SAFE is Now Accredited by GFAS
We have some exciting news to share! SAFE is now an Accredited member of the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries! There are just 209 GFAS organizations worldwide, and SAFE is one of them. Obtaining this status has been a goal of ours for years. SAFE achieved…
Press Release: Save a Forgotten Equine (SAFE) in Redmond, Washington is Now Accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries
Save a Forgotten Equine (SAFE) in Redmond, Washington is Now Accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries January 24, 2022 (Redmond, WA) — The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), the only globally recognized organization providing standards…
Montana’s Progress
We have made some progress with gentling Montana to the halter. He is still very shy about the first touch and had learned from his previous life that he can keep his head just out of reach from the halter by holding it far to the other side. He will allow us to walk…
Mac In Search of a Perfect Home
Terry had this to say our big Mac: “I think a lot about what Mac’s perfect home would be. It is hard to find because the person handling has to have good horse sense. They need to understand good timing for pressure and release. Too much pressure without a timely…
Lacey Loves Freya
Lacey has taken a real liking to her fence line buddy, Freya. It was very cute when we first turned Freya out with the mare herd next to Lacey, the two of them spent a ton of time talking to each other through the fence. Then for days Freya would be found next to…
New Horses: Cramer and Otto
Cramer and Otto arrived last month, like many horses at SAFE, in rough shape. They were part of a 3 horse seizue by Snohomish Animal Control. Our herd count was pretty high at the time, so our friends at SAIN (Skagit Animals in Need) took the third horse. Cramer is a…
George Wants Out
SAFE staff have the always eventful task of walking George during his stall rest. While he is often quiet in his stall, outside of his stall can get more challenging. It is hard to help such a young, playful boy keep all his feet on the ground and not jumping around…
Playful Frosting
Frosting’s foster mom, Casey, wrote an update on Frosting and here’s what she had to say about her: “Frosting is a great companion on the farm! Right now, we’re just giving her time to grow up and learn the basics. She is pretty fearless and has no trouble with…
Saddling Esme
Esme did well at our colt starting workshop in November. She was able to be saddled every day and became more and more comfortable with carrying the saddle. As with Jacob and Edward, we are going to spend the winter months getting her more comfortable and better…
Cam, My Man
A Horse of Many Names … Cameron, Cam, Cam My Man … these are all the names by which he is lovingly referred. As you may recall from an earlier update, Cameron has been participating in the SAFE Handwalking Program since last October. The program was developed to…
Edward Making Strides
Edward is a silly monkey! He is both a joy and a troublemaker all wrapped up in a handsome package. We’re approaching 60 days of nebulizing treatments for Edward. He manages these exceptionally well, given how green and untrained he was just a few months ago.…
Domino Likes His Buddies
What a sweet boy Domino is! He has been a gentleman for everything we have asked of him at SAFE. His only troubled spot is that he is very herd bound to his paddock friends, and calls continuously to them until they return to be with him in the paddock. Even if he is…
Darling Daisy
Daisy has been doing well with the transition into winter and continues on her daily 10 pounds of senior feed and free choice alfalfa. Her weight is excellent and she seems to enjoy the other horses near her pen. As we move into spring it will be nice to get her out…
Darla on the Mend
Poor, sweet Darla has been suffering from a bad hoof abscess over the holidays at SAFE. Despite starting treatment (soaking and Epson salt poultices), her pain level became more severe. We called our veterinarian, Dr. Renner, for a visit. X‑rays showed a significant…
Brandy + Bandit = Brandit for Short
We’ve spent quite some time getting to know these two mares since their arrival at SAFE in October, 2021. We’ve observed that both have a “been there, done that” wisdom about them. They seem like two old ladies chuckling to themselves about days gone by and all the…
Goodbye Arigato
Some of these are just harder to talk about than others. I’m so sorry to let you all know we had to let Arigato go. She was diagnosed with severe degeneration of her right hind coffin joint and navicular bone resulting in ongoing lameness issues. She was euthanized…
Cold Weather is Coming!
