SAFE Horses
SAFE News and Updates
Valor’s Strength Training
Valor’s rehabilitation is going super! The barn managers at SAFE began with walking him 2x a day, added ground poles and walking up hills. He then was able to graduate to roundpen work with Jolene to prepare him for saddling and ultimately to be ridden. As part of his rehab, along with the walk and trot work over cavallettis and walking up gradual inclines, Dr. Fleck said anything that would…
And the nominees are…
2017 was an absolutely incredible year for SAFE. We moved our entire operation from 3 acres in Woodinville to 11 acres just down the road in Redmond. We also had a record setting year in terms of adoptions, new intakes, and new volunteers, but the story for 2017 is going to be “The Move” and “The New Home.” An extraordinary amount of work went into making this transition go as smoothly as…
2017 Q4 Impact Statement
New Horses Intake Date: October 4, 2017 Aurora (owner surrender) Belle (owner surrender) Intake Date: October 17, 2017 Ruach (owner surrender) Valencia (owner surrender) Intake Date: December 1, 2017 Zoe (Snohomish County Animal Control) Piper (Snohomish County Animal Control) Placed Horses Sierra Jewel Stevie Cosmo
December Volunteer of the Month: Cathy Olson
Washington native Cathy Olson has been honored as Save a Forgotten Equine’s (SAFE) December Volunteer of the Month in recognition of four years of consistent service that includes working barn shifts and performing night shift, various clerical tasks, editing the weekly volunteer update, and staffing the SAFE booth at public events. Cathy started volunteering for SAFE in fall 2013 on an…
Welcoming Melinda!
SAFE is overjoyed to introduce you to a new staff member who will be joining us in early January. Melinda Merryman is a veterinary technician who has accepted a position with SAFE to oversee the health and well-being of our horses. Melinda has been volunteering with SAFE since 2013 and has held a position on our Operations Council for the past two years as our Herd Health Manager. As a…
Valor: A Good Little Helper!
Valor was on site to help Caren with the installation of his new turnout slow feeder. He inspected the work and was very helpful in making sure everything was level. Many of the turnouts are now equipped with these wonderful boxes that keep the hay dry, limit waste, and allow the horses to have a more natural “grazing” feeding throughout the day. They are all loving the new feeders and are very…
Getting to Know Aurora
Aurora is a beautiful young mare with a lot of potential. We are very excited to be helping rehabilitate and train this big bodied and elegant Thoroughbred. She is now up to date on all of her medical and farrier needs. She did well for her dental visit with Dr. Fleck and was very well behaved for her trims with Daphne. She is very inexperienced with basic training such as how to lunge or stand…
Mother & Daughter: An Elegant Pair
Raven: Training Video
Lisa has done a lovely job gentling this young athletic Thoroughbred mare. Raven is an elegant thoughtful young girl with a world of potential. We hope to start her this spring and lightly ride her this summer. She is just turning 3 this year so she still needs a lot of time to grow and for her body to mature. We are keeping things light and fun with her as she comes of age and we are lucky to…
Photo Update: Ru
Photo Update: Valencia
Introducing Zoe and Piper
The newest horses at SAFE are a 6 year old Morgan mare and her 6 month old filly. The pair were seized by Animal Control when their owner refused to seek treatment for a serious wound on Zoe’s leg. It took more than two months of treatment for the wound to heal, but fortunately it is much better now and does not appear to affect her soundness. Zoe is a lovely bay mare who is unstarted under…
Jewel is finally home!
