Sasha

Moving forward with her in strengthening and re-introducing a rider. Her back is very weak so it will take time to build up. First rides were good but Sasha does show stubbornness when it comes to going forward. This could get ugly quickly so I’m taking it slow and with a handler on the lunge to help keep her behavior in line.

This is what happens when you mix rain, sand, and Sasha. I think she knew I was laughing…what else could I do? Love her face!

Sasha seems to be showing signs of discomfort, especially tracking to the right on the lunge line. She does a lot of chewing and moving/opening her mouth…it almost looks as if she were sucking on her tongue or cheeks. She can’t hold the right lead canter without swapping her hind and cross firing. We’ve been doing light groundwork and lunging to see if strengthening helps.

New horse Sasha sustained a head injury when she reared up and flipped in the trailer about an hour into her ride to SHS. The vet was called out, an exam revealed no bone involvement or brain injury. She was treated and the head wound was closed with staples. Trailer accidents are scary and this could have ended in tragedy; fortunately we expect a full recovery. Typical Arabian Princess, arriving with a bit of drama… 

Here is a video made by Sasha’s owner showing her being lunged and ridden:

Due to some recent changes in her owner’s life, former SAFE horse Sasha is now looking for a new home. She is available as a SAFE-Assisted placement, which means that SAFE will be overseeing her adoption while she remains in the care of her current adopter, who has provided us with a wealth of wonderful information about this horse, as you will see below. Sasha has been given the very best care by her adopter over the past four years, and we are hopeful that we can find an equally great new home for this lovely mare.

Here is the information that was provided by Sasha’s current owner:

Sasha’s training and accomplishments:

• She was in training with Amber Luce.
• She is seat/leg trained and very responsive to light pressure.
• She was mainly being trained for Dressage, but was also ridden hunt seat and western.
• She goes W/T/C.
• She backs, turns on the forehand and haunches.
• She was learning to walk/trot laterally (half-pass).
• She is voice-trained on the lunge line and is also very sensitive to your body position, which tells her to stop, change gaits, or reverse (I am happy to demonstrate this if it doesn’t make sense).
• She is a great showmanship/halter horse.  Very easy to handle (trotting in hand, backing through cones, turning on her haunches, squaring up—all the usual stuff).
• Good with getting in/out of the trailer.
• Good for the farrier.
• Stands calmly in the cross-ties.
• I had my 10-yr old daughter taking lessons on her and riding her at the SAFE show in walk and walk/trot classes. When she’s being handled regularly she’s not so high-energy.
• She loves the show ring and any attention she gets with cameras and people.  She’s also great with other horses in the arena (in fact, it seems to give her confidence).
• She’s a very quick learner and extremely intelligent.

Things she will need work on:

• She’s getting better about baths, but I don’t cross-tie her while bathing because she has a tendency to back up and pull if she doesn’t like the water. She’ll usually just stand when I bathe her with a little bit of dancing.
• She requires being saddled slowly. She doesn’t like the girth tightened right away and she’ll dance in the cross-ties.  I’ve been working with her on this when we are done working—I unsaddle her and saddle her and she’s been good standing for that lately.
• She is still wary of the clippers. She’s fine if you clip her fetlocks on her back legs, but a little antsy when you try to do the front legs. You can clip her bridle path slowly and carefully—it just tickles so she gets a little shaky with her head. You can sort of clip her whiskers—she tries to eat the clippers or she dances because it’s ticklish. I haven’t been able to clip her ear hair, but I think it helps keep the flies out when they have ear hair anyway.
• Spray bottles are the devil. I haven’t had success curing her of this yet. There is hope as she used to be deathly afraid of velcro, but no issues with that.
• She is very dramatic and needs to have the extra time taken with putting her saddle, blanket, etc on. If you respect her, she’ll respect you.

• She had a suspensory injury on her right hind. When I took her to WSU two years ago, they did an MRI and said she wasn’t a candidate for surgery and suggested rest and gave her an injection to help her continue to stretch out her ligaments. She had extensive rehab with rest, Shockwave, IRAP, and PRP. She was kept off of turnout for the past two years (recently put back on turnout to help with her energy level). She was sound enough to be ridden after Shockwave/IRAP, and PRP and has been for the last couple of months—she just needs light riding or she becomes sore.  Light riding would be mainly walk/trot 4–5 days a week. She can canter, but it’s hard for her. The vet said she could be ridden 5+ days a week and do W/T/C with monthly injections, but I can’t afford to do that with her.
• She’s UTD on shots, teeth, and worming.
• She’s never needed shoes, just a trim with the farrier at the usual interval of 6–8 weeks.

