Sugar

It’s hard to resist something sweet for long, and true to form, Sugar came and went from SAFE about as fast as you can say ‘isn’t he just the sweetest thing!’ That’s right, little Sugar has been adopted! Sugar, now known as “Au Poni Kopa’a” (Ko) which means “the sugar I need” or, “to put sugar on it” in Hawaiian, has gone to live at The Way Forward youth ranch, where he will help empower troubled youth and adults as part of their program. When owner Cynthia first came to meet him, she was smitten from first sight, and could hardly wait to get him home. Ko, as he is now known, will know nothing but endless love and the best of care in his new home alongside Cynthia, Chad, and the rest of The Way Forward family. You can learn more about their program at https://www.thewayforwardcandc.com/about.

Congratulations, Sugar Ko! What a sweet ending for a sweet little dude.

How do you float the teeth of a mini horse? Creatively. The concept is the same with all horses: support the head in order to keep the mouth open and file down the teeth. But when you’re just shy of 9 hands high, your support needs to match your size.

Luckily, our vets at Rainland Farm are very creative, and bring the necessary tools for the job. You say hoof stand, we say chin rest fit for a (short) king. Thanks to their ingenuity, little Sugar was able to get his teeth done, and won’t have to see the dentist for another year.

We welcomed a new member to our herd this week: Sugar, who at 8.2 hands is certainly close to the size of a sugar cube! This mini horse was originally part of the seizure of horses that brought us such familiar faces as Jupiter and Theo. Sugar was in rough shape when he was first pulled from his neglectful situation at the end of 2022. He was also still a stallion (perhaps father to SAFE Alums Pippin and Champagne). This little guy is now looking as handsome as ever thanks to the TLC of the woman who took him in. Unfortunately, due to some massive life changes, she was looking to re-home him and feeling overwhelmed by it all, so we offered to help due to our connection with the case.

Sugar jumped (literally) right off the trailer, and so far is settling in well here at SAFE, with friends on all sides to keep him company. Having lived as a stallion up until a few weeks ago, having so many horse friends nearby will be a nice change of pace for him. As a registered mini, he was shown in his life, and so is no stranger to being handled, but will get a little bit of a tune-up in our horsemanship program and up to date on all his routine medical work before he is offered up for adoption. But once that happens, we don’t expect this cutie to be on the shelf for long — everyone will want a little bit of sweetness in their life!