Sunday-Rose has settled in beautifully and is eating well.
She now has a bright future ahead thanks to all of your support.
March Report – On the Move & Training Babies Fundraisers
Sunday afternoon – after a big weekend, taking a breather in the dairy bales.
Life continued at its hectic pace through March for all of us at Save a Horse Australia. We took a deep breath and signed a lease on a beautiful 73-acre property at the base of the Toowoomba range, at Withcott.
In the past the property, Alumor, has been used as a thoroughbred spelling property, and although there’s a lot of work to be done, the bones are there, with the property divided into paddocks, each with its own water.
This past weekend we’ve had our massive working bee – and wow, what a difference a few days can make. We’ve cleared paddocks, repaired fencing, painted the house and mowed – and did I mention mowed???
Ella Beatty on the zero turn.
Things will work a bit differently at this sanctuary – instead of having a resident caretaker, the house will be a Save a Horse Australia house for staff, interns and volunteers.
With its facilities of several round-yards, an open barn with a small arena area, a large flat paddock perfect for working horses, and access to the National Trail at our back door we are very excited to move forward into a system where we can rescue, rehabilitate and re-home easily from one spot.
Withcott has some perfect areas for our equine therapeutic programs, including a lovely old open dairy bales. The horses that will be used for the programs – including our Equine Facilitated Learning, Mates 4 Mates, and other programs in the pipleline – will be those that for one reason or another can’t be re-homed due to age or medical needs, and that are suitable for interaction with children and adults. It will give SAHA’s permanent residents a wonderful chance to engage more with people – humans and horses healing together is a wonderful thing, as any horse people know.
Once we’ve moved – and it’s a pretty massive move to get our 40 Tarampa residents up here and settled – then we will open our doors to new rescues, but just while we regroup we will be sticking with our current 104 horses!
On that note – our move is EXPENSIVE!! At the moment we have double rent (triple if your count Buccan); all the costs of setting up the property and the house, and the move to come. We are still $4,300 short of the $13,000 we had budgeted for the move and to be honest we are a bit desperate – if there is any way any of you could contribute to our moving fundraiser we will be forever grateful. To donate, click here.
In other news, because of all the heavy rain, which was eerily reminiscent of the floods last year but thank goodness in the end not as bad, we’ve been taking some horses off Buccan. Three of the lucky ducks that have gone to a 15-acre paddock full of grass at a Somerset property are Surprise, Sunny and Dallas, with Chico and Zorro to follow on Tuesday. Little Milo and Charming are off to Michelle’s for a few weeks until Withcott has safe paddocks where they can pick but not over-eat; Nelly has gone to a wonderful foster home and we are so thrilled for him; Zeus has been adopted to Anne-Marie, to be a companion horse, to her mare Lilly who needed a friend. It’s a beautiful property and a lovely home for our dear boy.
Nelly in his new foster home, looking very contented at the sight of all that grass.
Matisse, our lovely four-rising-five-year-old Percheron-cross, who has recently come back into care, is coming down to me at Mullumbimby to join the little herd of Tyra, Chantilly and Roulette and start her journey towards being a ridden horse.
Which brings me to the horses and their training.
This is such an essential part of rehabilitation – it can’t be over-stated how important it is that when we adopt a horse, even if it’s a companion horse, that it is safe in all aspects – including tying up happily, standing for the farrier and floating well, and all of this, when you are dealing with young horses or horses who have had abuse, takes time.
Down at Mullum the fantastic news is that our lovely trainer, Callum Snell (The Barefoot Brother) has fallen in love with dear Dawson, and now that Dawson has learned some manners, he is at Cal’s in a great new home where he will have loads of stimulation.
Chantilly and Roulette are coming along in leaps and bounds – Chantilly has gone from quite strong resistance to any form of training, to putting up a metaphoric hand, and shouting out, choose me, choose me – what are we going to do today???? It’s so lovely to see. She’s now being ridden, and as long as everything goes well, I believe she’ll be ready for adoption in a few months.
Even though training in this way takes longer, because Cal is doing it at the property where the horses are living it is a wonderful way to build a long-term foundation that will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives! Each horse in full-time training costs $100 per week, and will be in training for a minimum of six weeks, depending on their age, stage and personality.
For those of you who will see the benefit of this slow and steady method and might consider it worthwhile to donate for our ongoing training costs, you can Donate Here.
And the moving link again is: : https://saveahorse.giveeasy.org/campaigns/were-on-the-move-can-you-help-us-raise-13000/
Thank you to all our wonderful supporters out there, we appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts, and so do the horses! We can’t do all this without you, and as we move towards our new incarnation at Withcott we are very excited to be on the journey with you.
And last, but by no means least – don’t forget it’s only just over a month until we draw our massive cash raffle on Mother’s Day – with three amazing cash prizes. The draw will be live from the Withcott sanctuary, and you have to be in it to win it!
First prize is $10,000, 2nd prize $3000, and 3rd prize $1500.
This is the link if you’d like to buy a ticket: Buy Tickets Here
Good luck!
Candida Baker – President
Women & Horses & Equine Facilitated Magic
So yesterday was International Women’s Day, and what better for Save a Horse Australia’s President, Candida Baker, to muse about than the relationship between women and horses? And, more specifically, the extraordinary experience she had last weekend when she joined an amazing group of women on an EFL (Equine Facilitated Learning) course.
I was only five years old when I first noticed that horses made me happy. My best friend, Sally, a couple of years older than me, had a perfect first pony, a grey Welsh Cob called Lucy, as safe, sound and sane as they come, and Sally was kind enough to let me spend hours with them both, grooming Lucy, or walking beside them both while Sally rode, or even riding myself, or best of all, doubling together.
