SAFE Horses
SAFE News and Updates
Stella is Ready for a Home
Stella has had a busy summer! She is going beautifully in all gaits and has been on a few adventures with Horsemanship Volunteer Casey. This year was the first time Stella competed at the SAFE Benefit Horse Show at Donida Farm. She was an absolute star for everything. She trailered, bathed, and was ridden at the show with absolutely no issues! And she took home several blue ribbons, winning…
Valor is Back on Track
Valor is now being ridden and worked by our experienced Horsemanship volunteer, Casey. She has ridden him a handful of times now and reports that he is sound and moving along well with the work. We would like to give Valor a few more weeks of regular rising before showing him to potential adopters but we are setting up visits with him now to any applicants that are interested. Valor is a gentle…
New Video: Bowie
https://youtu.be/10bKzLt9JrU
Checking in with Angel
Volunteer Kaya M. has been getting to know Angel and is her special friend. Kaya has a very kind, positive attitude that is helping this frightened old mare open up to a new friendship. Here is what Kaya had to say about her interactions with Angel: Angel has been a fun and unique challenge for me so far. I’ve only recently started working with her and she has already taught me so much! I’ve…
Nashville’s First Trail Ride
Nashville has been going really well under saddle, and yesterday she went out for her first ever trail ride! She was a little unsure in the beginning but quickly settled with her friend Roscoe out front and Bowie bringing up the rear. We tried her in the lead and also in the rear of the group and she was content in all three positions. Going uphill was a little hard for her because she is out of…
Handsome Remy!
Remy is settling in to a vastly different life at Safe Harbor Stables. He’s no longer a stallion, so he’s feeling the ebbing of his hormones and starting to look at other horses as potential friends. He’s getting accustomed to being waited on hand and foot by SAFE volunteers, having all his needs taken care of, like regular meals and clean, fresh water. He’s had his hooves trimmed by…
Glory and Fancy, Growing up!
These babies are growing up to be beautiful young mares! The two thin fillies covered in rain rot that we met in March who didn’t want to be approached or touched are gone. Casey and I have been laying the foundation for their first rides later this year. At the last Joel Conner clinic, he helped us saddle them for the first time and left us with lots of homework to keep getting them relaxed and…
Getting to know Amelia
One of our wonderful Horsemanship volunteers, Phoebe, has been taking time to get to know Amelia. She seems like an old soul with a rough past. Her eyes are still lost…not quite ready to relax into the feeling of comfort or peace. But hopefully with all the love and extra attention from Phoebe, we’ll start to see her open up and start trusting people again. here is what Phoebe had to say about…
Mommies to be…
Beautiful mares, full baby bellies and a late summer glow were a perfect setting for photographer Jessica Farren to capture this special time in their lives. All three were wonderful models and our herd health manager Melinda, their midwife, helped set the stage.
Progress for Zoe
Zoe has been doing very well over the last few months. We initially did quite a bit of groundwork, getting her more comfortable with the saddle and eventually a few light rides. She remained tight with the saddle and her very kinked up tail indicated that she needed more time to settle before accepting a rider. The goal when starting our horses is NOT to get on and “ride the buck out of them.”…
Tabitha is back from training
Tabitha has completed 30 days of training to restart her with Benjamin Hannan. She was ground worked at SAFE and Joel Conner put the first 3 rides on her. After seeing that she was a bit troubled with a rider, we felt it was best for her to go to Ben for a solid month of professional training before making her available for adoption. Throughout the month we consistently received good reports on…
Our New Partnership with Roam Consulting LLC
Leadership with Horses is a program of Roam Consulting LLC. They are a professional, credentialed team of coaches, facilitators, and experienced horse people, who get excited about helping their clients think, feel, and act differently to achieve and sustain excellence. They believe horses offer a powerful metaphor for what happens in the business world and love facilitating…
New Photos of Anderson
A Visit with Bridgit
Here are some beautiful photos of Bridgit and her adopter Kristina. Bridgit and her little buddy Oreo are best friends, enjoying a wonderful life together with their family! Thank you, as always, Jessica Farren for sharing your amazing talents with the SAFE horses and alumni. For updates on many of your favorite adopted…
Fancy’s 1st bath
Checking in with Renee
Kaya, one of our dedicated Horsemanship volunteers, has been giving Renee some much needed TLC. Here is what she had to say about her relationship with Renee: “Renee is super intelligent and very aware of her surroundings. She will constantly watch me while I walk around getting her ready to work and when we are doing groundwork she is very attentive and sensitive to my energy. We recently…
Checking in with Valor