Our Alumni’s get the best treatment! With the cold temperatures going into winter, we’ve had some cute photos sent to us with horses all snug in their mid weight blankets. In their previous lives, many of these horses had to fend for themselves during harsh weather…
Sundae left on Sunday
But not necessarily forever. Sundae headed to a foster home where she will providing comfort to another horse and loving family. The family had to make the hard decision to euthanize their companion pony and wanted to have another four legged friend to help their…
Barb at the Joel Conner Clinic
Candi, a volunteer rider, recently worked with Barb in the Groundwork Clinic in November. Here is what she had to say about her. “Barb is not a Barbie Doll! Barb might be small, but she is smart and strong. She may be a ranch horse in the making with her quick moves.…
Echo at the Joel Conner Clinic
One of our volunteer riders, Candi, recently rode Echo on the last day of the Joel Connor Clinic. Here is what she said about Echo. “One look into Echo’s eyes and you see a sweet mare who is finding her groove once again. In the last month she has been introduced into…
Sad News
Last Saturday, Aubrey slipped on a wet stall mat at her foster home. When she got back up, she was not putting weight on her right hind leg. Dr. Fleck examined her and found that she was very sensitive in her pelvic area. He was fairly certain that she has sustained a…
Three New Horses
Brandy, Bandit and Topper all arrived at the beginning of October. Sadly, their owner had terminal cancer and was in hospice care. One of their last wishes was to ensure that her horses were safe and taken care of. Their friends helped them locate SAFE, we were able…
Pepper at the Joel Conner Clinic
Pepper was quite busy during Joel’s last visit to SAFE, for not only was she my companion in the groundwork portion of the clinic, but she was also present in the colt start. Because she’d worked so hard in the days prior to our groundwork sessions, she was a little…
Questions from Kindergartners
Recently a teacher from a near by elementary school reached out because she had a few students who wanted to learn more about horses. Terry was happy to help educate our little budding horse lovers. Check out their questions and Terry’s answers and see if you also can…
Alumni Update: Remy
Here are some great photos of Remy sent to us by his adopter, Jessica. Remy loves to play with other horses and teach them about toys. Here he is with his best friend, Soldier.
Jill at the Joel Conner Clinic
One of our volunteers, Sue Coulter, worked with Jill in the clinic a few weekends ago. This is what she had to say: “I was fortunate to work with Jill during two days of the groundwork portion of the Joel Conner Clinic, November 2021. Jill is a young mare, very soft,…
Daisy Gets a Massage
Recently we had someone donate a massage to Daisy and this is what she had to say: “At first, Daisy felt like she was tolerating me for a bit, but then something shifted and she relaxed into it. Par for course being I was totally new to her and she was eating lunch…
Taking A Walk On The (not so wild) Side
When many imagine an active horse, they envision great feats of athleticism: horses cavorting around courses and launching themselves over jumps taller than children, horses dancing around arenas with grace and finesse, horses racing around barrels with speeds…
SAFE Holiday Cards are now available!
Front of cardThis festive holiday card set featuresSAFE horse Bowiein the snow. Bowie was rescuedin 2018 and lived at SAFEfor eight months before beingadopted into his forever home in 2019.Each card set is $28, packed in a clear box (great for gifting) and includes…
Alumni Update: Pyrrah and Farley
Check out the photos sent to us by Pyrrah and Farley (now Zelda) adopters. Those are some fancy braids!
