Safiyyah's Page

This all started when I applied to adopt one of the Arabians that had been rescued by Rescue 100. I was thrilled when I was approved and I could not wait to get to Keno Hills and see the horses. (I had been following their journey to health closely). I had desperately wanted to volunteer but was too far away to do so, but I knew that I wanted to be a part of the rescue efferts in some way. That way for me was to offer a loving forever home to one of the horses in need. On Saturday May 17, 2008 my husband and I drove to Sherwood Park, where we met Susan and the "herd". It was heartbreaking to hear about the condition of the horses when they arrived, but heartwarming to hear how quickly they responded to all of the love that they were being shown. As we walked thru the horses looking to see who was still availble, we fed cookies and gave rubs to the ones that came forward. There was one small bay mare that was watching us closely as she ate hay from the feeder. As the other horses moved on she too came forward and stretched out her nose to investigate...not close enough to be touched but close enough to take a treat and blow her breath into my face. As if to share her soul and spirit with me. I had tears in my eyes and I knew I wanted to be a part of this mare's life. We inquired into #22 white and hoped she had not been chosen. She was beautiful even though she still had some of her winter coat and she still needed some weight, she had dark soulful eyes and I knew that I loved her already. A few days later, we received a phone call saying that we were approved to be #22 white's forever home, but that she would need to stay a little longer to gain a little more weight. This was fine with us as we just wanted her to be healthy for the trip to her forever home.

On July 21, 2008 Safiyyah was ready to go to her new home. I could not sleep the night before anticipating going to get her and a little nervous about how she would travel. (The trip home would be about 4 1/2 hours). We arrived about noon and she was already in the holding area waiting to be loaded. As I filled out the paperwork Armin backed up the trailer and she was calmly loaded into the trailer. She apparently stepped right up with no qualms. As she waited to get going she whinned once and took a last look around and then started munching on her hay as if she was already starting her new life. The trip home was uneventful and she traveled like a pro, watching the scenery go by and munching on her hay. When we stopped to check on her she was still quiet and just taking everything in. When we got home we backed the trailer up to her pasture gate and opened the door and she quietly stepped down and into her new home. She walked around, had a drink of water, met my other two horses across the fence, and then put her head down to eat some grass.

This has been a big month....from the beginning we have just patiently worked on building trust and a bond. Within the first day Safiyyah, as we named her with the help of Hannah, realized that I was not only the treat & food lady but someone that loved her and wanted to take care of her. She whinnies to me in the mornings as I come outside to feed. She quickly comes to the gate to get a rub and nuzzles me to hurry with the food. Within a few days I was able to rub her everywhere and brush her coat, mane and tail. She decided that she liked being brushed...I was even able to rub some fly spray on her to keep the nasty flies away. Safiyyah also discovered that she really likes carrots and this has been a big help in her training, as she now just follows me around whenever I am in her pasture. Mainly I just wanted her to to see that we were good people that would love her. After only four weeks I was able to slip a halter on her at feeding time and presently we are working on leading. Next will be picking up our feet so that they can be trimmed again. Safiyyah also gained the company of my other two horses, Cee My Desire (Cee) and AJoyful Noise JK (Joy). We turned them out together one at a time but I should not have worried b/c they accepted her without much ado. Now they graze peacfully by each others side. Safiyyah has continued to get heathier and gain weight. Her coat is starting to shine and her eyes are bright. I would like to think that she is happy here.
Monday July 28, 2008: This evening Safi and I walked all over the property with her leading and stopping like she has always been doing it. I am so proud of her progress. She is such a smart girl and learns very quickly. She seems to really want to please and be right with me when I am outside in the pasture.
Tuesday July 29, 2008: Woo Hoo we mastered being sprayed with fly spray this evening AND picking up our front feet several times and letting them be held for a few seconds! Safi even stood for the hoof oil to be applied to her feet with no issues. She continues to amaze me with her willing attitude to learn new things.

Saturday August 9, 2008: Well we are going to work on picking up the back feet this weekend. (I will post an update on how that goes) Safi has come to believe that the fly spray is a good thing and stands quietly even without a halter on to be sprayed. She has put on even more weight and is looking really good. The vitamin supplement is really making her coat start to shine. I bathed my gelding this afternoon and I breifly thought I might try to work with Safi on being sprayed on the lower front legs with some water...then decided maybe I should just try squeezing water on her legs first with a sponge. So that might be on the agenda for tomorrow also. We will see, I do not want to push too much on her at once, but so far she has accepted everything that we have worked on without any resistance. I am really having a great time working with Safi and I am thrilled with what we have accomplished so far.

Sunday August 10, 2008: Safi has been completely okay with us brushing and touching her legs, including the hind ones. So we thought it was time to move forward with working on picking up her back legs. (Having already accomplished picking up the front feet). Well....she did not think that was such a great idea. On our first attemp to pick up a hind foot...she kicked out. Not aggressively, but more of a warning. So we just worked on her standing still while we ran our hands slowly down her legs and squeezing slightly to get her used to the feel of what would come before we asked her to pick up her foot, at the same time using the voice command "pick up" so she will associate that with picking up her feet. That went well, so we ended on a good note for the day.

Monday August 11, 2008: Well tonight we had very good results with picking up our back feet. After a little resistance on the weekend to having her back feet picked up...this is her safe zone, so she was not too sure if she wanted to relinguish that just yet, we had much better results tonight. She allowed us to pick the left hind foot up three times before we decided that was enough for tonight. She was quite good about the whole thing and just a little unsure why we wanted to pick up her feet, but we spoke to her and explained what we wanted and she seemed to realx and relented to our requests. More to come....