Horsemanship Volunteer Kaya has been helping work with Valor. Here is what she had to say recently about this young gelding: “Valor has been doing so great lately! He tries so hard and continues to help me learn this style of horsemanship by calling me out on my mistakes and “asking questions” that I don’t know the answers to. Aside from actually working, Valor is such a goofball! While we were…
Training Update: Orion
Orion has been at Silver Spade Ranch with Nick Donohue for just over a month. He has already made some great changes and is proving to be not just another pretty face. After arriving and completing his two-week quarantine, he has been introduced to the gelding herd of around 18–20 horses! (Side note: much RESPECT to this facility and their quarantine protocols. We LOVE this type of proactive…
Getting to know Bowie
We have been pleasantly surprised to find out how much our friend Bowie knows already about being a riding horse! He has wonderful ground manners, stands nicely while being groomed and when working with the farrier or vet, trailers easily, bathes, and has settled into the daily routine at Safe Harbor without any issues. He clearly has been in boarding barn settings before, as he is quite…
Baby Time Approaches for Asha
Preparations have begun here at Safe Harbor Stables to welcome our three new foals into the world. Our three mothers-to-be became pregnant prior to their rescue, and while we are firmly on the side of responsible breeding to do our part in minimizing America’s homeless horse population, we really can’t wait to hear the pitter-patter of little foal feet in the barn aisle. We don’t like to see…
Training Update: Roscoe
Roscoe is a nice gelding with great ground manners. He has been a champ on the trails and has learned to work well in the arena and respond to directions from legs, seat, and reins. We’re pretty sure that Roscoe was ridden in his past but probably never anything more than “get on and go” on the trails. He is not a push button horse, but he is getting better about lining out and staying on the…
August Training Update: Ben
Checking in with Lisa and Ben: Ben is doing so well! He is soft, tuned in to my feel, learning to pick up and carry a soft feel at the canter, and figuring out how to lift and shape himself around my leg on a gentle bend. This last piece was actually something I was missing, but thanks to Roscoe and Joel at the last clinic, I finally REALLY felt leads at the trot and it is making a huge…
July Training Update: Ben
Checking in with Ben and Lisa!! It’s been very interesting getting to work with Ben every day, with no other horses on my roster. I’m able to get down to some nitty gritty details, get back to some Super Basics, and really work on some holes that I knew were in there, but I continuously overlooked or pushed through in order to get him to a good place for other people to ride him. I am going to…
July Volunteer of the Month: Pat Banner
Redmond resident Pat Banner has been named as Save a Forgotten Equine’s July Volunteer of the Month. She was selected for this honor because of her tireless energy and work ethic, her incredible reliability (unless there’s snow!) and her all round cheerfulness. Pat Banner is an 84-year-old retired elementary school teacher who taught in Puerto Rico and three different states during her career.…
Ru: Happy at Home
Here’s a lovely update from Ru’s adopter, Sierra: I have had Ru for a week now, and he is settling in so well. I love this horse more everyday that he’s with us, and everyday we make progress with his training and with our relationship. We are working hard to make sure he remembers what SAFE taught him and making sure he listens to me! Ru and my other gelding, Harley, are becoming good friends.…
Remy’s Rescue Story
to come
Getting to know Star
Star began his training today at SAFE. He definitely has some training in there, some typical late cut Arabian attitude, jumpy but comes back quickly, a sweet cuddly side and a “walk all over you with my left shoulder” issue. He was a very good boy for his first session. We’ll see changes but due to his age and past handling it’s going to take some time and patience. We were able to give him a…
Good things come in threes
Like all good horse owners, we keep close eyes on the weight of our horses. Clearly no one wants to see skinny horses, but a horse that’s overweight can face health problems too. Every SAFE horses has its meals tailored to its weight and health, and we make adjustments as needed to maintain proper weight. So a few weeks ago, we started to notice that Asha was looking a little round in the belly.…
Tabitha is a riding horse!
Tabitha just got a status update from “Prospect” to “Riding Horse”!! She’s spent the past couple weeks making that transition, thanks to our good friend, horseman Ben Hannan. Here’s a video that Ben shared with us last week. We’re really proud of this lovely mare and feeling very optimistic about finding her the perfect home!
More horsemanship for Sage!
Sage has a new friend: SAFE volunteer rider Scott B has started working with her and was kind enough to share his notes after their last session! I worked with Sage on Sunday. These are the issues I noticed with her: • She’s very herd bound • She needs to respect my space and “stay off” me • She need to connect to me • Found her to be very “reactive” This was my first time working with Sage. I…