Recent injury:

The recent injury occurred on January 6th while she was being ridden bareback in the arena. There were about three other horses in the arena as well and all of them (including Sasha) were a bit antsy. Her rider says she was probably feeding off their energy and got a little excited and reared up and lost her footing and fell backward. She suffered a hematoma on the left-side next to her vulva and some cuts around her anus. She ended up going up to Pilchuck for a week because of the swelling on the hematoma as she wasn’t able to pass stool and was in danger of colic. They kept her quiet and fed her liquids and enemas to help her pass. When she returned to my barn a week later, she was on a special diet of wet hay and medicine and could be hand-walked. NW Equine came out about 2–3 weeks after she was back from Pilchuck and removed the blood clots from her hematoma and put in a drain. The drain came out about 3 days later and she healed right up. She is completely healed from that incident and she was cleared mid-February to have turnout and begin work again.  Work has consisted of lunging and then I get on her and walk her out. Last week, I have started to do some trot while on her as well as some other work that keeps her engaged (ie turning on the haunches and forehand and backing). She’s been relaxed and easy-going.

Misc:

• She’s registered with the AHA (643581). She’s straight Egyptian and  we’re told the last daughter of Snowlion RSI before he passed away.

Photos from Sasha’s site check.  She is off next week for surgery at WSU:

From Megan:

Hello everyone–sorry I’m not as good at keeping up with posts here as I should be. I wanted to share a quick update on Sasha. She had about a year off and back in September we started into work. Once we got back to full work in December (including cantering) she started to have issues again and is lame again. We did an ultrasound and began consultation with a surgeon for her rt hind suspensory. She will be heading to WSU soon for an MRI and possibly surgery (if the MRI shows she’s a good candidate for it). Hopefully this will help her to fully recover and become what she was meant to be–a real champion. 

Sasha is set to go to WSU on March 14th–please think of her as we drive her there and she stays for two weeks for her MRI, surgery, and rehab.

From Megan:
*fingers crossed that she’ll continue to be sound when we start to ride her again* I have her on SmartPak supplements to help her heal and so far it seems to be helping. She hasn’t dug the hole in her paddock to stand in (common for horses with suspensory issues). Time will tell when we start to ride her, though. 

I am thrilled to announce that Sasha’s adopter has decided to keep Sasha! She is doing well with her layup and she is going to start riding her at a walk in August. Yay for Sasha! 

Photos from Sasha’s site check:

Megan has opted to list Sasha via our SAFE-Assisted rehoming program. As most of you are aware, Sasha suffered a suspensory injury to her right hind last summer. Here is a write-up that was provided by the vet:

Having just reviewed Sasha’s history, the summary is that she has a suspensory injury to her rh, which shows up as mild on ultrasound but has not responded to conservative therapy, IE stall rest and rehabilitative exercise program. How she injured the ligament we have no idea, it could have been during a bucking or rearing or kicking session in the pasture. There is a poor prognosis for return to riding soundness, (approx 35% chance), with continued conservative therapy. There is a surgery called suspensory fasciotomy which helps a great deal with suspensory origin injuries — to qualify for that she would need another ultrasound to see if the injury really is at the origin of the ligament, (on the initial ultrasound it appeared to be more mid body), and the surgery itself is several thousand $$ and has a success rate of approximately 80%. It functions to relieve pressure on a permanently enlarged suspensory origin and also cuts the nerve specifically to that area. Other treatment modalities include shock wave therapy and continued exercise rehabilitation, or just turning her out in the pasture for 6 months to a year and rechecking her for soundness at the end of that time. 

Prior to her injury, Sasha had been in training with Amber at Pond-de-Luca Stables and was doing well at all three gaits. Sasha has been registered with the AHA at considerable expense to the adopter and can be shown should she return to soundness. Sasha will make an excellent companion horse and possibly a riding horse with further treatments and/or pasture rest. 