Thursday August 14, 2008: Well this has been a good week. We have been successful with the feet! We can now pick up both back feet for short periods of time. Safi does not try to kick but she has not completely relaxed her hind legs yet and keeps her feet tucked up under her belly when we pick them up...but it is progress. We will continue to encourgae her to relax and hopefully she will soon realize that it is no big deal, just like picking up the front feet. She stands fairly quietly thru this process and sometimes turns her head around to see what I am doing. (She is such a doll baby). She works her mouth and flicks her ears back and forth as I talk to her. I do not think she is too worried, just still a little unsure about what this is all about. She has not shown any fear with any of the ground training, just an intense curiosity about everything. I would like to try to work with tieing her this coming weekend and maybe start getting her used things like the clippers, fly masks and blankets. We will see how it goes...

Saturday August 23,2008: We are continuing to work with Safi's back feet but have also introduced some other things. I persuaded Safi that a fly mask would be a great summer accessory....and after a few tries and looking to make sure her pasture mates also wore a "batman" mask she has decided that it is not such a bad thing. "It keeps the flies off of my face and that is nice." After letting Safi have a good sniff, to make sure that this was not some horse eating device, I rubbed the clippers along Safi's neck and face and poll and she just stood and acted bored. The same reaction was given to the small & large towls that I rubbed along her neck and face and then hung over her face, neck and back. So tomorrow I will try out a saddle pad and maybe a light weight horse blanket. All of this was accomplished with Safi tied loosely to the fence, so that I could quickly untie her if necessary. (I also had her buddy tied close by for comfort - he was being bribed to stand tied for awhile with some nice hay) After backing up once and hitting the end of the lead rope while it was tied, Safi relaxed and stepped up and stood calmly with one foot cocked and ears relaxed while I groomed her and played with her. She really enjoys the attention. She stood close to the fence again and watched intently as I bathed my mare this time, so I am going to be brave and try out the water and sponge on her legs tomorrow. I would really like to give her coat a nice scrub, but it remains to be seen if that will be allowed. (hehe) That is all for now.

Hello again, it has been awhile since I posted Safi's latest activities. In September we continued to work with Safiyyah's feet on getting her to relax and let us hold them and clean them. Then early in the month Safiyyah had her feet trimmed and filed by my farrier. She was so good and Rod said she was very smart. She did move around a little, but Rod was patient with her and soothed her with his voice and she let him pick up her feet one by one and trim them and file them. We let her take a little break after each foot and she received much praise and treats and it was a good learning process. We also completed the barn and worked on getting Safi used to coming up and eating in her stall and staying for longer periods every evening until she was staying in all night. We think she really likes this! We have nice large 12 x 12 stalls with lots of comfy shavings and really nice timothy hay for then to eat after their cruchies. It has been very cool for the past few evenings and she has met me at the gate with my other two horses in the evening eager to put her head thru the halter and come up to the barn for dinner. It was very windy the night before last and after I brought every one up for dinner and fed them, there were three huge horse sighs as they dug into their dinner and hay, content to be in for the night and out of the wind. Safi leads very well back and forth to the barn, even in the dark and does not spook at all. I am so proud of her! This next week I am going to work with getting her used to wearing a blanket.

Not much to post this month. Safi is still doing really good. She had her feet trimmed again and did very well. We are still working with her on her back feet as she is still a little unsure about them being handled too much. She continues to enjoy coming in at night and I am working on getting her comfortable with a blanket so that when we have nasty winter weather she will be comfortable when outside. She allows me to hold her head now and likes to give hugs. She really seems to enjoy the attention that is lavished on her. We have taken to calling her a P.I.T. (princess in training). She seems to really be settling in and loves to engage her "brother" Cee in a good game of chase. She runs up to him and rears up and paws her front feet at him until he shakes his head at her and then the game is on and she's off like a bolt of lightening with Cee chasing behind her. I have also been working on tying her in her stall to be groomed. She prefers the really soft brushes and flattens her ears at me if I attempt to use the curry brush on her to get rid of any mud. (too funny) She makes me laugh as she can be really cheeky now.

Wow, it has been awhile since I posted anything about Safiyyah! I have really hated this winter but the horses seem to have done just fine. They all come in at night to a warm comfy stall and they seem to like having a break from the cold air, snow and wind. Safi seems to have settled right into a routine and is at the gate in the evening with my other two waiting to come in. She has learned how to walk thru a gate and back up so that I can close and open it while leading her and she has learned to stand tied in her stall while I brush her. We have also still been working on picking up our feet to be cleaned and we are getting more comfortable with our back feet being handled. We had a bit of a time with our back feet the last time Rod was here to trim them. We seemed to have a block that day about our back feet being picked up but did beautifully with the front ones. We now pick up our front feet with the command "foot" sometimes even before being asked, we are catching on with the back ones. Everyone was wormed again and Safi was tested to make sure the wormers have been doing their job....and they have! Yea, no more worms! We have also been on a probiotic supplement to help keep our insides healthy. This Friday will be a big day as the vet is coming to float teeth....so I will post on that episode later. Then shots again in May. Safi is such a cutie pie and really talks up a storm when she sees me and demands the treats as much as the other two spoiled ponies! She is also such a little stinker...she has been pulling the water heater out of the water trough to play with it so I have purchased a jolly ball for her to carry around and play with....hopefully this helps her leave the electrcial stuff alone!