SAFE Horses
SAFE News and Updates
Good news for Jewel?
Dr King of Pilchuck Vet Hospital came out to SHS and donated her time to give lameness exams to some of the SAFE horses. We asked her to take a look at Miss Jewel, and her assessment of Jewel’s crooked leg was not half bad. In fact, she told us she’s seen perfectly sound horses in full training with much worse looking limbs. Jewel was not lame during the exam, and Dr King indicated she’d like to…
Time off for Oscar
Oscar has been showing some front end lameness since his return to SAFE. This lameness, which appears to be in his right front leg, isn’t noticeable at the beginning of a ride, but seems to get progressively worse as he is exercised. Dr King of Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital donated her time to perform a lameness exam on Oscar and help us get to the root of the problem. X‑rays were clean so we are…
Trail Ride!
Volunteer Sara E rode Kat on a trail ride this weekend along with Terry and Skittles. Sara was able to compare this ride with one she and Kat went on a year ago. Not only does Kat know Sara better now and trusts her, she is also clearly feeling much better in her own body and movement. She was great during the entire ride, even when riding along the road with cars passing and past the alpacas…
Dottie and Eve
Lovely photos taken today of Dottie with her best friend Eve!
Unbridled Joy
Sara, who is SAFE’s Vice President and Adoption Manager, keeps in touch with many of our adopters through Facebook, and a few days ago, she saw this lovely photo, posted by Karen who adopted Zanadu from us. When Sara asked Karen about it, she received this beautiful explanation: “The name Unbridled Joy is actually the working title of a book I have been writing – I started about two years ago.…
Skye is now cantering under saddle!
We are just delighted to share this video with you of Skye cantering under saddle! Huge thanks to Andrea Lucianna and everyone at Half Trak Farm for this wonderful work. Watch closely in the video and you’ll see SAFE alumni pony River (adopted by Jenny Lucianna) standing by to give his friend Skye a boost of confidence.
Handsome Atticus
Atticus is back at Safe Harbor these days, and he’s looking like a million bucks! He’s an exceptionally handsome Arab gelding, and now that he’s no longer bony and thin, he’s looking really good. He even has a cute little belly! Now that Atticus is healthy again, he is ready for a forever home of his own. The new and improved Atticus is a spunky, playful horse and we are hoping to find him a…
Handsome Kai
The Amazing Owen
Owen had made so much progress since our last update, but yesterday was a stellar day for this fine young man. Owen is now wearing a halter — on his face! But before we tell you how that milestone was reached, we have to say a great big thank you to Jenny M, who you may remember as one of the founders of SAFE and a member of SAFE’s first Board of Directors. Jenny came up from Portland last…
Ruby’s Recovery
Ruby continues her slow recovery at NWESC, where she is getting hands-on care and attention following the birth, and passing, of her foal. She is definitely not out of the woods yet, but her condition has stabilized. Initial blood tests revealed that she was severely anemic with low proteins, which is not surprising considering her emaciated condition. Fortunately, her bloodwork is improving…
Phoenix in Rehab
Here’s volunteer Stephanie riding Phoenix during his rehab session yesterday at Safe Harbor! As of this week, Phoenix is now being walked up to 30 minutes per day. Happily he’s being a wonderfully well behaved gentleman for his rehab…not to mention stunningly gorgeous! Keep it up, Phoenix!!
We named her Grace
Many of our supporters have asked for more detail about what happened to Ruby’s foal. If you missed the beginning of the story, you can read it here. Another busy Saturday night at NWESC had Dr. Hannah Mueller caring for her patients. She passed Ruby’s stall to see the mare standing quietly. When she passed by again after midnight, Ruby was laying down and the foal’s head had emerged. It was…
Saddle? No problem!
Mr Finn was a superstar yesterday! He wore a saddle for the first time since coming to SAFE and was completely unfazed by the experience. Terry says was a perfect gentleman! Way to go, Finn!! As we’ve mentioned before, when we took Finn on as a SAFE horse, we were told that he was not sound for riding due to an injury he sustained when he was started under saddle as a young horse. He has a…
Happy saddle day, Sapphire!
Sapphire wore a saddle for the first time today as a SAFE horse, and she was a champ! Terry was even able to lay across her back and have a volunteer lead her around the arena for a few steps. Great work, Sapphy!!
The Alpaca Gauntlet
Kat, Skittles, and Lola went out for a walk today to see the alpacas, who live right down the street from Safe Harbor Stables. We’re located pretty close to the Tolt Pipeline trail, but to get to the trail, you have pass by the alpaca gauntlet. Some of the horses find this slightly terrifying, but today’s outing was a complete success. So cute!
