Recently, we were happy to host two Snohomish county animal control officers here at SAFE for a day of training. Established in 2005, SAFE hasn’t taken a year off from equine rescue in almost two decades, and over those years, we have learned a thing or two about all that goes into both rescuing and rehabilitating horses. We are more than happy to share our knowledge with the folks who aid us in our efforts to see horses out of bad situations and into better ones. So when animal control agencies reach out with the desire to learn about horses and how we do horse rescue, we are glad to invite them over.
It is difficult to cover everything in a single day, but we did our best to be as comprehensive as possible without being too overwhelming. Topics included everything from how to approach and halter an unknown horse, herd health components like how to take vitals, common medical ailments and how they present, proper nutrition and body scoring, and how to get a horse on a trailer, among other things. We were able to give opportunities for hands on practice and demonstrations with the help of some of our very dear horse models. Sienna, as per usual, was an absolute saint for the various poking and prodding that goes along with demonstrating how to take vitals (she has had plenty of practice as the demo horse for our herd health class). Tiva did a great job as being a halter and leading model, and Jacob showed us how to chute a horse onto a trailer.
They were some great days of learning, and we are glad we were able to partner up with Officers Tina Iturribarria and Scott Smith to facilitate the growth in their horse knowledge!