From Megan:
Sasha update: Vet did a block on her right rear leg and confirmed the issue is her rear suspensories, let’s hope it’s not degenerative. She is on unlimited hand walking & stall/paddock rest for two months, then we can begin riding her at the walk or 10 mins for 14 days, 20 mins for another 14 days, then 2–3 mins of trotting with the walking for another 14 days and then we’ll re-evaluate her. The vet felt her leg confirmation wasn’t bad and was not likely the cause. If it is DSLD, then she has a 60% chance of re-injury. If not and she does well with her rehab, then she has a 25% chance of re-injury. 

She’s a little ball of energy, so we’ll see how she tolerates the hand walking and stall rest. 

From Megan:
Good Morning-
I wanted to post a quick update on Sasha (sorry it’s been so long!). She’s currently on hold with her training as she’s had some lameness issue with her hind end. Originally Tacoma Equine thought it was a stifle issue, but Dr. Sara Owens is working with her and after attempting to block (Sasha was a bit naughty with that) and doing x‑rays, nothing conclusive has come up. It seems to be a soft tissue injury and we’ll be doing an ultrasound to determine what may be going on with her. 

Other than that, we were doing W/T/C and recently working with her on spray bottles and clippers. She’s very ticklish with the clippers up by her bridle path, but coming along. She’s also tolerant of spraying on her legs while standing still, which is a big improvement!

I’ll update when we find out what’s going on with Sasha. On another note, I saw that Amber healed nicely and is back in training–that’s great! She really has turned into a beautiful mare. I’m only allowed one horse at a time, otherwise I’d be looking at her! 

From Megan:

Good Evening-
Here’s some new video of Sasha. I got her papers in the mail last week–she is officially “Sashana Bint Snowlion,” last daughter of Snowlion RSI (see http://www.ak-stalliondirectory.com/a‑listingsS/Snowlion_RSI.html for pics of him–handsome devil, isn’t he?). 

I am riding Sasha three days a week (one is a lesson with my trainer) and my trainer riders her the other four while I lunge her. 

Here is my first weekend ride by myself on 8/9/09:
Here’s my lesson on 8/10/09:

And here I am today:

To answer everyone’s questions, yes, I was able to get the signature I needed with help from a great lawyer. It was a bit costly, but it was worth it because I do want to participate in the breed shows. 

I’m in the home stretch with respect to registration. I sent in Sasha’s hair for the DNA test last week and have a tentative registry number (yay!). They’re just confirming her sire & dam are in fact Shoshana Shari & Snowlion RSI. 

I’ll update when I have the papers in hand!

Sasha is doing very well with her training. My trainer has been able to ride her in the outdoor arena (much more open and more to be distracted by). She did a complete loop of the arena at the trot and a few circles at the trot as well. I’ve ridden her a few times, too. She pretty responsive and seems to really just want a job. She’s very smooth, so it will be fun to get her under western. I had bought a nice little Wintec western saddle, but it pinched her withers and I’m sending it back. 

I’ll take some pictures of her and will try to get some video of me riding her to post.

M

Happy evening! Quick update on Sasha–she’s doing very well being ridden at the walk/trot off the lunge and around the property. She seems to feel more secure with herself in the arena when there is another horse in there, so great practice! I have also gotten her used to the clippers (I’ve clipped her whiskers, fetlocks, and part of her bridle path–she’s still ticklish up there). And, on Saturday, I gave her a bath! She was so good standing in the cross ties in the wash rack! 

M

P.S. I am also halfway there with getting her registered. I just need Dynasty Arabians to sign as the breeder (which they will). Soon she’ll be a registered Arabian! 

Good Morning-
Here is video taken last night of my first ride on Sasha. She is doing amazing!

Sasha is doing well, I had my husband take some video of us lunging. I decided not to put her saddle, bridle, and side reins on today since it was so warm and I just wanted to give her little bit of exercise.

She had gone lame in her rear legs about 2–3 weeks ago and I had the vet out and we ended up doing x‑rays to see if she had OCD lesions or patellar fixation. It turned out to be the latter (thank goodness!). I figured that would be it since she had one incident of locking. Coming out of her lameness, we have been easing her back into her daily workouts but she’s doing very well. We’ve moved her to the outdoor arena to work since the sand is deeper and it will help her gain more muscle. 

