Savannah Healing

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Savannah is with us forever.  She deserves a safe place to finally rest, have horse companions and be free to be a horse.  Please read her story and join her Circle with the promise of an annual donation in any amount to help keep that promise and help her heal.

 

Where Ruby, her paddock mate, has only known kindness from people, Savannah was not so lucky. She was rescued by the County from a backyard where she could only eat in the circumference of the chain she was staked to would allow. Her owner wanted to make money off her babies.  Horses are property, but we have laws against animal cruelty. The threat of fines didn’t work, and the County had to go to court to take ownership.  By that time Savannah had pulled so hard to get to the grass outside the range of the chain, it had cut about a quarter inch into her leg.  

 

The scar is still there and so are the effects of the abuses. We know she was a body score 1 out of 10, but still had a will to live. She’s a survivor.  She was emaciated and weak, but still had a fire in her eye and the will to fight to defend herself rather than give in or give up.  Savannah was in the animal hospital for over a year to overcome the effects of starvation and gain her weight back.  She tugs on our heart strings in a different way.

We can only imagine the other abuses she suffered before.  Savannah has severe PTSD.  She can be loving and lean her head against you, cooperative and calm, and then in a second pin her ears back, ready to kick and take a bite.  

 

The scars are not just from where the chain cut into her leg. In the six years Savannah’s been with us we’ve made progress.  She used to rear whenever anyone came up from behind, even 20 feet away, or came up to her too quickly in any direction. That doesn’t happen anymore.  Perhaps it was from being cruelly bred, restrained and live mounted from behind. She refused to leave the paddock or walk toward the paddock gate when she first came to us.  Trembled and would not take even a step forward, afraid of what would happen outside the gate.   Savannah is with us in sanctuary forever.  That doesn’t happen anymore.  At one point we were working with her, riding her and were ready to adopt her out.  Literally, the day the ad ran that she was available, she went lame.  Savannah is with us in sanctuary forever.  An animal communicator told us she had been mistreated in one place after another and couldn’t face the unknown again, waiting for something bad to happen again. 

 

Here she is safe and with Ruby and her herd. We limit the number of volunteers who work with her, only those who are here for the long haul, who choose to be with her, who she can build a relationship of trust with and who can keep themselves safe and focused with her and know the risks.  One volunteer has been with her since we first brought her in six years ago, another for two years. It’s still up and down. 

 

That said she also is widely talented, could do dressage, pull carriages and run fast.  She is probably the most magnificent of the herd with the most potential.  She is a thoroughbred, and raced as we see from the Jockey Club tattoo on her gums.  It is hard to read all the numbers, but we know she came from Ocala, Florida.  Her second breed is Trakehner and third, Hanoverian.

 

We learn so much from Savannah about staying present, being aware of our body movement, horse language and how devastating trauma is.  We offer equine-assisted coaching for people. The horses are mirrors to our innermost feelings.  They make no judgements.  They ask for nothing but that we just be calm and at peace.  We call it a miracle about how they allow people to open up, release and relax just being around them.  There are trauma-informed methods and techniques that we use with horses like Savannah.  EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique aka Tapping, enabled us to get her willingly to walk out of her paddock when we first got her.  Just a few steps at first and in a couple weeks all the way to the round pen without have to stop every few feet and do it again.   

 

We are still learning and exploring how to be with a horse who some might have put down.  Too difficult, labeled “dangerous”.  Savannah’s not mean.  She’s scared.  But she is unpredictable which means we have to be responsible for our own safety when she cannot hold it together.  Slow.  Respectful. Clear and direct about what is not okay. We get excited when she wants to join us in the arena doing things with the rest of the herd and the people with them. Then in an instant it can change to fight or flight mode. Something triggers her.  She doesn’t feel safe.  She’s afraid, defending herself, and we have to take her out. 

 

But not always. Sometimes she shows us she’s enjoying herself.  She likes when we meditate, our chairs in a circle in the arena, the herd free to roam, when she has control, choice. Who doesn’t? She will come up and stand by someone and put her nose out to touch their shoulder or hand.  She likes to watch the other horses play our silly games. Bobbing for apples is a definite yes.  She likes reiki.  She relaxes having her mane combed and her rear rubbed, most of the time. She doesn’t like anything where horses and people are moving behind her and around her, too much going on at the same time.

 

We have an agreement.  She can just be a horse.  No more being ridden.  But she has to at least, without incident, let us groom and pick her feet, take care of her health and wellness needs, walk her out with the other horses, keep her in good condition with lunging and other exercise, and allow us to lead her back to the paddock after out grazing.  Some might have put this survivor down.  We’ve promised her she can be here as long as she wants.  We will keep trying to find ways to help her overcome her past, to stay out of fight and flight We won’t give up on her.  She doesn’t just have a chance to stay alive but to heal and thrive.

 

In the Fall of 2024 Savannah lost about 350 lbs, a quarter of her body weight over about 6 months.  We tested for parasites, did hay and water analysis, increased her hay and supplements adding an alfalfa pellets for protein and rice bran for fats, and urine and blood testing.  She was still losing weight.  Finally an MRI of her digestive tract.  That combined with a specific blood test for protein absorption showed that she had colitis, a thickened colon, and was not absorbing protein

 

More recently, Savannah has developed an abscess in her  rear right hoof that needs surgical removal and follow up  rehabilitation therapy.

 

Please consider helping us keep that promise by joining Savannah’s Circle of supporters with the promise of an annual donation for her care. There’s so much we’d like to do to help her heal.