Looking back through the mists of time, there’s something that stands out about those early memories – and that’s the fact that the absolute best times we shared were not necessarily the riding ones. The times spent talking down by the river while Lucy munched contentedly beside us; the times when we would tuck Lucy up in her stable, out of the bad weather, and just hang in there with her, plaiting her mane or simply sometimes just leaning against her, inhaling her warm horsey smell. All three of us just about as content as it’s possible for girls and pony to be.
In an EFL session it was Paint a Pony time…
Fast forward almost sixty years and 12,000 miles away from the country of my birth, and here I am, with a group of like-minded women having just taken part in the Equine Facilitated Learning Level 1 course – in order to become practitioners of this groundwork based course, in which there are three participants – the client, the horse and the facilitator.
After many years of horse rescue and rehabilitation, natural horsemanship and the teaching of my own methods to children, friends, family and volunteer helpers, I’m not new to the world of equine therapeutic modalities, but I decided to do this course for a specific reason – I wanted to have a qualification which will allow me to do something I’m passionate about – to set up horse groundwork sessions for our rescue horses and for those who might benefit from time spent hanging out with horses, in which ‘magic’ is the key ingredient.
And here’s the thing – our move to Withcott is to enable to set up these programs, and so far thanks to all your generous donations we’ve raised $7500 of the $13,000 we’ve budgeted for the move so in order for us to reach our goal, if you would care to donate to our Withcott move at any time in the next six weeks, you can donate by clicking on this link.
EFL Director Elaine Hughes showing Angelo how to move …
It was an intense four days! The clinic was conducted by Elaine Hughes, the guardian of EFL in Australia. Originally from the UK, but now based in Victoria, Elaine has had many decades of horse experience, and has studied with many of the ‘natural’ trainers, but it was a meeting with Frank Levinson, the founder of EFL, that prompted her interest in the program. When she and her family of four and two-legged friends moved to Australia, Elaine partnered with Sally Francis to create AEFL. Elaine teaches the clinic with her two off-siders, Louise, otherwise known as Irish, and her partner Dave.
What I witnessed as we moved through the four days into a deeper understanding of the horse and human bond, culminating in working with ‘real’ clients on the last day is that EFL seems to substantially deepen people’s understanding of their personal issues and feelings, and that some level of fundamental relaxation occurs.
But the careful – almost invisible – guidance of the facilitator also allows children and adults to experience, as Elaine says: “a huge surge in self-esteem and confidence when they realise they can create boundaries and direct a pony or horse to move in a particular way.”
16-year-old Winter learning to move the not-so-small Gypsy Cob, Sweet Cheeks.
And WOW – the women I did the course with, what an extraordinary group of women, and on this year’s International Women’s Day – with the emphasis on progress this year, I would like to take my (horse) hat off to them. There was Sue and Rachel, both from the Northern Territory; Elisha, Talitha, Sonja and Meg and myself – all local; Nancy from Beaudesert; Naomi from the hinterland of the Gold Coast, Cathy Binz, our new Committee member and Program Director, from Brisbane and Magnolia from Kuranda – near Cairns. It was a privilege to watch these women – the majority with already very high horsemanship skills, listening to Elaine so intently, and taking on board the new concepts she presented so that we could go back out into the world with a whole new level of skill. It just goes to show that you never stop learning!
The Mob of very special women doing EFL….
Over the course of the four days we were given real examples of EFL clients – children who had stopped speaking; people with anxiety and depression; children and adults with physical or intellectual (or both) disabilities; people who were simply afraid of horses and wanted to learn not to be – all of these scenarios (and more) were presented to us either in theory or practice with role play, or clients. It was an incredibly fulfilling experience for all of us to take our already existing horsemanship skills and our rapid immersion into EFL and to witness the ways in which we could help both ourselves, the client and the horse develop what I can only describe as an elasticity of brain and body. We learnt quickly to allow the space for the session to evolve into whatever is most fulfilling for the client and the horse.
Women and Horses. Oh yes.
If you’d like to donate to help us set up our Withcott programs – here’s the link: click here
The next step in becoming an EFL practitioner for us all is ten hours of sessions with clients, so watch this space!
For more information on EFL go to: http://www.efl.net.au/
How do you price a life? Help us rescue again in 2018?
Chantilly as a foal, and Chantilly today.
It’s almost three years since Chantilly was surrendered to Save a Horse Australia. Now she’s ready to start her career under saddle – thanks to your support.
As you all know, on Australia Day this year, we rescued our first horse for the year, our beautiful Cobber. A horse who has obviously been looked after for most of his life because he is so calm and quiet, and loves people so much. He wasn’t much of a racehorse, our Cobber – he only won $1800 in prize money, but that probably meant he ended up for sometime in a good home. So how did he end up emaciated? In the dogger pens? Facing his end? What is his story? We will probably never know how such a lovely horse ended up facing a lonely end. He was rescued from the pens by a good samaratin who then realised that bringing an emaciated horse back from the brink takes a lot of work, and surrendered the beautiful boy to us.
So how do Cobber and Chantilly’s stories connect?
Chantilly was surrendered to us after her mother rejected her at birth. She was taken immediately to Gold Coast Equine for tests, and it was discovered her IGg levels were low and she was given two plasma transfusions. She was drinking well and was bright and alert and taken home to the Gold Coast Sanctuary where Jennifer Malloch looked after the little baby girl. Chantilly learned to drink from a bucket very quickly and thrived! Her front legs were a little bent and she had a large hernia, so she was taken to UQ Vet Hospital for surgery. The hernia was corrected and she had strip surgery for Carpal Vargas, which was a minor operation that was completely successful. However, she then had a growth spurt which caused some further issues. So she was turned out to grow and get strong, and most recently to come to me for some training.
