Sophie Selfie!

You might think filling the grain bags to feed our horses is a small or trivial task, but the horses would tell you otherwise. They LOVE their grain, it is the highlight of their day. The horses love grain, and we love Kris Hoglan for making it possible. Kris is one of our dedicated baggie making crew. She comes every week to sort and measure the myriad of supplements we feed to keep our SAFE horses in tip-top condition. Kris comes every week even though she works full-time in the mortgage industry. She is so dedicated to our SAFE horses that she even comes on weekends when we have work parties to help out. Kris has been with SAFE for over three years, and we are thrilled to name her our August 2016 Volunteer of the Month.

Kris is a native of Spokane, WA, but she spent much of her life in Arizona. She remembers loving horses almost from birth. She has never owned a horse of her own, but her neighbors growing up had horses. As a teen, she spent many hours taking hunter-jumper lessons.

When Kris moved back to Washington, she yearned to get horses back in her life. She found SAFE and decided to volunteer to see what it is like to be around horses outside of a lesson. Kris hasn’t jumped into horse ownership, but she considers the SAFE horses hers in a way. Here is what she has to say about our horses,

“I have lots of favorites – fell in absolute LOVE with Bean. Skye is amazing because I’ve always had a thing for draft horses. I adored Finn. But I have to say Sophie is my girl — she was so amazing even with a giant gaping hole in her neck and I was very impressed with her. She was amazing during treatments and just overall a real trooper – she’s a special girl. I especially enjoyed getting to see her heal up over time.  Never seen anything like that before!

Like many of us, Kris appreciates being at the barn for a number of reasons. She says it best, “I’ve been there some nights putting food bags together and the times I’m alone, I really love the sound of all horses crunching on their hay.  I don’t know why, but there’s something extremely soothing and peaceful about being there.  Also, even though I might be having a tiring day and just want to go home, I am ALWAYS in great spirit when I leave the barn.  Being around horses simply brings a little peace to my soul.  Awesome people of course too!”

When she isn’t horsing around with us at the barn, Kris likes to stay fit running, doing cross fit, and weight lifting. Kris, from the bottom of their rumbly bellies, the horses thank you. And the rest of the human team thanks you too. Congratulations on being our August Volunteer of the Month! We love your Sophie Selfie!