We met Tiva in early 2022. She was originally living as a feral horse out on the Yakama Reservation, and had been picked up at auction with a filly on her side. She’d found herself under the care of a woman who had initially planned to gentle her, but found Tiva to be much more of a challenge than she’d originally anticipated, so she reached out to us.
Tiva was very scared of people at first. She’d stand as far away from you as possible and just snort. We gave her a solid three months of not asking anything of her – we would just clean her paddock and feed and water her, but otherwise we’d leave her alone, and slowly she started to let down a bit and grow more comfortable with the idea of simply existing around people.
When we did start to work with her, she was very sensitive, and also could get a little aggressive when she got confused. She had a severe changing eyes issue, where she didn’t want to flip the eye she was seeing you out of. You figure that she’d spent at least ten years as a wild animal, that’s a lot of self preservation to unlearn.
After one long session in the roundpen, we got the halter on her. For all her sensitivity, Tiva was also an incredibly fast learner, and each day she picked up close to where we’d left her, and was making great progress as far as gentling went. Terry had been the one to spend the most time with her, but Tiva’d reached the point where she was able to be caught and handled by more people, her trust in humans was generalizing.
The vets aged her around 12, and because of her age and the fact that she had been wild before, our expectations for Tiva were really just to get her as gentle as possible. We did all the groundwork with her that we would do with a horse we were planning to ride, but we kept our expectations reasonable.
But Tiva kept checking box after box, and so in late 2023 we saddled Tiva for the first time. And because she was only getting softer and more understanding, we decided to ride her.
For her dragon-esque beginnings, Tiva quickly became one of the more gentle riding horses, even for how green she was. In the roundpen, in the arena, out on trails, off property – Tiva saw it all.
When not riding, Tiva also endured many, many shenanigans on the ground — all in the name of making her more gentle, of course. She was one of the horses anyone could walk around safely, or learn how to groom on, or pose for a photo with. It was hard to believe she was ever terrified of people.
In 2026, Robyn came looking for a riding horse, and fell in love with Tiva. Robyn was the perfect fit for Tiva — a confident rider who could help support her growth under saddle, and who would love her on the ground. In her new life with Robyn, Tiva hauls out for frequent trail rides in the shadow of beautiful Mt Rainer. She rides out with friends, but Tiva has become so confident that she can also ride out alone. When not adventuring around, Tiva enjoys ample pasture and tons of love and affection from Robyn and her partner, John. Tiva’s story really encompasses what SAFE is about — the total transformation and empowerment of the horse.