But here’s the thing – this March Chantilly has been with us for three years. And even though fundraisers bring us in emergency rescue money what perhaps is not quite obvious is the ongoing costs. In the three years Chantilly has been with SAHA she will have cost us conservatively $12,000 when we take into account her vet bills and surgery to start her off on her life.
Was it worth it? You bet! Look at the lovely girl she is now – I’m lucky enough to have her at a property near me in the Northern Rivers, and we are now working with Callum Snell, who has trained horses for Cavalia, to start Chantilly under saddle. When Chantilly is adopted to her new home, someone will get a beautiful, young, unspoiled pony to take to the next level. We will hope that it will be her forever home, but we know too, that if for some reason she needs to come back into care, she will be a SAHA horse forever. She will give some lucky person as much pleasure as she has given us as we have watched her grow from the early days of her care by the wonderful Jen, to now, as she is beginning to come into her own as a young horse in great condition.
Cobber just before his arrival at SAHA…
And now we have Cobber – he is at the start of what will be at least a year with us, while he puts on weight, and muscle, and recovers from his emaciation. He will need immense care while we gradually reintroduce proper feeds to him. Then there will be his re-training, and months of work to get him strong again, before we can even consider finding him a home. All of this costs money. Especially for a big horse – we estimate, with all feed, farrier and costs such as dental and vaccinations, on $150 per week. Although the initial costs are covered by our fundraisers, very often we fall behind because we have 100 horses in care, and some of them have minimal sponsors to help us carry their ongoing costs.
Some people might say – why rescue an emaciated 18-year-old horse? I would say – this horse deserves every chance, after he has so obviously given his love and effort for so much of his life, to be in a great home. You can see the gratitude in every cuddle he gives, and in his friendly head-butts. He knows he has been rescued, he knows he’s safe, he knows he’s loved.
If we could, we would create a world where safety, love and proper care would be the right for every horse (and needless to say for every person and animal on the planet), but all we horse-lovers can practically do is our bit, and our bit is to rescue when we can – responsibly, and with your help.
One thing we also desperately need for 2018 is regular donations. Every regular donation helps us more than we can say because it’s only through them that we can budget. Setting up even $10 per month is so helpful for us and helps us with our ongoing costs.
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- Cobber will never go hungry again.
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- Our lovely volunteer Perry giving our latest boy, Cobber a cuddle.
As you know for the past year SAHA has been committed to downsizing and to containing our costs, and we have done a great job, BUT we all desperately want to rescue again regularly. It’s where our hearts are – it’s why we all got involved in rescuing horses, both personally and through SAHA. I know that for all of us there have been heart-breaking moments during this last year where we haven’t been able to open our doors to a horse in need, and I know that we have spent nights awake and many tears wishing that things could be different. Well, the dawn is almost here – but we need your help to usher it in! We know of several horses that we would like to bring in BUT we don’t want to commit unless we know we have some funds to cover not just the rescues but also some of our ongoing costs.
Michelle, myself, Rachel and other staff and Committee members bring decades of experience of horse ownership and rescue to our commitment to SAHA. And to rescue is what we live for.
Can you help us help unwanted horses and ponies find a new and better life?
As soon as we can raise the funds we have the list, and we will be out there. We promise!
So please can we ask you to dig deep once more, to find it in your hearts to help us so we can rescue again. Help us continue our journey with Chantilly, and start our journey with Cobber. Help us continue to support the horses who are with us forever, and those who will pass through us on their way to becoming part of a healthy, happy horse community – with the knowledge that we are ALWAYS here for them.
To donate to our rescue cause click here
or SMS the keyword RESCUE to 0459 114 411 to donate $5 or more fast and easy.
Candida Baker, President
$8,000 Christmas Feed Fundraiser
Remi – our lovely Christmas Grinch!!
There is no doubt that for Save a Horse Australia this was the year that was, and this, our dear supporters is the very last fundraiser for the year!
I think it would be fair to say that it’s been an eventful year. We’ve survived several floods, droughts, several bouts of severe colic and expensive hospitalizations, the unexpected arrival of Pickles our surprise foal, the tragic death of Desiree, his mother, and a steady stream of SAHA horses coming back into care. This, of course, is the beauty of a SAHA lifetime adoption contract, but at the same time with only 50 acres between our two sanctuaries it hasn’t always been easy to fit them all in.
The fact is that a charity survives on donations and boy, have you guys donated this year, allowing us to continue our high-level of care for our now 105 horses in care, and to plan for some wonderful expansion into therapy programs next year which we will be announcing very soon. You guys all saw a tiny taster with the visit of our minis, Milo and Charming to a nursing home, which went off SO well and we have many more planned for our little mascots.
Operations Manager Michelle Beatty in between Milo, left and Charming, with the delighted residents of one of our local nursing homes.
Our minis are a very good example of our work because they were both rescued with terrible hooves, and although we have gradually rehabilitated them, they do have permanent changes to their pedal bones, and therefore they are not adoptable. We decided that it was very important for them to have a ‘job’ – as it is for all horses in my opinion – even if the ‘job’ is being a companion, and so they will help us spread the word of SAHA far and wide, and bring people a lot of joy as they do so.
Joy. It is the season to be merry, and we are enormously grateful to still be here. We have adopted out 31 horses since March – almost one a week which is amazing, and although a few of our lovely old ones have crossed the rainbow bridge (to be always remembered on our website) we are very lucky that our horses – thanks to you guys – stay in such amazing health.
Happy Christmas from our beautiful baby Pickles to you all…
I would like to thank you personally and on behalf of the Committee and staff for digging deep over and over (and over and over) again for us. We have a few large feedbills including one with our lovely Goodna produce who are so supportive of us, and we are truly desperate to get it down for them before the New Year. Can you spare just a small donation from your Christmas food fund to help us feed our hungry horses?
