SAFE Horses
SAFE News and Updates
Training Update: Zoe
To give Zoe the best chance at finding a home, we decided to give her a few weeks of professional training with Nick Donohue. This time will allow her a few more life experiences and make her ready for a great home to adopt her. All the updates from Nick have been good. She already had a fairly good foundation but needed to find more acceptance of the leg and bridle. She also needed to find more…
Girl Scouts magically turn cookies into hay!
Girl Scout Troop 42212 of Redmond, WA visited Safe Harbor Stables when they were thinking about a nonprofit to support with their cookie sales and they fell in love with SAFE. To say these girls are enthusiastic about horses is an understatement. They enjoyed their tour of the farm and each girl had a chance to meet our darling Renee, who patiently accepted all of their pets and scratches. Each…
Dottie and Piper, Living the Good Life
Dottie and Piper are living it up at their foster home! They get to be friends with all kinds of farm animals, they have acres to roam and graze on, and they have a foster family who adores them. Piper is getting to be a big girl. She’ll be two years old in June and she is just about ready to come back to SAFE to further her education. Once Piper comes home, she’ll get started with groundwork,…
Alumni Update: Rhythm
Rhythm became a SAFE horse back in 2010, surrendered into our care because of a life-threatening injury caused by barbed wire. His adopter Hillary gave us this update on her boy recently: The first photo is of the day I brought Rhythm home from SAFE, while the second is one of Rhythm just the other day. It’s hard to believe I have had this amazing horse for going on 10 years now. Thank you SAFE…
Alumni Update: Dusty
Climb on into the Wayback Machine because today we’re catching up with a horse that was adopted from SAFE in 2010. Dusty came to SAFE as part of an animal cruelty case when he was a young stallion — just look at him now! His adopter Beth A had this to report: A couple of old dogs learning new tricks! I adopted Dusty from SAFE in 2010, he’s 19 now. A few months back, I told my trainer that…
Cameo Video May 2019
Millie Week 2
Luna Starts Work
Luna will be heading to training this summer to be started under saddle. She is currently getting in shape and working on preparation to be saddled. This beautiful athletic mare will be available for adoption after she is started. She is a sensitive and smart girl who at this time will do best in a home with a professional or experienced rider who has experience with young and green horses.…
May Volunteers of the Month: Scott Bailey and André Cabrera
Scott Bailey, Horsemanship volunteer and more! Scott Bailey can be in jeans saddling up his favorite horse Justin one day, and waltz into the Heart of the Horse auction looking dapper in a suit the next. Scott mainly works horses in the Horsemanship program now, but he started on a chore shift and has spent plenty of time cleaning stalls. In addition, he is always eager to pitch in and help when…
Alumni Update: Biscotti
Biscotti was born at SAFE way back in 2008. At age 10, he’s fulfilling all his promise as a wonderful riding horse for the daughter of his adopter, Tracy. Here are some photos she shared with us:
Alumni Update: Bucky B Lucky
It gives us great pride to share that SAFE alum Bucky B Lucky, now known as Lorenzo, and his adopter Ruth Geppert-Jelinek were named Champions of the English 18 & up division for the 2018–2019 Donida Farm English/Western Schooling Show Series. The pair were also awarded the Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Incentive Program series Reserve Championship for the season! Great work as always, you two!…
The Cutest Little Bunnies!
Sunny and Shasta got dressed up for their annual appearance at the Frank Lumber Easter Party! SAFE is grateful to Laurel and John at Frank Lumber for their many years of support!
Millie’s First Video 4/26/2019
Welcome, Millie and Hoss!
The latest additions to the SAFE herd are a pair of Arab horses who were surrendered to SAFE after their owner suffered a stroke and could no longer care for them. Boss Hoss is a 20 year old pinto Arab stallion, and Millie is his 11 year old daughter. The two are in reasonable shape, but they were living hard prior to their rescue. Hoss is a little thin, and his dropped pasterns are a concern to…
Three Weaned Babies
It took some work and a fair amount of brainstorming, but we weaned all three babies over the course of about a week and a half. First Nova, then Rae, and finally Pippi. Even though Pippi is two months older than Nova and Rae, we opted to wean her last based on herd dynamics, the personalities of all the mares involved, and space available. Each of the weanings was relatively…
Slim’s Metamorphosis
It’s been a little over a month since we took in this handsome draft horse and his friends. Slim has been fun to get to know (spoiler alert: he’s pretty great). He came in underweight, scruffy, matted, and covered in rain rot. But with TLC and elbow grease, he’s blossoming into a beautiful Belgian. Since arriving at SAFE, Slim has gained back most of the weight that he needed to be at a normal…
Special thank you to project volunteers John Hansen and Derek Lapp
Maintaining the facility here at SAFE is a big responsibility. We have an amazing Facilities Team that works hard to create a healthy, safe environment for the horses and people of SAFE. Sometimes they receive assistance from generous members of the community, looking to use their skills and resources to benefit our nonprofit. We would like to thank two such individuals: John Hansen and Derek…
Stella and Cameo Meet the Cows and Fancy Gets Started!
