Amber (O Bahira Magidaa)

age: 9 (foaled in 2001)
sex: mare
breed: Arab
color: liver chestnut
height: 14.3 hh

Seized by Snohomish County Animal Control on Feb 23, 2008, Adopted to SAFE on Nov 12, 2008

Status: AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION

Located in Monroe, WA
Adoption Fee: $1000

Amber is one of the Jean Elledge horses from Snohomish County that SAFE quietly cared for since March 2008.

Amber, whose registered name is O Bahira Magidaa and whom Jean called "Bahira", was bred by Jean herself and carries, so I have been told, valuable Egyptian bloodlines. She is a striking liver chestnut mare with a flaxen mane and tail, approx. 14.3h. It is obvious that Amber has not had much, if any, handling and was merely used as yet another foal-machine.

Timid and extremely flighty as she was, and thankfully wearing a halter, we were able to catch her and begin to treat her lice and rain rot. Like Summer, she had huge bald areas on her back, knots in her mane and tail. Unlike Summer, she did not appear to be as thin at first glance. Looking at her carefully though, you saw the ribs and protruding hips - but you also saw a mare that appeared to be heavily pregnant.

Amber gave birth to a healthy chestnut filly on March 14, 2008. Ariel has since been adopted and is doing very well in her new home.

Despite the additional burden of having to nurse a growing foal, Amber began to recover quickly as spring arrived. Her nasty winter coat shed out revealing a beautiful dark liver chestnut, which was extremely flashy with her flaxen mane and tail. As the summer wore on her coat lightened once again to a more normal chestnut color.

Amber, of all the Elledge horses, was the hardest to get through to, having surely spent most of her life essentially running wild. She remained difficult to catch, although once caught she lead politely and respectfully. Everything was new for her - brushing, getting her feet done, wearing a blanket. She was very headshy, and wary of human hands in general, and we had to convince her that human hands can feel good. She does have a natural curiousity, and if you don't try to pet her or catch her she will approach you cautiously and sniff noses with you. She is one that is going to benefit from daily, one-on-one handling and having one person to bond with.

Amber is currently located at the main SAFE facility in Monroe. Now that her filly, Ariel, has been weaned, she is in line for training. We've been told her bloodlines are valuable and rare, but of course, we will not allow breeding of any adopted mares, so she will need to learn a new career. She is a nice mare, beautiful and sound, and with handling and training is more than capable of becoming a nice riding horse.

Update (2/1/09):
Amber, Jasmine, and Hope are starting training this month with Andrea Lucianne at Black Raven Stables. We hope to get these ladies started on their way to becoming saddle horses!

Training Update (2/27/09):
Amber is doing well in training. She's still very nervous so is a bit behind Hope, but she is learning to cross-tie, has been clipped and bathed, had a rider on and walked. I brought up some extra feed for her last weekend because she was a bit on the thin side when I took her up there and she has not been eating all her hay so not gaining much, so I brought her some alfalfa pellets and beet pulp. She's had a lot of changes in the last few months and I think being a nervous horse that it has taxed her a bit, but I know the daily handling and repetition has been extremely beneficial for her, and she's coming around slowly but surely.

Update (3/26/09):
Amber's training has been put on hold for the time being. An ultrasound has revealed a tear in her left front suspensory. She is going to need 3 months of stall rest to recover from this injury.

Update (8/8/09):
I let Amber out of her paddock yesterday and she proceeded to gallop, leap, rear and paw the air, and go completely nuts and looked 100% sound. I decided that if this morning she still looked sound after all those acrobatics then she was going back to training. She looked good this morning so we loaded her up and took her up. Cross your fingers she does well! She has really turned into such a sweet mare and really enjoys attention from humans now.

Training Update (8/26/09):
Amber is doing super under saddle, and is already walking and trotting in the big arena following another horse. Riding hasn't been a big issue for her but as she is on pasture board catching her has become a problem they still haven't been able to work through and she is taking roughly a 1/2 hour to catch each time. Amber tends to act terrified of things but once you get your hands on her and actually start doing something with her, she's really not bad at all. Under saddle she's surprisingly sensible and when she spooks she tends to spook in place and then stop and look. No sign of any unsoundness so far!

Training Update (9/22/09):
Amber had a bit of a setback about 2 weeks ago - she is turned out with Wishes who kicked her pretty badly in her hock. Initiallay it was pretty swollen but with cold hosing and bute, it got better. Amber is now totally recovered and has been back in work. She is doing well, but her fear issues are still quite prevalent. She will let Andrea catch her within a few minutes, but will not let her working student (for who knows what reason) catch her at all in the pasture. For some reason, she's very afraid of the barn and while the tacking up isn't an issue, she is sometimes so nervous in the barn she will stand and shake. Under saddle, she has started flipping her head a lot right after she is mounted and has had to be hand-led the first few laps around the arena until she relaxes. We are not sure exactly what is causing the set-back, but since she seems to be a little more comfortable with Andrea she's going to take over as her primary rider and see if that helps. Her working student is a super nice girl who is great with the horses, but for some reason Amber seems afraid of her.

Despite these issues, she is doing great under saddle, walk/trot/canter both directions. She's not spooky and quite sensible about what's in the arena, but still has an overall fear of humans that has been really tough to get through, and it makes her still a bit unpredictable under saddle. For that reason, she may need to stay in training a bit longer than Wishes...we will decide based on how she does in the next couple of weeks.

On a good note, she has stayed quite sound.

Training Update (10/10/09):
Amber's done really well the last couple of weeks and really progressed. She still gets a little nervous right after you get on and will toss her head a bit, the trick with her is to not pressure her or get after her but just soothe her and keep quietly asking her to go forward and she will soon settle and go along just fine.

She is ready to be offered for adoption once again. She will need an experienced and confident rider to continue her training.

Send email to adopt@safehorses.org if you are interested in adopting Amber.

Follow Amber's progress on the SAFE Message Board.

If you are interested in sponsoring Amber, please click here to learn more about our sponsorship program.

Please read SAFE's adoption policies prior to submitting an adoption application for any SAFE horses listed on this site. SAFE Adoption Policies can be found HERE. SAFE has a strict no-breeding policy.