It’s hard for anyone to imagine the size of our feed bills – a bale of hay at approximately $10 -13 per bale feeds 2-3 horses per day, and we have 105 horses in care, which is a staggering $350 PER DAY or $2,450 per week. On top of that we go through 40 bags of hard feed a week at approximately $22 a bag at each sanctuary, which is $1800 per week – so our feed bills, before we start with supplements or joint formulas or any of the specific feeds we need for high-maintenance horses is in the region of $4,250 per week!!
All it takes is for us not to be able to pay our full feed bills for three or four weeks, and suddenly it’s looking massive.
Not unnaturally Christmas is our most difficult time of year – a lot of people are away, and our donations drop. We often find it difficult to make ends meet.
Just look at the amazing photos of our beautiful old man Caddie – he was so skinny and emaciated and he is now well and happy – that is what your donations do for us!
Old Man Cadillac – rescued and now thriving in a wonderful foster home.
CAN YOU HELP US this Christmas so we can face the New Year with a lovely clean slate?
or
SMS the keyword SANTA to 0459 114 411 to donate $5 or more fast and easy.
Thank you so much for everything you do for our lovely rescue horses. We hope you all have a wonderful, safe, peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.
Candida Baker, President
September update and a new appointment!
SAHA’s new Operations Manager, Michelle Beatty, out at the Tarampa Sanctuary with our lovely companion mare, Santa – and yes, that’s GRASS you can see in the background.
We have some exciting news – we’re thrilled to be welcoming Michelle Beatty to the Save a Horse Australia family. Michelle starts with us tomorrow as our new Operations Manager, and we are extremely grateful that someone of her experience is coming on board to help us guide SAHA into the future.
Michelle has had a lifelong connection with horses, first growing up in New Zealand, and later training and competing her own horses. After a career in the corporate world her love of horses led her to volunteering with the McIntyre Centre, Riding for Disabled in Brisbane. The McIntyre Centre, the largest independent RDA in Australia, provides over 4000 therapeutic horse-riding lessons to children and young adults with disabilities annually.
It wasn’t long before Michelle’s talent for organisation and her commitment to horses was spotted. Starting fulltime with the Centre in 2010 as part of the management team, initially in business development, in 2014 she was appointed Operations Manager, overseeing riding Instructors, and stable hands and 100-plus volunteers – as well as being responsible for the herd of up to 40 horses.
With her background in corporate business as well, Michelle was responsible for the Operations Safety and Risk Management, Bio security and was able to introduce a much needed Horse Database (very exciting news to our Administration Manager).
“My whole life has been and is about horses,” Michelle says, pictured here with Santa out at Tarampa. “I own nine horses and five of them are over 30. I also have a daughter who is mad on all things equestrian so many weekends are spent going to competitions and travelling around the countryside competing.”
Based up in the Lockyer Valley, Michelle will divide her time between the two sanctuaries – and I know that we are all looking forward to having her with us.
This is more an update than a report due to being away for the whole of September, having something called a ‘holiday’, the memory of which has faded into the dim and distant past all too quickly!
In September our lovely boy Sunny was surrendered to us with what turned out to be a large cancerous growth on his flank. It’s since been removed and is healing nicely, and we are hoping to assess him under saddle soon. Tyke, Ace, Gangster, Bigalow and our funny favourite quacking horse, Duck were all adopted, but Ellie-May came back into care. We’ll do a full October report at the end of this month, which will also be the end of our financial year.
For your interest, and so you can see the amazing work that we can do with our fundraisers behind us, here are three pictures of Sunny’s lump, the removal and the healing:
Sunny’s lump – once we had shaved around the area it was apparent how large it was.
Sunny’s wound almost healed!
It’s this kind of rescue work that your support enables us to keep on doing and Sunny will go on to a bright, sunny future we are sure. To support our rescue horses, even with a small regular donation or sponsorship, is what keeps us going. To learn more go to our website: saveahorse.org.au
In other news our new promotional video and our new calendar are almost ready and we are very proud of both of them, and in the meantime don’t forget to buy your horse-obsessed loved one a raffle ticket in our biggest ever raffle and be in the draw to win a Toyota Hilux and an Olympic Royal horsefloat. Or better still, point out to your loved one that they should buy YOU a raffle ticket! Click here to get your tickets.
Candida Baker, President
August Report – from La Belle France
Bucket list moment: Riding on ‘Tato’ in the Camargue, spreading the word of SAHA of course!
Well – hello to all our wonderful SAHA followers – from sunny France!
Firstly, apologies for the lateness of the August report but I left for overseas towards the end of the month, and I had a very special reason for wanting to wait until I wrote this.
It’s a selfish reason – because it’s a personal story, not a SAHA story – but it is, of course, to do with horses.
Like many horse-mad people I seemed to have been beamed down into this lifetime loving horses. As a little girl I thought and dreamed of nothing else really (except perhaps The Beatles).
In 1958, when I was three-years-old, my father went to the Camargue region of France, where the-then wild herds of horses roamed, and brought me back a black and white book of photographs, which were stills from the 1953 movie, Crin Blanc. Crin Blanc, which literally translates as White Mane, was the story of a little boy who befriends a wild white stallion, and after a pretty tough journey together the pair of them ride off into the sea, disappearing from sight forever.
My father didn’t speak French, but he knew the story from the film and would tell it to me in English, and I would gaze at the white horses in the photos and be overawed with their beauty – not to mention shedding a few tears at the storyline.
Well, it’s taken me almost sixty years, and a sister’s significant decade birthday (my sister lives in France) to tick this item off my bucket list, but yesterday I went out for two hours with the owner of a trail-riding establishment based in the middle of the Camargue. And thanks to the fact that many years ago I spent a year working with horses in France, my French was sufficient for me to understand and speak with Patrick about the Camargue horses and their way of life.
