Annie (Ad Idem)

age: 7 years old (foaled in 2003)
sex: mare
breed: Saddlebred
color: chestnut with star, stripe and three socks
height: 15.2 hh

Seized by King County Animal Control on Feb 23, 2008, Awarded to SAFE on July 22, 2008

Status: AVAILABLE

Located in Monroe, WA
Adoption Fee: $1000

Click here for video of Annie in motion (Aug 2008)

Click here for video of Annie under saddle (Jan 2009)

****NEW VIDEO of Annie under saddle (October 2009)*****

Annie is a chestnut Saddlebred mare that was among 10 mares and foals seized in King Co due to neglect and starvation. After her rescue, this young pretty mare was thin, and her feet were in horrendous shape, the worst of the bunch. A sensitive, high strung and relatively unhandled young mare, Annie was initally quite a handful. She was extremely difficult to load onto the trailer; she showed a tendency to become aggressive in situations that frightened her, and she would not cooperate with the farrier. However, Annie has made tremendous strides since her rescue and her behavior is improving by leaps and bounds. She is currently in a foster situation where she is receiving groundwork training, and she has already been started under saddle and is doing very well!

Annie has been tentatively identified as registered American Saddlebred Ad Idem by Kabuki out of a Supreme Heir mare, 2nd dam by Attache.

Training update (6/17/08):
I just wanted to give you an update on how Annie is doing. I have started
her under saddle and have put three rides on her. I have bridled her and
have ridden her with a snaffle. She is halter broke and leads safely. She
will put her head in the halter herself and no longer tosses it when being
haltered. She will move away from pressure when haltered and when not
haltered. She will also back up when the leadrope is squeezed and when
light pressure is put on her nose. She "lunges" both directions and will
move her haunches and shoulders out of the way when asked. I have picked up all four feet several times. I have been working on her food aggression
issues and head-shyness and she is progressing well with both.

I can saddle her in the round pen without a halter on and she will stand
while being saddled. So far she has worn a western saddle, thick wool felt
pad, and breast collar. I have taught her how to bump up to the side of the
round pen and stand there while being mounted - this will translate to
standing by a mounting block.

I have tested her to see if she is a pull-back candidate and she doesn't
seem to be, although I don't want to say that she NEVER will pull back.
Today we worked on her giving to halter pressure when the lead rope is
looped around her back end and she did pretty well. I have worked on
de-spooking her to the leadrope being dragged all over her body and around
her legs. I have also pretty much desensitized her to the flag to the point
where it is difficult to get her to move away from it : ) . We are now
working on desensitizing to a burlap feed bag and a plastic tarp.

I can now consistently get Annie from a paddock or pasture - she will come
to me or stand until I get to her and will let me halter her. We also did
quite alot of practicing getting in and out of my trailer and have it down
to less than 30 seconds and without any treats!

Under saddle we are working on moving away from pressure, moving her
hindquarters away both directions, direct rein and weight aids, standing
still, and halting. I wouldn't say that she is green broke but we are
getting there!

Annie is good with other horses, both mares and with Cassidy my older
gelding. She is a smart girl and focuses well. She is still nervous and
suspicious of people who she doesn't know, but is much better than when she
first arrived.

Training Update (9/28/08):
I am now riding Annie in English tack with no problems. She is going well
under saddle but has tried to buck when asked to trot - not sure what that
is about! She continues to improve with listening to leg and seat aids. I
have now ridden her outside of the round pen and she did very well. I have
also ridden her near other horses and that didn't seem to bother her.

Training Update (11/26/08):
Annie has started training with Andrea Lucianna at Black Raven in Arlington WA. She's doing more desensitizing work with Annie as she is a sensitive and reactive mare. Even though Annie has already had some training, Andrea wants to establish trust with her before she rides her.

Training Update (12/2/08):
Annie is doing well, but of course is much more reactive than Willow so Andrea is going slow with her...working on desensitizing, learning how to tie and have baths and all that. She's tacked her up, lunged her in tack, and had a rider lean over her and walked her around, but not up on her yet (even though she's had some rides on her already, Andrea thought it best to start from scratch with her). One of Annie's biggest issues continues to be having her mouth handled. She does not like to be touched in the mouth at all which makes bridling a challenge and also things like worming are nearly impossible. So getting her over that has been a recent focus - just getting her used to having fingers in her mouth and around her face, bit in and out, and using a lot of treats as a reward to get her to associate it with a positive experience.