So, the time she was lame, she had a lot of ground work with the cross-ties and such. She is so good in them now. She stands still, does not dance around, and you can brush her, pick her feet, and do farrier positions with her in the ties. We’re working on being able to saddle her in them (she does have a tendency to back up a bit when we tighten the girth). I’ve also been working with her at the wash rack because she doesn’t care too much for the water and the hose. I did get her to be comfortable enough to drink from the hose and I was able to get her front feet wet, so we’re coming along there. 

Amber (trainer) will be getting on her back again tomorrow (she was riding her at the walk around the arena before the minor setback). Enjoy the video of her! Today was working on light stuff (walk/trot) and getting her to stop while trotting. She caught on pretty quick as you can see from the video. I’ll have to get video of me lunging her under saddle. She really is beautiful when she tucks her head and moves out.

Good Evening!
So far so good with the saddle! Today is day three (I missed her first time with it as I was at work). Unfortunately I forgot the video camera, but I’ll remember for Monday’s lesson. 

She did very well at our lesson tonight–Amber lunged her under saddle, putting the stirrups down to see how she’d react with those hanging down. She also put the bridle on her (with the saddle) to see how she would do with both. She didn’t seem to feel overwhelmed with all of the new stuff, but it could be because she’d done it the last few days separately so it really wasn’t that new. 

I’ll try to get some video and post next week so you can see how she’s coming along. She’s extremely smart and learning in leaps & bounds. 

M

Good Evening, all! I have some new pics to share of Sasha. Instead of working with the trainer twice a week, we changed to five times a week (M‑F) this month. She’s really come far since we changed the amount of time she is being worked. I think we’ll be trying the saddle next week! She’ll definitely start with lunging in her bridle to get her used to the bit. She’s also doing very well with cross-tying (she gets cross-tied when her blanket is taken on & off and she stands with both cross-ties on very quietly). I can brush her in them, but with only one attached as she tends to move around a bit. However, she’s able to stand quietly for longer periods of time, which is great.

Good Evening-
Here are some more pics of Sasha. We’ve been working with a trainer for about four weeks now. We’ve been doing a lot of linking up to get her to be comfortable with leading and stopping. She’s doing quite well in paying attention to me and my body language instead of other things going on around the barn. One of my lessons is right during feeding time, so it’s good practice for her to pay attention while the sound of grain dropping & horses nickering for food is going on. We also started with lunging with my long lead rope.

Sasha had her feet done for the 2nd time last week (first was in December).

Good Afternoon~
I hope everyone is hanging in there with the snow.  Sasha is doing well–she had her feet trimmed last week.  I’ve been continuing to work with her on ground training and keeping her engaged.  She is very smart and gets bored easily so I’ve been mixing it up (e.g. going over ground poles, tarps, etc).  I plan to start to work with the Trainer next month after the holidays. 

I finally remembered the camera and here are some pictures of Sasha at Pond-a-Luce‑A! 

Here we are working on the tarp (it took her about a minute to be fine with it and she walked over it and was fine to stand on it.  She didn’t spook at all!), and some photos of her in the arena: 

Stay safe & Happy Holidays!

Happy Saturday to all! I hear you on the dream barn. I think I’d probably clone Pond-a-Luce‑a with a few slight changes. They have a nice hay loft and a wash rack with warm water. It came in handy today when Sasha had her first dental! She did very well and had two baby teeth come out after being floated and then the vet pulled two wolf teeth. One was very long and the other was a little nub. One of the baby teeth that came out during the float was actually poking into her gum and I’m sure it was causing some type of discomfort to her. I had noticed she was a bit crabby the last couple of days. 

Megan

From Megan:

We moved Sasha to her new home at Pond-a-Luce‑A Stables today (about 2–3 mins from KCJ). She really enjoys the indoor arena and her new stall. She was excited and unsure of the trailer and it took a little longer than we’d hoped to get her loaded up. But, the Barn Manager at the new stable pulls her trailer into the arena once a week for practice loading and unloading (there are a lot of green horses at the stable–so Sasha will fit right in). I’ll be taking advantage of that so she gets used to it and doesn’t forget it’s something she’s done before.

When we got there, we walked the arena and she was such a good girl! She’s turning into quite the little showmanship horse with her willingness to stop when I do, back and turn on the haunches when I ask. She’s a very quick study and I can’t wait to get her under saddle.