Patrick on ‘Crom’ his five-year-old Lusitano Camargue cross horse.
It’s sad but true that these days there are no ‘wild’ horses left in the Camargue where once-yearly round-ups used to take place, but proper breeding controls introduced in the 60’s and only a select amount of breeding licenses has meant that the pure Camargue lines are safe.
But, and it’s a wonderful but, the horses are still very much in a sense semi-wild. When they are not working, either with the famous bulls of the Camargue, or trail-riding, or giving displays, they are out in the hundreds of acres that each ‘ranch’ occupies, living in the marshy wetlands, on what looks like, to an Australian eye, virtually inedible long marshy stalks – and all I might say, as fat and happy as pigs in mud.
The Camargue horse is one of the most ancient breeds in the world, and it’s indigenous to the Camargue area in southern France. Historians believe that the horses are descended from the Solutré horse – the Equus Caballus Gallicus – which was hunted for its meat during the Paleolithic period a mere 40,000 years ago. Stockier than the other main wild horse strain that had travelled from Mongolia, the Camargue horses are still small today – usually between 13.2hh to 15.3hh. They have a short neck, deep chest, a compact strong body, and almost wavy manes and tails. They are absolutely without exception, grey horses, so although they are known as white, they have black skin under their white hair. They are usually born black, sometimes dark bay, or even roan, but by the time they are five or so, they are almost completely white.
One of the classic riding saddles, derived from the much heavier Camargue saddles.
So what was it like riding one? Well, my guide, Patrick, was on one of his own horses – a Portuguese Lusitano cross Camargue that he is training for bull work, and I was on Tato, a classic Camargue horse – probably 14.2hh, sturdy with a broad but not high wither. “We ride Western style,” Patrick told me, as I hopped aboard and settled myself in the saddle – which was not dissimilar to a stock saddle but with the open mesh iron stirrups designed to keep any foot in! The trail saddles are derived from the actual Camargue Saddles which are designed to hold a rider in place even when using high-speed turns to chase bulls, and I found it amazingly comfortable. Whereas (for me at least) I’ve always found that to be comfy in a stock saddle I need to put my legs forward, in this saddle my leg rested perfectly in line with my hip and shoulder, and Tato needed only the slightest touch of the reins to go or whoah.
“He loves his work,” Patrick said, as we headed off at a brisk trot, and indeed he did. He was free-moving rather than forward, and I got a feeling of a deep intelligence – where Patrick’s somewhat flighty young one was busy dancing everywhere, Tato had seen it all before which was reassuring.
Known as the Bulls of the Camargue, the herds are made up of bulls, cows and calves.
As we rode, we talked. Patrick also reassured me on the matter of the famous bulls of the Camargue – they are not, as they are in Spain, killed in the bull ‘work’ which is what they call it, rather than fighting. Instead the ‘guardian’, (i.e. rider) must manage to lift off two white strings attached to each of the bull’s horns. It’s a game of deft skill and swiftness as I saw the following night, but then the bulls – and the horses – are let go once more in the marshy wetlands to roam and graze. Of course not to get too romantic, the bulls are also used extensively for meat, but that’s a reality everywhere, but for me it was good to know the ‘travail du taureau’ – literally ‘work of the bull’, did not mean a bloody end.
Horse people might ask how on earth the horses stay fat and healthy with NO hoof problems living virtually permanently in a marshy wetland. It seems as if over the centuries, or in fact over the thousands of years they have been living there the horses have developed certain characteristics – broad hooves with large, wide soles, relatively long legs for their stature with broad knees and hocks. The grasses of the Camargue are actually full of nourishment, watered as they are by the sweet river water of the Rhône, and we passed herds of horses nibbling not just on the long grass but even on seemingly prickly unappetising bushes.
As we walked along, alternately trotting, cantering or even galloping along the sandy tracks, picking our way through the marshes, and splashing through the inevitable small lagoons here and there, Patrick showed me the herds of the mares with their foals – plus, he pointed out, an old gelding who’d retired from his work to live out his days in a “family situation”.
Saying hello to a foal…
The work horses work only between April and October and are otherwise left free to graze and wander. The sheer space available to them all seems to make the in-fighting minimal, although I noticed that another attribute of the Camargue horses seems to be a very thick skin! They take virtually no notice of the flies and the odd bite or kick seems hardly to penetrate.
“They hardly ever need vet attention,” Patrick told me cheerfully, while I rather wished that the SAHA horses could be so hardy! “Some horses might go their whole lives never needing a vet.”
When we came upon the herds of black bulls, they were unconcerned by the horses, although because many of them were in fact cows with calves we didn’t venture too deep into the herds in order not to upset them. All of them too, were in magnificent condition. “I think here in the Camargue we might even love our bulls more than our horses,” Patrick told me, but I’m not at all sure about that, I think he was winding me up.
To say it was a magical morning would be an understatement, and as well as the horses and bulls, we saw giant egrets, wild ducks, and even an otter in the river.
Galloping along on little Tato, whose paces were small but quick, I breathed in deeply. I was in a bucket list moment, and I wasn’t going to forget it in a hurry for sure.
So now back to more prosaic August news for SAHA:
Of course you will have seen that we’ve launched our amazing new raffle with another wonderful Olympic Royal horse float and a Toyota Hilux up for grabs. This is the ultimate in comfortable float and tow packages, and you have to be in it to win it, as they say, so click here to grab your tickets.
The winner of our August cash raffle was Bernie Dousi, who has received her winnings of $10,000 and is talking about a trip to Portugal next year. Congratulations to Bernie and thank you for supporting SAHA.
The latest addition to the SAHA family – Sunny, whose lump is easily visible on his near-side.
