Community Extra: A horse’s best friend

Published 9:34 pm Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Many girls dream about owning a horse. Mill Creek resident Shannon Wiese is no exception.

The Archbishop Murphy High School junior came close to that dream by providing foster care for a neglected horse for six months.

“You can go and ride a horse and brush it and take care of it for two hours, but then when you’re actually responsible for your own horse it’s a lot more work and really different,” she said.

Wiese, 16, decided to combine her love of horses with her volunteer work as an Ambassador Girl Scout last May. She contacted Gretchen Salstrom, executive director of People Helping Horses in Arlington and asked if she could foster a horse to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award.

Salstrom agreed to the idea and Wiese volunteered at the nonprofit organization while waiting for her project to be approved.

Last November she learned her project fit the criteria for Girl Scout’s highest service award.

The next step was to find a horse that needed her help.

In February, Wiese met Lady Bug, a 23-year-old quarter horse seized by Skagit County law enforcement a month earlier.

“She came out of the trailer, and she was really sweaty,” Wiese said. “You can tell when a horse is nervous because they’ve got their ears perked up and they just have that look in their eye.”

Lady Bug was muddy, overweight, battling an infection in her ears and very sensitive, she said. Their first day together, Wiese led her to her stall at Wildfire Farm in Snohomish and just let her eat.

“We found out (eating) was a big hobby of hers,” Wiese said. “She was very sensitive and really nervous around me but she loved getting treats when she did something good.”

Wiese has worked with and ridden horses since the third grade and relied on her past experiences to gain Lady Bug’s trust.

Her patience helped Lady Bug progress and enter a training program in August when she returned to People Helping Horses.

“Lady Bug had a lot of trust issues and she still does, but Shannon worked a lot with her in the six months she had her,” said Laura Laney, the organization’s adoption coordinator. “She’s ready to have potential adopters look at her and could be ready in just a month or two to go to a new home.”

Wiese took care of Lady Bug. She paid off the boarding fee at Wildfire Farm in Snohomish by baby-sitting and caring for dogs in her neighborhood. For her birthday she asked friends and family to donate money to the project in lieu of gifts for herself.

Wiese started riding horses nearly a decade ago at Wildfire Farm, owned by Lynn Burch. She approached Burch about boarding Lady Bug. Burch wasn’t taking in horses at the time, but changed her mind after hearing about the Girl Scout project. She agreed on a $250 per month board fee. “I thought, ‘Well that’s something worth doing,’ ” Burch said.

Wiese’s work will help lead to a home for Lady Bug, she added.

“She was very patient. She’d come out with the horse for a couple of hours and touch and groom, and that’s all she would do,” Burch said. “She built trust back into that horse.”

Taking care of the horse on top of homework and volleyball practice wasn’t easy, Wiese said. The best part, by far, was being able to ride Lady Bug.

“I was really surprised when I got on her for the first time,” she said. “I didn’t think it would happen, but it did and that was a good surprise.”

She plans to submit her final report to the Western Washington Girl Scout Council by October.

Wiese said she’ll continue to visit Lady Bug while she finishes her training with People Helping Horses. As a volunteer at Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in Woodinville, she said she’s interested in a possible career in hippotherapy, a form of physical therapy for children where horses are part of the treatment.

“I like working with kids and animals. So it’s perfect for me,” she said.

Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491, adaybert@heraldnet.com.