We enjoyed an amazing 3 days working with Joel Conner in Ellensburg. Our goal was to get the first rides on Fancy and give Stella and Cameo experience off property. We did that and so much more. I’m impressed by how well-prepared Fancy was for her first rides and what a peaceful and understanding experience Casey gave to her. She was relaxed and accepting of a rider without issue. She made big…
Nashville’s Lameness Exam
Nashville has always seemed to have some degree of mild hind limb lameness/weakness, but she has been able to handle light riding without issue. Dr. Lewis of Rainland Farm Equine Clinic was recently out at the farm and did a brief lameness exam on her. Dr. Lewis concluded that Nashville is “serviceably sound for a home with light trail riding and arena work.” This is consistent with what we’ve…
April Volunteers of the Month: Mary Jones and Suzette Mendoza
No joke, no April fooling, these gals do a ton behind the scenes to help keep SAFE programs running. With an organization like SAFE there a million little details to attend to, no one volunteer or staff person has time to make all of these things happen, which is why we rely on the talents of so many. This month we are celebrating some volunteers whose names and faces you might not know because…
2019 Q1 Impact Statement
New Horses Intake Date: Jan 15, 2019 Gunnar (owner surrender) Intake Date: Feb 25, 2019 Kat (returned to SAFE) Intake Date: March 5, 2019 Slim, Moon, and Cassidy (owner surrender) Placed Horses Sage Pyrrha Amira Glory Pogo Tabitha
Joel Conner Clinic Report: Stella
Casey had a few things to share with us about her rides on Stella in last weekend’s Horsemanship clinic. The pair continue to look amazing and Stella has matured into a beautiful mare that stands out in any crowd. Casey has done a lovely job bringing her along and continues to put more of a shine on this special girl! Here is what Casey had to say: Stella had another great clinic! As usual, she…
A New Chapter for Renee
For the past few weeks, we’d noticed a bit of a hitch in Renee’s step. At first it was thought to be a hoof abscess in her left front foot, so we wrapped it and treated it as such. But when the abscess resolved and she was still lame on that leg, it was clear that something else was going on and she needed a lameness evaluation. Dr. Lewis came out to the farm to perform the exam, and we weren’t …
Back in the Saddle with Cameo
Terry worked with Cameo in this month’s Joel Conner Clinic. Here’s her report on the progress that she and Kaya have made with this mare: Cameo was a star pupil at our horsemanship clinic this past weekend. Kaya has been working with her for the past few weeks, conditioning and strengthening her for riding by working in hand over trot poles and through groundwork. We have ridden her a bit too…
Sienna’s First Ride!
We have been getting wonderful reports back from Nick Donohue on Sienna’s progress. She settled in nicely to his training barn and Nick said that while she was a bit reactive and touchy at first, she is progressing well. Nick worked on getting her more comfortable with the saddle and more “turned loose” to both the act of being saddled and carrying it around without a rider. This is an important…
Sunshine!
It’s hard to believe that just over a month ago it was 13 degrees at Safe Harbor Stables, and this week the thermostat is hitting 80! The horses are enjoying it tremendously and taking every chance they can to sun bathe. The downside to this beautiful weather is that horses still wearing their winter coats can dehydrate quickly when it’s hot outside. We’ve been keeping a close eye on ours to…
The First Phase of the Moon
There’s no time like the present to get started training the new horses! We were told that Moon had some training and riding in her past when she was younger but it’s been a while. We always like to begin our new horses with groundwork sessions to help them learn the basics they will need to be handled. The first groundwork sessions help establish safe distance from handlers, moving forward and…
Health and Clinic Update: Amelia
Miss Amelia is doing very well at SAFE. She has a great friend for turnout in Tabitha, and her overall happiness seems to have increased. We have been working her a few times a week on the trail obstacles at Safe Harbor. Her behavior continues to improve but she still seems uneasy when tied up and groomed. If we don’t tie her, she seems a bit happier. It’s possible she had a bad experience while…
Joel Conner Clinic Report: Lacey
What a remarkable job Kaya is doing with this little feisty pony! The growth in Kaya’s horsemanship and dedication to Lacey this winter was inspiring. All the hard work shows in how well they did in the clinic this past weekend. Kaya’s enthusiasm and commitment to the horsemanship has made her a wonderful addition to our rider program. Lacey had a great learning clinic and the changes were very…
Clinic Update: Nashville
Nashville has earned the reputation of being very amiable to new riders and able to be put into a clinic or taken on a trail ride by someone she’s just met. For this past Joel Conner clinic, we were able to let volunteer rider Scott get on her the day before the clinic and easily fit into the class without trouble. LOVE this mare’s willing attitude and it was a treat that she enjoyed working…
