foster are horse people, and welcomed sweet Arrow into the fold with open arms. But the true reason he was there was to be a support and buddy to Tanya’s horse, and this relationship would be the wild card.
As is the case with any horse, there is always a question of how the existing horses at the home will react. Arrow was tried out with a few geldings here at SAFE, but could get a little intense with his play. So we advised that the introductions between Arrow and his new buddy be gradual to mitigate risk. Their first meeting was over the fence, and thankfully was very low drama — one little excited squeal and paw from Arrow, but nothing further. If all continues to go well, the two will get turnout together, and hopefully become the best of friends. Already the little gelding is very happy to have a companion, and Arrow seems to like it too!
We are grateful that this situation was able to present itself, and that we have the opportunity to work with a foster who will care for Arrow just as we do! We look forward to many cute updates of Arrow and his new buddy as they get to know one another.