In August we adopted out Alonzo – and that was such a pleasure because as you might know, Alonzo was a very particular horse, so to match him with a family was not an easy task for Jess (our rider) and Helen, but they’ve done brilliantly and Alonzo is very happy. Madonna and Tasha, too are both big-moving mares who have gone to experienced horse people, and we have more adoptions coming up. Ryley came back into care, and we weren’t able to resist the lovely Sunny – and I’ll give you all the details for him next month. Click here for his new page.
As you know our darling little chap Charming, had to have an eye removed. The operation went extremely well, but he is also requiring some more treatment on the other eye, and we are keeping our fingers – and toes – seriously crossed. Charming is back at Buccan at the moment where we can keep a close eye on him.
You guys, our supporters, have been wonderful during August, not just supporting our raffles but also our weekly fundraisers for particular horses and for our general vet and dental bills. It’s these little fundraisers that make all the difference because then we aren’t adding to the pressure of the massive feed and care bills, and the costs of running the sanctuaries. So once more, thank you – and I hope you enjoy this report which I’m writing sitting in an old French farmhouse, just on the edge of the Camargue.
Candida Baker, President
June Report – audit complete
Well, June was another BIG month for all of us here at SAHA, and as usual it was filled with the triumphs – and the tribulations – that are part of running a horse rescue charity.
First and most importantly we filed our 2015-2016 audited Financial Report to the ACNC, and so for all those that would like to read it the link is here: 2015-2016 Financial Report The Charity’s financial year runs from November to October, so it won’t be long before we have to go again and get the 2016-2017 Financial Report ready, but we’re thrilled to report that the auditor was happy with last year’s, and that the outlook is optimistic.
Talking about end of financial year business – thank you all so much for digging deep for our EOFY fundraiser, which allowed us to put much needed general funds towards the running of our two sanctuaries.
In terms of sanctuary news, we’ve managed to secure the use of some extra acres next to our Buccan sanctuary, so at last we’re going to be able to rest a few paddocks so that they can fully recover from the flood. Since Minden closed – plus the fact that we’ve had quite a few adopted horses come back – we’ve been really needing a bit more space so this is a good outcome for us. My partner kindly undertook to repair the fences where they’d been damaged from the flood (and only bogged the quad once!), while I put sighter wire around the entire paddock. So as soon as our new hose is in, some lucky horses will have a luscious new paddock.
A beautiful day for fencing.
Our saddle raffle was huge success, and thank you all for your support. Also a big thank you to Jennifer Malloch for her help in getting the raffle off the ground, and to Vanessa Bunting from Horseland Underwood horseland.com.au who was so generous with the prizes. One of the absolute best things about this job is being able to deliver the good news when somebody has won a prize, and the raffle was no exception. It’s also a great chance to talk to SAHA supporters from around Australia and to learn about their horses. One of the lovely things I’ve learned is how many people out there also have rescue horses, and how precious those horses are to them.
Vanessa Bunting and Jennifer Malloch at Horseland Underwood.
And talking of precious horses, we now have 108 horses in our care. In June our two little boys – Milo and Charming – were both deemed well enough to leave EEVS for a foster home, where they are happily settled in, and Charming is keeping people busy by getting his white coat dirty at every possible opportunity.
Clean and tidy – just for the moment. Milo left, and Charming on the right…
Sadly though, we lost two horses during June. Our sweet mare Salma developed sudden and extreme colic and although we took her straight to EEVS and from there to UQ Gatton, the decision was made that she should be put to sleep. Our dear elderly gentleman James also crossed over the rainbow bridge. Ever since the flood his health had been a bit up and down, he was losing condition no matter what we did, and he wasn’t comfortable. On top of that our Manager, Helen Hayes, lost her personal horse, her beloved Cannon, to colic after on-going problems with him for the past few months. It was not an easy few weeks for sure.
On a happier note, little Romeo came back (and was almost immediately adopted out again), but his return did raise a few questions on the page as to why horses come back. More often than not it’s a simple fact that the adopter’s circumstances have changed with a move to a more urban environment, but any amount of reasons can mean that an adopter can no longer keep a horse. This is one of the main reasons why SAHA has a contract – it means that the horse is safe for life, and will never end up back in its original circumstances. Horses that have been adopted out successfully stand a very good chance of being adopted again, according to Helen, our adoptions manager.
Silver has gone to be a companion horse.
In June adoptions were Gordy and Silver; and Bluebell – as well as Romeo – came back into care.
Whatever your horse adventures are during July I hope you enjoy them!
Candida Baker – President
The importance of paying attention
Muz, who came to us with a terrible fungal infection, back to full health, with his new adoptive owner, Mikayla.
I can’t quite believe how quickly this year is galloping away with us, to use a horsey metaphor!
As usual, May was a massive month here at Save a Horse Australia. We adopted out four horses – Scout, Pandora, Remi and Otis – which is a wonderful result. As well, Noelle left for her new home, and in the first few days of June, Jaylet and our wonderfully exuberant buckskin, Muz, left us for their homes.
This means that currently we have 109 horses in care between what are now our two sanctuaries at Buccan and Tarampa. Unfortunately for SAHA our rental property at Minden was sold and the new owners decided to live there. We made the decision that continuing to downsize for the moment and to re-home as many of the horses as we have that we can before we rescue again was the way to go, and so we had to say a sad goodbye to Minden, with special thanks to Lori and Phil for managing the sanctuary, Carissa for being our stablehand and to all the volunteers who worked above and beyond for SAHA.
A few people have asked us recently about adoptions – why it sometimes doesn’t work out, or even, with a difficult horse, why it does, and also how do we choose someone to adopt a horse. Helen Hayes, our Operations Manager, is also our Adoption Manager and over the years Helen has built up a lot of experience. She’s able to see quite quickly if a horse and a human are going to make a good pair, but even then it’s not an exact science – unfortunately, particularly as Helen says, you’re talking about horses who often have a high-level of trauma.
