About two weeks back, a couple in the Maple Valley area awoke in the middle of the night to find that there was a loose horse in their yard, sidled up to the pen beside their own horses. In the morning, they took to local Facebook pages, “is this your horse?” Though his body was in decent condition, his long tangled mane and standoffishness told a story of a horse who was reluctant to be caught. His owner, when he called us seeking help, expounded upon what we could already assume from the photo.
This is Cooper, our newest SAFE horse. Around two years ago, he was picked up from the auction as a two year old, before which he’d been living out on the Yakama Reservation as a wild horse. Recently, he had begun challenging the fencing where he lived, which is how he found himself in his most recent predicament. His owner was in over his head — an untouched stallion (did we mention he was a stallion?) who was now escaping is a lot to manage, even for those with experience. Though there were some who expressed interest in taking him, there was no true follow through, and he needed a place to land, stat.
So we loaded the panels on our stock trailer and took a Sunday morning drive down south. He had been corralled into a round pen on the neighbor’s property, and had a curious brightness about him as we began building a chute and running through how ushering him into the trailer would go. Turns out, very well. This is a soft and sensitive guy, and it took us longer to talk about the ‘what-ifs’ and worst case scenarios than it did to load him. Back to SAFE we went, a new horse in tow. He unloaded just as easily into our covered round pen, with high immobile walls. Not to say that one couldn’t escape it, but it would be quite feat to do so. And so far, so good.
The excitement of all the horses (mares! mares!) had Cooper worked up into quite a tizzy the first few days. Calling, pacing, overstimulated by all of the excitement. But he has since begun to settle into the motions and routines here. Also, despite his testosterone and the wide berth we are giving it (and him), he has yet to show us any signs that he is dangerous. If anything, he seems curious.
We look forward to continuing to get to know him, and getting a halter on him sooner rather than later. We can’t wait for Cooper to start the second part of his life here as a gelding — and all of the wonderful opportunities that will open for him. Welcome, Cooper, to SAFE.