Next Saturday she’ll have her teeth done and hopefully her feet (if not next Saturday, the following Saturday). I forgot the camera to take pics of her in her new home, but will take it tomorrow and take some shots of her to post for everyone.

Megan
 

From Megan:

Good Evening & Happy Saturday! Sasha had a busy day! She had a visit from the vet and got all of her shots and an exam as well. We did the weight tape on her and she was up to 821 lbs! We’re hoping to float her teeth in a month or so when she has a stall at her new barn (she’s moving to Pond-a-Luce on 11/30). I took some shots of her to share since the weather cooperated:

Hello Everyone! I finally joined and will continue to update you on Sasha’s progress. It’s been a bit tough where I’m at to work with her daily due to the rain and the lack of light when I arrive. I’m looking into other options (e.g. moving her to another barn with an indoor arena). I don’t want her to fall behind on her training. I did have some time between rain showers yesterday to take her down to the arena before it got dark and did some work with her.

She really likes my daughter and loves to be hugged by her. 

Megan

Congratulations to Megan M. from Tacoma, WA on her adoption of Sasha!

From Jet:

I will post photos when I get back but Sasha and her new Mom, Megan seemed to be getting along great when I left the barn. I’ve been bitting my lip for weeks in anticipation of her arival at KCJ where I board so I was there to meet everyone today 

Sasha had many of her old and new fans around today! It was obvious that mswan has been a great influence on her. She was a lady even though lots of barn commotion was going on.

Coconut even got to get out on the grass to do a little grazing with her for a few minutes before it decided to POUR rain on us all. I think Sasha held up pretty well with the big ride & appeared nearly unconcerned about the goat that made an appearance while we were all getting aquainted.

I will say that I got a little choked up when I saw the unfmiliar truck that I’m sure belonged to her new family pull up with a sky-high pile of hay … ALL for Sasha!! To think that for most of her life she didn’t even know that’s what people were for, she must believe she’s Sasha, Queen of World! I’m THRILLED to have her as a new Barn Pal for Coconut!

From Merle:

As Jet says, it went well today.
It took 5 minutes to load and most of that was me doing a little last minute training. I asked her to come in and out of the trailer a few times just for pactice.
I had hoped to give Megan a few pointed as to how I’ve been working with Sasha but the skies opened up and that ended that.
Sasha was calm and well behaved.
I will miss her. Sasha is a fun horse to work with. Megan should have a lot of fun with her.
Best of Luck to Sasha and Megan! Any questions just email me or call. I forgot my camera so Thank You Jet for remembering yours and taking a few pictures. It was fun to see you and Coconut.

From Merle:

On Sunday I will be hauling Sasha to her new home! I am so excited for her. Sasha is a fun horse and deserves the chance to be loved.
Last night I went to the gate and called her. She came running in from the back of the pasture, put her head down to have the halter put on and walked nicely to the stall.
Happy days for Sasha 

From Merle:

Daphne came out yesterday and trimmed Sasha’s feet. She was very pleased at how Sasha is doing.
Sasha is fun to work with.
Hopefully, she will get her new home soon.

Pending adoption! And update from Merle:

Sasha is doing great! What a smart girl she is.
Yesterday she had company come to see her and got to show off all her new training.
Looks like Sasha will get new home soon. That is so great!
Sasha was so cute with the little girl that was here. Sasha really liked her and was amazed by her bright blue rain coat. Very fun.
So happy that this very special horse will get a new home.

From Merle:

I went and got Sasha from Jaime’s today. She will spend some time here “playing” in the round pen. Sasha was a little reluctant to get in the trailer but finally decided to go in. 

And a funny story from Valerie:

Thought I would share a funny Sasha story — back when Sasha first came to Jaime’s and was housed in the arena (see pics above where Jaime describes trying to catch her to fix her blanket and put a halter back on her — that is me in the green coat) on that day — when I had tried to do those thing by myself — this little girl was an absolute bi-yatch to me. Each time I approached, she would move off but in the event that I DID get close enough to touch her — she would pin her ears and made a move to bite me a few times and lifted a hind leg as a warning a few times. She was giving plently of warnings to stay away and I could see she would most likely follow through with the threats under pressure.
I have to say — Jaime does seem to have a way with those who shall not be caught…I was exasperated with this horse and to be honest — did NOT like her one bit after that experience (plus — Arabs have never been my favorite).