“The process we go through with each horse of gradually rehabilitating it so that it’s easy to handle on the ground is very important,” Helen says. “Once we’ve got that established and we’ve had the horse or pony fully assessed physically then we can start with moving towards having the horse assessed for riding. Depending on whether the horse has been started under saddle or not it will either go to the trainer, or if we’re confident that it’s fairly quiet, our rider, Jess, will start to ride it. Once Jess is riding the horse regularly and we see how it goes with the work that we give it, then we can start thinking about adopting it out, but depending on the horse and whether it’s come in with a physical injury or psychological trauma, it can take anything from as little as a month or two to as long as a year or two!”
Jaylet leaving Buccan sanctuary with his new owner, who will use him for pleasure riding.
SAHA has a very high success rates for its adoptions, but every now and then it doesn’t work out, and if it doesn’t then the horse comes straight back to us and we can reassess the situation. Of course what our supporters do allows us to give all our horses the time they need and it’s one of the million reasons we are so constantly grateful. Taking a horse through its rehabilitation from the time they arrive at SAHA to the time they leave for what we hope will be their ‘forever’ home takes infinite amounts of time, patience and attention.
Of all those qualities, perhaps ‘attention’ is the one that is the least understood, because it is a quality that is only gained over decades or a lifetime experience with horses. It’s when, as a ‘horse’ person you begin to read every nuance of their behaviour, and to speak their physical language. The fact is that horses are as varied in their characters as humans – from chilled-out, laid-back souls who take most things in their stride, to highly-strung, complex personalities who need extra TLC on an ongoing basis. Over the past 57 years of my lifetime, since my first naughty little pony at the age of five, it’s been my privilege to be involved with hundreds – possibly even thousands – of different horses, and one of the most wonderful aspects of working with SAHA is being involved with an organisation dedicated to allowing horses to take the time it takes to heal.
Helen Hayes, our Operations and Adoptions Manager, gave Muz his first rides when he came back into work.
So how do you know what a horse might be, or become good at – or even want to do? Well, the old adage that you can take a horse to water but not make it drink is certainly true here. I once knew an eventer in France who had to travel his retired eventing horse with him to competitions because the horse hated being left home so much he would get himself into a lather. My friend would take him, and give him a little ride because, as he said, “he wants to think he’s still useful and he always loved it so much,” and the horse would be happy. He officially retired at 20, and spent another 10 years not realising he was retired!
Older horses are in many respects like older humans, they have a wealth of knowledge and often a love for their humans, and they like to be useful. My old horse was the ultimate teacher for young horses, guiding them through water for the first time, along busy roads, past dogs and rubbish bins and noisy scary flapping things. Even after he retired from riding I would walk him out with the young ones, and I am absolutely sure he knew he was ‘teaching’ them.
In the end, it’s not even really what a horse does – it’s who the horse does whatever it does with, and how. There are wonderful horse owners in every discipline, and sadly there are also horse owners in every discipline who are not so wonderful. Although at SAHA it’s not our job to necessarily take a horse to the point where we uncover its full potential as a riding horse, or even as a horse with groundwork or therapy potential, it is our job to know that when they leave us they are going to the right person, with the right skills, so they have the best possible chance for a great life. Mostly we get it right, occasionally we get it wrong, and when we do I’m happy to say that those adopters often adopt another horse successfully and the one they’ve given back to us goes on to find its perfect home.
In the meantime it’s business as usual at SAHA. We still have our wonderful raffles up and running so don’t forget if you’re after a Horseland saddle package or an Olympic Royal float, we still have tickets left for both. (With huge thanks to Horseland and Olympic Trailers for their continued support of SAHA).
Candida Baker – President
To buy tickets in our Horseland raffle go to: saveahorse.org.au/event/horseland-raffle/
To buy tickets in our Olympic Royal float raffle go to: saveahorse.org.au/event/olympic/
The Essence of Mothering – from the Personal to Plutonic…
So today is Mother’s Day – at least in Australia and the US. It has other dates around the world, March in the UK, November in Russia, but for us, waking up in the southern hemisphere, the second Sunday in May is the date that is nominated as the day we celebrate ‘mothering’.
Now, mothering is itself, particularly in these days of non-traditional families, a bit of a flexible notion, and for me Mother’s Day is an honouring, not just of our literal mothers, but of everybody in the world who ‘mothers’ in whatever shape or form. Of course this extends out beyond human mothering as well, to the unconditional love that warm-blooded mammals offer to their young, and even, sometimes, to different species or to offspring not their own.
I would like to honour some very special mothers today – the first of those being Amanda Vella, the powerful and extraordinary woman whose vision of ‘helping’ horses began when she was as young as five-years-old. Her lifelong commitment, passion and dedication saw, as we all know, the establishment of Save a Horse Australia, which has been responsible for saving 1500 horse lives. Amanda, and our wonderful foster-carer Jennifer Malloch, a mother and now grand-mother herself, who has nurtured many of SAHA’s babies, have rescued and rehabilitated so many horses that being a ‘mother’ to the horses is really the only correct way to describe the continuous commitment Amanda and Jen have to the importance of horse lives and the value they have placed on those horses who would otherwise have been discarded and lost.
Jennifer Malloch and the beautiful Trixie, now adopted by Jen.
One of the more contentious issues in horse rescue is, of course, the question of horse racing. But often the dark side of racing, the wastage, the break-downs and the lack of post-race career options for horses, is balanced by the most extraordinary people – trainers, owners, jockeys and strappers – who endeavour to do their very best by their horses.
One of those women is long-time dedicated SAHA supporter, Karin McNab, whose careful nurturing of her young ones has meant that her most recent winning mare, Thieving Minx, had only had three starts by the age of four, and a win just a few weeks ago. Not only does Karin make sure that all her horses retire to wonderful homes when they have finished their race careers, but her winnings are donated to horse charities, with SAHA often being a lucky recipient.
