Khianna

Khianna and Jolene

Here is an update from Khianna’s volunteer trainer and rider Jolene. We are very proud of her progress:

Khianna is slowly transforming into a calm and confident horse. A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to use a tarp to assess Khianna’s progress. I expected a nervous, jumpy horse to react to the crunchy sound and be terrified of its size and appearance. I started by putting it on the ground to walk across. She surprised all of us in the arena that day by not even hesitating to walk onto a loud, bright blue tarp completely calm and unconcerned. Sometimes even more confident horses will give it a wary eye as they approach it. This is incredibly encouraging! Since she did so well, after a couple times across it, I decided to try putting it over her back. Again, she completely surprised me by not being concerned about it at all. She walked around with it touching her flanks, and dragging the ground, and flapping at her legs. Considering where she was several months ago, this progress is enough to get me a little emotional. She will continue to progress and impress everyone!

Khianna and Jolene

Khianna has shown progress in her training with volunteer Jolene.  The two are working diligently and their efforts are paying off.  Here is a little about Khianna’s personality from Jolene:

“When Khianna first arrived, she was very fearful of most things; she was so tense and nervous that her skin even had wrinkles.   I had gently touched her where a girth would be and it startled her so much that her knees buckled and she almost fell to the ground.  It was my first experience with a horse this anxious.

In our training, I find that she is a complex horse who requires a calm and gentle approach as she learns consistent boundaries.  Though her confidence is low at times, she is quick to learn. Once she relaxes and has the time to process, she remembers everything and really wants to do what is asked of her.

While I’ve found her sensitivity a little frustrating at times, I choose to view it from the perspective that it will offer a rider a lot once she settles down.  I am really looking forward to watching Khianna evolve into a confident and relaxed partner.”

Riding Khianna

Here are some beautiful photos Jessica took of Lisa and Khianna working together:

Volunteer Rider Erika fills us in on her work with Khianna this past month:

“Recently, I started working with Khianna, a sweet, beautiful mare. Though she is a bit wary of new things, and still thinks the flag might eat her, our time working together has helped her feel more secure.  It still takes five to ten minutes for her to feel comfortable, but once she’s calm, she connects very well.

Khianna really looks to please and often turns to face me, anticipating her next task.  When she’s relaxed, she gives me her forehead for some love and seems genuinely happy.

I put a saddle on her recently and she stayed relaxed until I tightened the girth.  Then I got a little sideways eyeball!  She was easily led to the mounting block and stood calmly while I used my arms to apply different amounts of weight in the saddle.  There was no sign that she needed to be elsewhere and I no longer got the sideways eyeball look! 

I’m really excited for the progress we’ve made, especially since it’s been only two weeks!  I look forward to continuing our work together.”

photos by Jessica Farren

Khianna has spent the past three years or so living the good life at her foster home in Enumclaw. There she shared a five acre field with three other horses and enjoyed the great care provided by Denise M and her family.

Khianna came to SAFE as an 13 year old, and we were told that she’d been ridden in her previous home, but it had been quite some time since anyone had been on her back. So she was sent off to be restarted under saddle in 2012. She had some issues that came up in training, most alarmingly a tendency to bolt under saddle, and our trainer at the time felt that it would take far more than the usual 60–90 days to safely resolve the issue. So Khianna was declared a companion horse, suitable to a life spent looking pretty in a pasture, something she clearly was qualified for.

Fast forward three years. The training program at SAFE has grown and expanded to include more options for the horses in our care than just dressage. Natural horsemanship, specifically the methods taught by Buck Brannaman, have proved to be extremely beneficial to our rescued equines. We’re also now sending horses out to trainers like Joel Conner and Matt Olson who are starting and restarting horses for us with great results. So the decision was made to call Khianna home so we can get acquainted with her once again and assess her for the possibility of going back into training.

Khianna arrived at Safe Harbor today looking and feeling terrific. She’s got some adjusting to do as this was a pretty big lifestyle change for her, but she’s settling in fine so far. No doubt you’ll be seeing photos of her on SAFE’s Tumblr feed in the next few days doing ground work with our volunteer riders! In the meantime, here’s Khianna today, looking good! Supreme thank yous to the Murray family for taking such spectacular care of her for such a long time!!

It’s been a while since we’ve updated everyone on Khianna. If you recall, Khianna “flunked out” of training after our trainer advised us that she would need extensive one-on-one work after she displayed a tendency to bolt under saddle. She went to a foster home for a period of time with the hopes of being adopted as a pasture pet, but she proved too unpredictable for that situation, so she ended up going back to her old foster home in Enumclaw to live in a pasture situation with other horses.

Jet had the chance to visit with Khianna last week and reports that she is looking absolutely gorgeous and happy in her foster home. Khianna developed a strange lump on her lip, so Dr DeWard came out to have a look at it, and determined that it was an abscess which probably developed around a small puncture wound. The abscess was lanced and drained to remove the pus. The wound bled for quite a while as the vet and his helpers took turns applying pressure to the site. With daily rinsing, it should be cleaned out completely and healed in a matter of days.

Here are some photos that Jet took during her visit. Doesn’t Khianna look pretty?