Training Update (12/17/08):
Lots to write about Annie! She is doing great!! She is now off the lunge line and walking and trotting in the big arena!

Annie, our little hotheaded redhead, is doing amazingly well. One thing that is clear about Annie is that it takes a while for her to trust people and she is really looking for one person to bond with. Right now, that person is Andrea's assistant, who has been her main handler and rider. Annie LOVES her and I guess it is very sweet how much she has latched on to her new person. Andrea had her doubts about Annie at first because she was so distrustful and reactive at first and with new people and being in a new place she reverted at first to some of the aggressive reactions to something she didn't like or scared her. Now that she is comfortable with her handlers, its completely gone. She's still reactive and sensitive, but she's also a lot more brave than you would think and very easy to train under saddle. They were dropping hay bales in the arena from the loft today and she did one little spook and that was it. She has also gotten way better about having her mouth handled and Andrea came up with the coolest idea for getting her over her bridling issues. Normally, for hard-to-bridle horses, she uses sugar cubes as an incentive to take the bit. But Annie HATES sugar (thinks you are trying to poison her), so she was having none of that. So Andrea tried wrapping fruit roll-ups around the bit. She LOVES it! I would never have thought of that, but it lasts a while and she has to take the bit to get it because it is wrapped around the bit. Her bitting issues are now completely resolved. What flavor does she like best? I asked Andrea. She said, any flavor is fine, but she likes the kind with the tongue tattoos.

Andrea really likes this mare and thinks she has natural ability for dressage. She describes her as very supple and she goes naturally on the bit with just a slight close of the fingers.

Training Update (1/7/09):
Annie is doing well also, although she had a little setback last week. She tripped at the trot and then spooked herself which got her rider unbalanced, which started her bucking, and Andrea's assistant fell off. She's just fine, Annie was pretty upset about it though and they had to go back to working on the lunge line for a few days to settle her down and then they were able to go back to where they were. Because of that setback, she's a little behind Willow in her training and not quite ready to canter under saddle, but getting there.

Training Update (1/12/09):
Annie is doing fabulous! She has fully recovered from her panic after she bucked her rider off, and I got to witness her second canter under saddle. She is so beautiful under saddle - she has very beautiful movement, a lovely canter. She has this incredible neck...its very flexible (they call her the gumby horse), and she does have this neat trick of turning around and nipping your knee when you put the leg on and she's feeling sassy.

Annie's such a funny horse - and so incredibly sensitive. She will still occasionally revert to mildly aggressive behaviors - mainly just ear pinning and nipping - when she feels threatened. She is simply incredibly insecure still, but as I said she has latched onto Andrea's assistant who has done most of the work with her, and she LOVES her. She also is a horse who thrives on praise...she soaks up every "good girl" like a sponge. When she was testing out her canter under saddle, she was having trouble taking the canter and wanting to trot faster. It ended up being a group effort to get her to canter, and then once she had it we were all gushing over her and she looks so incredibly pleased with herself when she was done...it was so cute!

The video quality is dark, but it will give you some idea of how nicely Annie is going under saddle now:

Click for videos:
Trotting
Canter

Update (2/1/09):
Annie has completed 75 days of training, and has returned to Monroe. Interested adopters are encouraged to fill out an adoption application.

Update (8/24/09):
Annie did just fabulous at the show! She surprised us all by being just cool as a cucumber with all the activity in the arena! I was really proud of her, our little wild child has grown up! Of course, she had to remind us just how sensitive our little drama queen can be by taking almost an hour to get in the trailer, bringing to mind fond memories of the mare that once threw herself on the ground to avoid getting in the trailer on the day of the seizure. Thankfully, she wasn't THAT bad, but she does like to intimidate you into not making her get into the trailer by showing you her pretty chestnut belly. Sarah, our volunteer that has been working with her and rode her at the show, did a great job with her. She handles her antics wonderfully and just laughs at her dramatics.

Annie also did great on the trails course! The goats weren't a problem, but she was VERY offended by the waterfall. Annie is going to need a little more practice on trotting in hand. She wasn't quite into it otherwise I think she would have cleaned up in Halter and Showmanship as she is SO beautiful!

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

Visit the Horsebytes blog to read about Annie: Annie Get Your Gun
Home for Wayward Mares (regarding Annie's first ride!)

Click here to check on Annie's progress on the SAFE Message Board.

If you are interested in sponsoring Annie, 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.