Simply the best part of our work at SAFE is seeing our horses placed in wonderful loving homes. It is what all the hours of volunteering and care is working towards. It is even more sweet when it is the placement of a long time herd member like Jewel. So many people have been a part of this mare’s life, so her adoption is a deep heartfelt celebration for us all. Julie came to SAFE to volunteer…
Angel – It’s Been a Long Road…
We asked weekend Barn Manager Ian to tell us a little bit about Angel and how she is adjusting to life at Safe Harbor. Ian has a very gentle way in his relationship with horses which is the perfect energy for Angel right now. Here is what Ian had to say about this timid mare: Angel came to us extremely shy and mistrusting of humans, and also undernourished and in need of farrier work. My first…
Training Update: Cosmo
We are always so pleasantly surprised when a nice horse like Cosmo comes into Safe Harbor. He is gentle to handle and he takes everything we ask of him in stride. Joel put a first ride on him for us in the September and while things went well there were a few training holes that we felt Joel could help Cosmo through. So he went for a mini retraining visit to Ellensburg with Joel for a few weeks.…
Getting to Know Belle
Belle is a very wise mare. She can be a bit of stand-offish when you enter into her paddock but once she takes an assessment of you, she is easily caught and willing to go along with what is being asked of her. She stands nicely to be groomed and has a pretty relaxed demeanor when she is with her daughter Aurora. We have begun helping the two separate since they have never been apart. Her dental…
A new life, a new name, for Ruger
When one of SAFE’s Board of Directors puts in an adoption application, we know it’s going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the lucky horse! Barbara came to SAFE to volunteer as a chore volunteer and quickly shared her gifts as a powerhouse organizer and fundraiser. She told our Volunteer Manager, Jane, in her orientation interview that she had all the horses she needed so she would NOT…
A Perfect Match for Sierra
Nothing delights us more than to write these types of announcements and this one is very near and dear to our hearts. Donna came to SAFE like many other people do…by filling out the application for a horse with a pretty picture. After talking with her on the phone Terry knew there was a very good chance that Sierra would fit the bill for Donna. But there was one problem…Sierra had just barely…
Clinic & Health Update: Anderson
Finally, the wet weather is here and Anderson’s cough has all but gone away! He is definitely a Northwest boy who likes wet air that is dry and certainly not smoky! We are going to lower his dose of prednisolone to try to wean him off of it. There is a chance he will need to stay on a low dose and increase it when during dry weather or poor air quality. The easiest way to understand what he has…
Training Update: Renee
We are delighted to have Renee home from training with a glowing report! Joel really enjoyed getting to know this mare and said she has a ton of heart and try. You can see many changes in her overall relaxation upon her return to SHS. Now that she has been equipped with a few more tools to help her find peace under saddle, we have high hopes she will make the right adopter a great match. She is…
Getting to Know Ruach
We are getting to know this tall dark and handsome fellow named Ruach. He has been ridden previously but it has been a number of years since dusting off the saddle for a ride. Dr. Fleck came out to do a dental float and vaccinate him. We have slowly added a mash of senior feed and Haystack, which is a combination of hay pellets, beet pulp and rice bran. He is gaining weight and looking healthier…
Getting to Know Valencia
The new sweetheart of the barn is Miss Valencia! She has been a doll from the moment we picked her up and continues to show a very nice character with lots of love to give. She and Ru have begun the process of separation and while change is hard we are careful to take things slow and allow the two herd mates to accept times when the other is not right by their side. Part of this process has been…
Tasara Joins the Riding Horses!
From Terry: Sweet little Tasara is on her way to becoming a fun riding horse! I have been working with her for some time, getting her ready to be ridden. Due to her gentle disposition, we’ve been able to let other volunteers handle her too and do some groundwork with her along the way. On Friday before the Joel Conner clinic, we asked Joel to put the first ride on her. If she did well, the goal…
Clinic and Health Update: Rosie
Rosie is a solid citizen at SAFE and has done extremely well with all the changes over the last year. Rosie likes things to stay the same and loves constancy. So it is very nice to see how quickly she has been able to relax with changes in location and even new pastures or stalls. She also has had quite a few members of her original herd leave to go on to their adoptions but by preparing her and…
Clinic and Health Update: Prince
From the past few months, we have had glue on shoe on Prince to help him grow more sole and improve his soundness. Last week our farrier Daphne came and looked at his hoof health and said that we could once again try him without shoes. He was sound and his hooves are looking great. Lori will continue to ride him and get him out on the trails as much as possible. Hopefully his right match comes…
Training Update: Cali
Volunteer Phoebe has been working with Cali and took her into the recent Joel Conner clinic. Here is an update on how things are going: From the Joel clinic: The Joel Conner clinic in November was excellent! I got the gift of working with Cali Jane. She is smart, responsive, willing to please as soon as she understood what was being asked of her. Attending the foundations classes helped prepare…
Training Update: Lacey
Volunteer Rider Alicia has started working with Lacey. Here is her report on how things are going: Lacey and I have been getting to know one another for about a month. She took a few meetings to respect and trust me but now we’re beginning to enjoy one another more on the ground. She occasionally tests our relationship, but we continue to grow each time we’re together. Lacey has really…
Clinic Update: Valencia
SAFE’s weekend Barn Manager Ian was able to help us and take Valencia into the Joel Conner clinic last month. Here is what Ian had to say about the experience: Valencia is a very sweet and loving mare who is still very new at SAFE. She was a little nervous at first in the clinic environment, and a bit herd-bound with her pasture-mate, Ruach. While it is very sweet to see the bond these two…
Health Update: Valor
Here is an update on Valor from our Herd Health Manager, Melinda: At the end of September, Valor had his umbilical hernia repaired and at the same time had a medial patellar ligament fenestration, which is a surgical treatment for locking stifles. He was put on a rehab schedule that involved limited turnout with a regimented hand walking schedule. He was a gentleman for the trailer rides to and…
Clinic Update: Ben
SAFE’s Herd Health Manager Melinda is now riding Ben to help get him ready for adoption. Here is what she had to say about her ride with Ben in last month’s Joel Conner clinic. Ben and I participated in the riding portion of the Joel Conner clinic in November. I’ve just recently started riding him a few days per week so it was great timing to get some insight from Joel. Ben and I developed a…
