If you’ve come to visit Safe Harbor Stables, recently you may have noticed we are missing one very large chestnut boy who has been a long time resident of SAFE. So where is our handsome boy Ben? Well…After a brief adoption trial that did not work out, we decided that the best place for him to continue to grow and learn is with his wonderful friend Lisa. Lisa has been working with him for the last two years but due to a recent move to Gig Harbor, she is unable to ride regularly for us in Redmond. So we packed his bags sent him to be reunited with his bestie Lisa. Here is an update about how things are going so far:
Ben arrived at Stormy Acres Farm last Monday evening, got a couple days of Round Pen turn out (several times throughout the 2 days) and some work sessions, then had his 1st day (well, about 2 hours ’cause that’s a lot of grass!) of “real” turnout- these fields are awesome! The redheads next door were SUPER excited for the Ginger Convention!
He is, overall, super laid back, the employees adore him, and he has a CUTE little Friesian 2 year-old named Andromeda in the stall next door; her run goes behind his stall so they can snuffle noses through the wire and she LOVES HIM. She didn’t want to go outside today until he left his stall! 😍😍
Ben had a pretty mellow first week with only 2 VERY light rides (to get to know the arena spaces, mostly) and 4 days of good groundwork. He was rather more stiff through the back and hips than when he left, so we’ve been doing lots of stretching, light massage, and moving out freely at liberty. This week he has been looking MUCH better so we rode yesterday in the outdoor (which is set back in some trees and LOVELY), and today in the indoor.
We have some work to do to get back to where we were a month ago, but already there are vast improvements. He skittered around a couple times each day and bolted in the indoor today (not in a big way, just in asking for a trot, I got 3 strides of GALLOP then a half lap of canter before coming back down to the trot… I was laughing like a maniac, of course… 🤣😜) In his defense, it was windy and there’s a ripped up plastic sheeting on the upper portion of the arena wall, where the viewing area is… it was flappin’ like mad! After that little moment (and a goodly amount of pony abashment: “AAAGGGHHHH! …Wait… oh… I mean.… what? …I wasn’t scared, I just… uh…ok, I got this…we coo.”), he RELAXED and was moving up & down off my seat on a loose rein in a nice, soft trot that I could sit for days.…. SUCH A GOOD BOY!!
