Brandy, Baby, and Silvida were purchased by a community group in Elma WA. SAFE stepped in to help find them permanent homes. Baby was the 6 month old filly of pony mare, Brandy. All three horses were adopted in 2006, although Baby (renamed Sierra) would be returned to SAFE 10 years later. Baby’s adopters had promised they’d start her under saddle, but the mare that was untrained. Baby got her formal education at SAFE, and afterwards, we stopped offering young horses for adoption until we had prepared them through our horsemanship program.

In 2006, SAFE made its first and last foray into Thoroughbred racehorse rescue from Emerald Downs. At The Ready (Beamer) and Desert Bloom (Bloomer) were rescued straight off the track as 5 year old geldings, and quickly adopted together to a woman in Oregon. We learned some important lessons from Beamer and Boomer: always adopt horses under contract and establish clear expectations with every adopter that SAFE will be checking in our horses once a year. We also decided that we would no longer rescue horses straight off the track. We would still take in many off-the-track Thoroughbreds, but we chose to focus on those who had run into trouble in their post-track lives, of which there were many.

Jaime & I went to the Yakima feedlot in late 2005 to evaluate a large group of new horses. There was a chestnut gelding at the lot that day with a hugely enlarged ankle — clearly unsound — who was not on our list to save. I will never forget the way this horse politely but persistently followed us around the lot while we worked with the other horses. Each time we went outside the area to ride and photograph another horse, “Red” would stand outside the gate and wait for us to come back. It was as if he knew exactly what was happening and had figured out his best chance to be saved was to convince us to help him… <Click here to read on>

Vivian came to SAFE as one of the last horses rescued from the Zillah feedlot; shy, scared, and relatively untouched. She was also pregnant. Benedetto was born healthy and strong in early August. He was a gorgeous bay colt with a big star, full of life, energy, and curiosity. Benny would be adopted not long after being weaned, but he would be returned to SAFE about a year later. Benny’s forever home came along about a year and a half later, and we are honored to have kept a fond eye on this handsome horse for the rest of his life.