Lovable Freya
Freya is a sweet and lovable Morgan type mare, and for a gal in her 30’s, she is very healthy! When our vet got a first look at her teeth they were impressed! That means she still gets most of her nutrients from the hay we feed her and doesn’t need to live off of…
Coco is Weaned
Coco blew out the candles on her 6 month cake at the end of last month, ushering in a new era of her young adulthood. Coco: the baby, is still visible — those high-pitched whinnies and acrobatic feats that come especially easy to young things remain front and center…
Montana Progress Report
We have started the gentling process with Montana. He is friendly but gets very worried about hands coming near the top of his neck where we need to tie off the halter. He has obviously had interactions with people in his past that did not go well. He is very stuck in…
Sweet Arigato
What great changes we have seen in this young mare over the last weeks. She is easily haltered now and able to safely walk out of her paddock and into the arena to work. Changing eyes remains a challenge for her so it is very important we keep working to help her free…
Veronica’s Training Continues
Our major goal for Veronica is to help her to be responsive instead of reactive. Over the next weeks we will work to get her feeling 100% confident with the saddle before anyone needs to ride her. She is working on relaxing into a one rein stop from the ground and…
New Adventures for Barb
An update on Barb’s training progress from Kaya: Barb has been gaining new experiences on the ground and in the saddle. We took a hand walk out on the trails and have been ground working on different parts of the property. While Barb initially has many opinions and…
Finding Peace Under Saddle for Nyx
As expected, we’ve discovered some trouble in Nyx as we’ve started transitioning him back into a riding horse. It appears he may have had some “liberty” type training in his past that has left him with some resentment toward humans. This is evident in working with him…
Edward, Esme, and Jacob Updates
We are moving at a fairly good pace with Edward despite his continued breathing issues. He is still very wary about people approaching him to be caught but each time he is quickly haltered and doesn’t have the opportunity to get away, he finds the event less and less…
Good Girl Darla
Darla is a pleasure to get to know and very rewarding to work with so far. She has a huge heart and a ton of try. She was very shy and afraid coming into SAFE. Now after just a few weeks, she is more comfortable with haltering and has been walking nicely into the…
Riding Rae
Rae is coming up on her 3‑year-old birthday next week, November 1. How fast does time fly! She is just transitioning from being ridden by Joel to Terry as we come into the winter months. Over the past year, she has been worked each month in which Joel visited and…
George on the DL
George is a young and rambunctious gelding. From time to time, he thinks he should show off his smooth moves. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, his less-than-stellar aerobatic performance ended with him slipping and totally biffing it into the dirt. He got up shook it…
Kayla is Adopted!
Kayla wasn’t at SAFE long before she had interested adopters coming to meet her. After only a few months in our training program, we were looking for a skilled rider who could support her and continue a lifelong journey. Kayla came to SAFE as a trade with Hooved…
Watching Miss Daisy
Daisy’s continued elevated heart rate has us all pretty concerned. All her other vitals remain normal and she is acting happy and content. We’ve been monitoring how much water she drinks since this is something her previous owner said was always high. We will continue…
Doolin is Adopted!
We are so happy to announce Doolin, now named Finn, has been adopted by Shannon! After arriving to his new home Shannon texted “I think we are in love!!” That is what we love to hear! Once turned out in his new home, he strutted and zoomed around his coral all…
Alumni Update: Sampson
Check out these photos of Sampson! He’s looking good!
Scooter’s Story
Scooter came to SAFE early in 2012 as part of a group of Arabian horses seized by Animal Control after terrible neglect. Scooter was one of two stallions in the group (the other being Oscar) and the information SAFE was given about these two in particular was…
Coco is Six Months Old!
Can you believe Coco is already 6 months old? It seems like it was just yesterday when we found out our little 25 year old mare, Sundae, wasn’t just a little round, she was pregnant! That little squirt, Coco has been an independent lady from day one, kicking up her…
Alumni Update: Tabitha (Willa)
We recently received an update from Tabitha’s (now known as Willa) adopter, who tells us that Willa is doing great! She recently lost her old companion, and in the interim while her adopter looks for a new friend for her, has been handling being an only horse very…
Minnie: Smart AND cute
Minnie is growing up to be a fantastic, smart little pony! Stunning, too! Minnie and SAFE volunteer, Lexee, participated in the Groundwork session of the most recent Joel Conner clinic and Minnie was a rock star! She was soft and easy going in a large class of other…
Sienna, the Conundrum
Sienna is one of the safest horses we have for groundwork, but right now, she’s one of the most dangerous to ride. In groundwork, she is soft and willing, and pretty enjoyable to work with. But when being ridden—especially if she gets tight or scared—she can start…