Khianna now lives on a 5 acre property in Woodinville with two minies named Dazzle before Dawn and Bugs Bunny. The three horse share a barn. After walking into her stall Khianna won’t begin eating until the minis are in their stalls eating; that is true friendship! Her foster parents love her trusting nature and sweet curiosity and have decided to adopt her on Valentine’s Day. She is working on her ground manners and is very quick to respond to lessons (and carrots). Her foster mom writes, “She is a lovely horse and we are so glad to have her on our property. I go down to the barn before bed to say goodnight and throw a little hay and when it isn’t raining we stand together in her sacrifice area looking at the stars. Thank you, SAFE!”

Khianna & Friends!

The past several months have been a journey for Khianna. She went into training last June to be restarted under saddle, but unfortunately, she had some issues with bolting. Andrea put a lot of time into trying to work through these issues, and felt that Khianna’s bolting was a fear-based response that was developing into a learned behavior. She tried a number of different training methods with her, including ground driving. After 60 days of training, Khianna had shown a lot of improvement, but we felt she wasn’t quite ready to be offered for adoption as a rideable horse. 

But the stars aligned for Miss Khianna when a new friend came along…looking for a horse to join her family at her lovely Woodinville farm. Khianna moved to her new foster home this past Saturday, and her new foster mom Kitti had this happy update to share:

I spent most of the day visible to her from the pastures or sitting inside her sacrifice area reading a book pretending not to pay any attn to her. About 4:00 I asked her if she wanted to go eat some grass which required putting on her halter. Not so interested but then.…o..k..a..y. Went out to eat grass and took off the lead rope. Stayed there with her for 50 mins while she ate; the minis were on the other side of the fence eating and Bugsy was talking with her. At one point I was going to leave the pasture to get a pooper scooper leaving Speedy in the pasture with her. She didn’t think that was a great idea and tried to follow me out. So I stayed. When it was time to leave she certainly wasn’t enthused but let me gently come up to her and reattach the lead rope and go down to her sacrifice area and stall. Carrots followed.

Tonight she ran in when I called her for dinner; she thinks carrots and apples are the coolest things ever. She is so excited I am reminded not to hand feed and am putting them on her hay. She forages right through the flake to get them all.

I think her willingness to reengage after 26 hours is remarkable. She is a sweetheart. More to follow. 

Here are some photos of Khianna meeting her new friends at her new home:

Khianna had her annual check up and was a very good patient. During her dental float Dr. DeWard confirmed the poor mouth conformation but noted that the last float did a good job in helping  the issues he would have expected to see. He suggests a visual check in 6 months but expects her to go 12–18 months before her next float. During her exam he noted an 8mm inclusion on her left eye about the width of a hair. There was no sign of trauma, infection or pain but he did apply a stain and it did take the stain. While he wouldn’t expect a simple inclusion to take the stain it still shows no sign of an actual injury & since it doesn’t appear to affect her vision or cause pain we’re going to note & monitor it going forward. Khianna has also had some ongoing weepyness in her right eye so  he stained that one as well for good measure. Nothing of concern was noted. The stain didn’t appear to be draining through the nasal passages so he decided to flush them and the left eye flushed fine but he discovered that the right side “does not appear to flush/communicate with the eye”, indicating a blockage. It could be fixed surgically but since there’s no comfort or health issues for the eye so surgery would be considered cosmetic.

Khianna appears to be in good weight & has a really lovely coat to show off her pinto patterns. She is in need of some conditioning, however. She exhibits a flaring at the elbow at rest which could just be lack of muscle development/tone in the shoulders and forearms. She also has a slight dropped appearance to her fetlocks but there is no suspensory pain, heat or swelling so we will monitor her as she heads into saddle training next week.  Consistent work and conditioning should help her quite a bit.

Her ground training has really paid off. She was very easy to catch and handle and while understandably cautious around all the new equipment, she took direction well and was a doll to stand and take her injections. She really wants to connect and please and someday someone is going to get a really amazing little horse to build a close relationship with.

Khianna has been a busy girl lately! She’s spent the last month at Horsepitality Too! getting some extra handling and attention from Chrissy Lynch and some of her riding students. She’s now moving down the road to her new foster home at Third Watch Farm. Chrissy & I stopped in this evening to check in on her and she’s having some herd bound issues when their other horse, Fiona, walks into her stall in the barn but Khianna calms quickly when she walks back out. Tomorrow they’ll be turned out in adjoining pastures and at night in adjoining stalls. Today they have her in the round pend outside Fiona’s run while they replace some floor mats in Khianna’s new run.

Meeting the crowd at the Horspitality Open House

Getting a trim!

Update from Jeanette who, with help from our friends at Sound Equine Options, went down and helped the owner of the horses in Castle Rock get the horses up to date on all their routine care: 

Khianna — Kianna was initially very sweet. She did seem to get a bit more agitated when Blu did but certainly not to the extreme that he did. We were able to halter her before the mild sedative was given.

Her dental was not as good. She had steps in her bite & hooks as well as ulceration to the inside of her mouth. Her bite was evened out as much as possible but the vet recommends keeping her on a yearly float cycle due to the stepping. This looks like it will be an ongoing issue.  Her feet appear to be healthy but look like they are in need of a trim again soon.

All 3 mares have wearing on the front of the lower teeth. Vet says it’s from overgrazing short grass. It does not appear to interfere with digestion or overall tooth health but indicates they may have had too much pasture time.