Groundwork for the win!
When Oscar was returned to SAFE in December, it took nearly two hours to load him into the trailer. As Terry remarked not long after meeting him for the first time, getting the respect of this feisty little gelding would be her first priority. “He is very sweet on the ground,” Terry commented, “but when pushed to do what isn’t his choice the old stallion ego is just under the surface. On top of…
Jewel Videos
Jewel Groundwork Jewel Lunging
April Training Notes: Sapphire
We had a pretty big setback with Sapphire after Sasha’s passing. We’ve been doing ground work with her to gain her trust, and she regressed quite a bit and started showing some aggressive behavior again. But thankfully, by the end of the month, she was getting back to where she’d been before. Sadly she may always have aggressive tendencies, especially around food. It remains very important that…
April Training Notes: Atticus
Atticus has been very spunky and playful in turnout, now that he’s settled back in at Safe Harbor. He continues to have food aggression issues and does not want anyone near his food. Our volunteers are being trained to ask him to back him up before they enter his stall to deliver his mash. He did have a very sizable abscess that popped on his right hind heel bulb. He wouldn’t let me soak it…
April Training Notes: Finn
We’ve had some difficulties keeping Finn’s shoes on recently. His feet seem to be pretty soft and his shoes have just fallen off a few times. But they seem to be holding better now, and hopefully with better nutrition and hoof care, his feet will improve. We treated him for some deep splits in the frog and those are beginning to look better. He continues to do well with the ground work and…
April Training Notes: Oscar
Oscar has been doing much better under saddle, and we’ve seen good improvement in his willingness to move forward. Also the Dynamite Vit has helped his lethargic behavior and he is not drifting off while we are working with him anymore. He still has issue with dismounting so we are working on desensitizing this issue. It doesn’t seem to be pain related because I can get off without a reaction if…
April Training Update: Kai
I’ve had some wonderful rides on Kai this month where he was feeling stronger and showed some good self carriage. I started working on sitting trot and found he is not ready for this on his weak back muscles. I will continue to slowly introduce more of this over the month and work on balancing forward aids with transitions and getting him to rock back on his hind quarters more. He has a little…
April Training Notes: Lola
Lola has been making good progress this month, including some good independent trotting without the help of a ground person. I found that she loves to trot with Kat in the arena so I’ve been riding her during Kat’s rides so she gets some “help” when she starts getting stuck and not wanting to move forward. Lola started to look a little thin recently so we increased her hay just a little to see…
April Training Notes: Jewel
Jewel is doing well, learning to lunge and develop some ground manners. She still pulls on the halter when lunging and she overreacts when asked to go out on the circle. Treatment to the injury she sustained to her left hind foot was actually beneficial to desensitizing her to having her feet handled. I really concentrated on this every time a lot and last week, when Daphne trimmed her, she was…
April Training Notes: Phoenix
Phoenix’s rehab is going well. We’ve re-introduced walking under saddle. He is up to 20 mins of riding, continuing some hand walking up to 30 without rider. Increasing both by 5 mins gradually over each the week until we reach 45–60 mins then continue with that duration until June when we can trot and see if he is sound. He is generally well behaved but has moments of excitement some days when…
April Training Notes: Skittles
Skittles is doing very well and is now going walk trot and canter under saddle. She did seem to lose a little weight this month, possibly due to coming into season, so I increased her mash again just a bit. She is muscling up a bit along the top line mostly over her shoulders and neck but still thin over her back muscles. She also has a very crooked tail and is difficult to bend/move to the…
2014 Q1 Impact Statement
New Horses Intake Date: January 9, 2014 Skittles (Regional Animal Services of King County) Intake Date: January 28, 2014 Finn (surrendered to SAFE by owner) Intake Date: February 27, 2014 Owen (surrendered to SAFE by owner) Intake Date: March 27, 2014 Ruby (City of Lake Stevens Animal Control) Intake Date: March 30, 2014 Grace (born to SAFE Intake Ruby) Placed Horses Nora Euthanization Sasha…
Two New Arrivals…One Unexpected
We rely on our compassionate SAFE community members to help us provide for the horses in our program. Today, we need your help more than ever. On Thursday evening, working with local Law Enforcement, we took in a young mare in serious trouble. Her BCS was a frightening 1/9, she was suffering from parasite overload, and on top of all that…she was pregnant. We were heartbroken for this young…
Beautiful Cameo
thank you to Andrea for these lovely photos of Cameo!