AAAAnyway.…so fast forward about maybe a week or 2 later when they were put out in the back pasture — I had to go out to the back back back of that pasture to go get a horse or a halter or something.…and I was fully aware that at some point Sasha began to follow behind me…I ignored her — didn’t lilke her, didn’t like that day that she wouldn’t let me catch her and certainly didn’t like her threatening me on that day either.… So, I kept walking and she followed until she was right behind me walking along…

I walked about another 50 or so feet with this girl RIGHT behind me and I finally stopped and turned around as in “What do YOU want?!?” and she stood before me — head low — with a blackberry branch stuck in her forelock and this branch was the size of her head! It was if she was saying.…ummm…remember when I was an ass to you? Well…ummm.…sorry ’bout that and.…could a gal get some help here?

I laughed! She stood stock still while I untangled that thing out of her forelock and tossed it. She nuzzled with me and from that day on — I could do anything with her. She did a complete 180 from that awful day in the arena. And not just with me — it’s as if she just decided that the food was regular and no one hurt her and well, maybe they all just deserve another chance after all.

She is by far and away — THE most loving horse I have EVER met — no horse I know just WANTS that attention so badly that she is literally glued to you whereever you go and she is an absolute beauty. Smart and personable.…someone is going to have an absolute treasure with this one and I cannot SAY enough good things about this girl. And she is built really nicely too.

Arabs.

Here is Sasha, fully recovered.  Photos courtesy of Monica Bretherton:

Here is Sasha, almost up to weight:

Here are some updated photos after an unusually warm spring day allowed us the opportunity to give Sasha a bath:

Now that we have “officially” adopted Sasha, I can share these photos of her. Sasha was one of 7 horses we “boarded” for Snohomish County Animal Control, beginning in early March, after being spending the first couple of weeks after the Elledge seizure at the Enumclaw auction.

When we went to pick Sasha up, we were told she was not halter broke, and she was not wearing a halter. Therefore, I hauled her loose in my trailer and we loaded her up without laying a hand on her. When we got to my farm, Dr. Hannah slipped inside the trailer and within about 15 minutes had a halter on her and she led her hesitantly out to join the other 3 horses in my arena at the time. Like the horses from the King County case, all the horses including Sasha were riddled with worms, covered in lice, and had rain rot. Sasha’s rain rot in particular was VERY bad, her entire back from withers to tail was one crusty oozing scab. And of course, she was very, very thin.

She was nervous to handle, and clearly scared by her ordeal, but she allowed us to lice powder her and start treating her rain rot. After a couple of days she managed to get her halter off and her blanket was falling off and we had to catch her again. With a soft voice and moving slowly I was able to get it back on her without too much trouble. She really didn’t act like a horse that didn’t know how to lead, but rather a horse that had been traumatized by all that had happened in the previous couple of months. I put her in a stall for a couple of days so I could easily catch her to treat her rain rot and so she could get handled a bit more. But still, Sasha remained aloof and hung back from people. She would often pin her ears and walk away when people came near her.

Gradually, over time, she realized that people were kind to her, and could provide scratches to her itchy spots and faithfully brought her food several times a day, and we began to see her attitude change.

Now Sasha is a changed horse. Her rather ugly winter coat shed out, along with all her rain rot, to reveal a beautiful steel gray coat that shows signs of starting to dapple. She LOVES people and will follow everyone around looking for attention. She is probably the most social horse on the property right now and everyone that meets her falls in love with her sweet disposition. Gone completely is the aloof, standoffish mare from before. She loves to put her nose in your face for nose kisses. She would still benefit from daily handling (which, with as many horses as we have here, is hard to provide), but she is going to be an absolutely fabulous horse. She is a MASTER of the arab head flip, and does it all the time, sometimes just to amuse herself or to remind the other horses that she is a princess.

We thought Sasha was pregnant for some time because her weight came back quickly. We asked the county to check her for pregnancy (and they wouldn’t) but at this point, I no longer feel she is pregnant. She is in fact in heat again, and spending her days right now standing next to the fence where Slam is and dribbling pee everywhere. She is a bit of a hussy. 

Sasha is one of my favorites, and I am very glad to be able to speak freely about her now. She is currently pending adoption.

Here is Sasha when we first got her and me trying to catch her to fix her blanket: