Happy saddle day, Sapphire!

Sapphire wore a saddle for the first time today as a SAFE horse, and she was a champ! Terry was even able to lay across her back and have a volunteer lead her around the arena for a few steps. Great work, Sapphy!!

The Alpaca Gauntlet

Kat, Skittles, and Lola went out for a walk today to see the alpacas, who live right down the street from Safe Harbor Stables. We’re located pretty close to the Tolt Pipeline trail, but to get to the trail, you have pass by the alpaca gauntlet. Some of the horses find...

Groundwork for the win!

When Oscar was returned to SAFE in December, it took nearly two hours to load him into the trailer. As Terry remarked not long after meeting him for the first time, getting the respect of this feisty little gelding would be her first priority. “He is very sweet on the...

April Training Notes: Sapphire

We had a pretty big setback with Sapphire after Sasha’s passing. We’ve been doing ground work with her to gain her trust, and she regressed quite a bit and started showing some aggressive behavior again. But thankfully, by the end of the month, she was getting back to...

April Training Notes: Atticus

Atticus has been very spunky and playful in turnout, now that he’s settled back in at Safe Harbor. He continues to have food aggression issues and does not want anyone near his food. Our volunteers are being trained to ask him to back him up before they enter his...

April Training Notes: Finn

We’ve had some difficulties keeping Finn’s shoes on recently. His feet seem to be pretty soft and his shoes have just fallen off a few times. But they seem to be holding better now, and hopefully with better nutrition and hoof care, his feet will improve. We treated...

April Training Notes: Oscar

Oscar has been doing much better under saddle, and we’ve seen good improvement in his willingness to move forward. Also the Dynamite Vit has helped his lethargic behavior and he is not drifting off while we are working with him anymore. He still has issue with...

April Training Update: Kai

I’ve had some wonderful rides on Kai this month where he was feeling stronger and showed some good self carriage. I started working on sitting trot and found he is not ready for this on his weak back muscles. I will continue to slowly introduce more of this over the...

April Training Notes: Lola

Lola has been making good progress this month, including some good independent trotting without the help of a ground person. I found that she loves to trot with Kat in the arena so I’ve been riding her during Kat’s rides so she gets some “help” when she starts getting...