Joel Conner Clinic Report: Fancy
Casey had this to say about Fancy’s performance in both the Buck Brannaman clinic in October and the November Joel Conner clinic: Fancy has had a busy and productive couple of months. In October, we rode with Buck Brannaman in Spanaway, which was a great experience.…
Butterscotch: Joel Conner Clinic Update
Lori helped Butterscotch get introduced to horsemanship in our recent Horsemanship clinic. Here is what she had to say about working with this smart senior mare: Butter came to SAFE about a month ago. She’s a sweet girl but didn’t understand much about horsemanship. I…
In Praise of the Older Horse
There’s something especially sad about an elderly horse in need of a home. If this were a perfect world, every horse would grow old and eventually pass on in a comfortable, safe place, surrounded by friends and familiar faces. But this world is far from perfect, and…
Butter’s New Look
Bathing Butter has been something that we’ve wanted to tackle due to her perpetually grimy, shaggy haircoat. The hope was that a bath with a medicated shampoo would help her be less itchy. None of the oral supplements and antihistamines that she’s been on have seemed…
Amelia’s Trip to the Hospital
Sweet Amelia has battled GI issues since before she arrived at SAFE. But so far, we had only seen her have one colic episode, and it was a minor one. But just before Halloween we found her down in her turnout, not wanting to get up. She hadn’t finished her most recent…
Understanding PPID (Equine Cushing’s Disease)
We’ve taken in several “shaggy” senior horses lately. Honeycutt, Butter, and Mara all came to us looking suspicious for pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), and all of them tested positive. Last year, our cute pony, Sage, also got the diagnosis. PPID, also…
Luna Finishing Training
Here are some highlights from Luna’s training with Donohue Horsemanship in Banks, Oregon at the end of 2019. SAFE is thankful for all their hard work in helping us offer such well trained horses to the public. What a great foundation this young mare has received!…
Jewel 2019 Site Visit Photos
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…