“Thieving Minx has already helped save four other horses,” Karin told me recently, “and for me to able to look after, nuture and gently bring along my horses and then have them help save other horses is a wonderful circle of life.”
Karin McNab’s Thieving Minx has saved four other horses so far with her earnings.
In the best of all possible worlds, with tighter breeding regulations, and racing itself paying for post racing care, we would see many more beautiful off the track thoroughbreds re-homed, and many less with a one-way ticket to the saleyards. My son and I have personally rehabilitated six off the track horses, several of which were rescues, and he continues that work today. When another career manifests for these magnificent animals, you see them in all forms of equestrian disciplines, living lives as everything from pleasure or trail-riding horses, to competing in the Olympics. We are very lucky to have supporters like Karin, who are also active in the racing welfare movement, which is obviously something about which SAHA cares deeply.
For many of the mares, particularly the successful ones, motherhood beckons, but sometimes, as with our beautiful Pluto, that journey can go wrong, and Pluto who had retired from racing to become a broodmare, lost her foal, just at the same time that little Memphis, a baby Clydesdale who could not feed from his mother, came into SAHA’s care. Memphis had to have blood transfusions, and began to successfully drink from a bucket, and even though he was unable to feed from Pluto, she became his foster ‘mum’. Later once Memphis was older, she took on the job of ‘nanny’ mare again, with the lovely Freddie, also now successfully adopted. At this time Pluto and Rupert are just beginning a friendship, so that the horse ‘mum’, can teach the baby horse his manners.
What I’ve discovered over a lifetime with horses is that often there is a strange synchronicity attached to the outcomes of rescues and rehabilitation, and that it seems to me that even the horses themselves can be involved in some universal level on creating an outcome for themselves. (Watch the wonderful Harry and the Snowman if you are in any doubt about that.)
Well, recently such synchronicity happened with Pluto and our very first official corporate sponsor, Mystic Medusa. Mystic, known to me for many years, wanted to sponsor a horse – but a horse with an, if you like, inter-galactic twist! Enter Pluto, whose race-name was Cosmic Wanderer. A perfect pairing if ever there was one, and so we are delighted to welcome Mystic to the SAHA family. No doubt she’ll be keeping a close eye out on Pluto’s planetary alignments. You can read about Mystic here: https://mysticmedusa.com/2017/05/horse-named-pluto/
In a way what I saw in this was once more different ways of mothering – from horse to human, from Jen Malloch’s hand-on day-to-day care of horses, to a universal notion of support for our beloved four-legged friends, because, of course, financial support as all of you know is the life-blood of any charity.
(In fact what I see now from my connection with SAHA is mothering of the horses, of the charity of each other, happening every day, and I would like to personally say a huge thank-you to Rachel Daniels, Helen Hayes and Amanda Arnell-Smith – and to all our wonderful staff, foster carers, and volunteers for their commitment to SAHA and the horses.)
To talk, just for a minute of my personal journey with learning about horse mothering – one of the greatest moments of my life was watching my beautiful Palomino mare give birth to her paint foal. It was quick, and easy and uncomplicated. He was born in November, (a little Sagittarius) between some massive electrical storms, and so as soon as his four little hooves were on the ground, he was named – Storm. Within 10 minutes he was staggering around, getting his first cuddles from my young daughter and her friend and drinking from his Mum who took it all in her placid Quarter Horse stride, while his older half-sister looked on over the fence with great interest. Watching Stormy grow, teaching him to lead, to float, to lunge, to take a saddle and bridle, to starting him ourselves, and finding him a brilliant home, was a deeply personal horse journey for me that I will never forget. Glimmer’s care of her baby was an unfolding delight, and the way she combined love with gentle correction, a stellar example of mothering.
Of course, there’s our human children too – whether they are our personal children, or step-children, or other people’s children. It really doesn’t matter. I love these words Karin McNab posted recently (and if someone can find their source I’d be interested to know):
What do I want for Mother’s Day? I want you. I want you to keep coming around, I want you to bring your kids around, I want you to ask me questions, ask my advice, tell me your problems, ask for my opinion, ask for my help. I want you to come over and rant about your problems, rant about life, whatever. Tell me about your job, your worries, your kids, your fur babies. I want you to continue sharing your life with me. Come over and laugh with me, or laugh at me, I don’t care. Hearing you laugh is music to me.
I spent the better part of my life raising you the best way I knew how. Now, give me time to sit back and admire my work.
Raid my refrigerator, help yourself, I really don’t mind. In fact, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I want you to spend your money making a better life for you and your family, I have the things I need. I want to see you happy and healthy. When you ask me what I want for Mother’s Day, I say “nothing” because you’ve already been giving me my gift all year. I want you.
Although to be brutally honest, I wouldn’t mind the occasional gift as well! Maybe a Horseland voucher 🙂
Which also reminds me – don’t forget to enter our wonderful raffle with prizes donated by Horseland Underwood. saveahorse.org.au/event/horseland-raffle/
At the moment we are also running an urgent fundraiser to keep us on top of the massive costs of caring for 115 horses, running three sanctuaries (two from the end of May), paying staff and looking after our equipment and machinery. If you’d like to donate to this week’s fundraiser this is the link:
saveahorse.giveeasy.org/…/we-urgently-need-your-he…/
or you can SMS donations. To donate $5 or more simply text the word HELP to 0459 114411
In the meantime, whatever mothering means to you please do have a wonderful day.
If you are interested in coming on board with us as a corporate sponsor, to have your logo on our website and be advertised on our Facebook page, please contact us on admin@saveahorse.org.au and we will be happy to help you help the horses!
Candida Baker – President
