The Horse Sanctuary - riding, rescue and rehabilitation

21/11/2023

Sorry we're closed to visitors this weekend!
We look forward to welcoming you to the Sanctuary next weekend!

18/11/2023

15/11/2023

Our 27 sanctuary horses are safe and sound after Cyclone Mal!
Thank you for the messages and calls.
Vinaka!

13/11/2023

Stay safe Fiji!

IF YOU NEED HELP, contact the Divisional Police Command Centre numbers ⬇️

📞9905296 - National PCCC
📞9905457 - West
📞9905722 - North
📞9905529 - South
📞9905563 - East
📞8932875 - Central

Toll-free lines ⬇️

- 917
- 910

08/11/2023

Please ensure you keep your horses safe and away from fireworks this Diwali!

07/11/2023

Unfortunately we are POSTPONING this due to forecasted unfavorable weather!

Exciting news!
This Saturday between 9:30am and 11am will be our first fortnightly community farmers market!

We will have a community table where you can purchase home made jams, produce, baked goods and handicrafts.

The farmers market is only available at the specified times and dates. We'll extend the times amd dates as needed.

It's all about supporting our remote communities in Fiji, especially our women and children!

So if you're in the area, come pet a horse and make a purchase from our local community / farmers market!

Vinaka

05/11/2023

Saturdays at the Sanctuary!
We celebrated Emi's 13th birthday with the gang.
Chocolate cake, horses, laughter and sunshine...you can't get better than that!
Captured these magical moments.
So blessed 🙌

02/11/2023

So let’s get down to the babies and work our way up.

A 1-1.5 year old horse is getting their first adult tooth, this happens at 6 years old in a human child.

A 3 year old horse is a 9 year old child. A child. Not ready for work by a long stretch. We have moved past sending children down the mines.

A 4 year old horse is a 12 year old child. Often will do odd jobs for pocket money, maybe a paper round, mowing lawns etc. Basically a 4 year old horse can start a bit of light work experience to learn the ropes.

A 5 year old horse is a 15 year old teenager. Think they know it all, cocky, and ready to up their work and responsibilities. Still quite weak and not fully developed so shouldn’t be at their physical limit but can start building strength.

A 5.5 year old horse has just cut their final adult tooth, this happens at 17 years of age in a human.

A 6 year old horse is an 18 year old human. An adult. Ready to work.

An 8 year old horse has achieved full fusion of their final growth plates. This happens at 24 years of age in a human. This is the age it is safe to push a horse for their optimal performance.

Pushing your youngster too hard too young will result in the failure of many body parts. Joints, spine, tendons, ligaments as well as their brains. Waiting another year or two at the beginning could give your horse an extra 10 years of useful working life. Be patient with your pride and joy!

Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS

Graphic credit to Naomi Tavian , check her out on Pinterest

01/11/2023

It's done!!
Thank you Peni and Tomu for completing the riding arena!
With so many horses to look after and working through various projects, its taken a while to compete the last section and gate.

Vinaka to Elise Huffer for helping us with the wood!
Now the arena is closed in, we can exercise, train and ride in a secure, enclosed space.
We can't wait to try it out this weekend!

29/10/2023

Bula!

29/10/2023

Bula from the Horse Sanctuary!

29/10/2023

The Sanctuary was a hive of activity this weekend! We welcomed new families to the Sanctuary while sponsor families came out to groom, visit, ride or just relax around the horses.
The horses were pampered with 4 to 6 kids to a horse, grooming and sponging them down.
One of the parents commented that is was amazing to see so many kids off their devices and eager to learn, care and engage with the horses and each other.
The sanctuary is there for the horses and their carers...its beautiful to witness it all coming together and reaffirms all we are doing!
Vinaka for the love ❤️

22/10/2023

A river ride and swim was the only way to beat the heat today.

Hannah Nanovu and her daughter Kiki joined us. It's been 30 years since Hannah's ridden so this was a super special day for them and us!

Wildfire's burns are almost completely healed!
Now we focus on building back his muscles and getting his mind off his trauma.
He was SO happy, looking around at everything, enjoying the sweet grass and splashing in the river.
In a few weeks the trauma of being burnt will all be behind him and he will soar! All of our horses in various stages of rehabilitation are constantly surrounded by love at the sanctuary.
Thanks to everyone in Fiji and abroad for the love, encouraging messages and support for improving horse care in Fiji!

22/10/2023

Vinaka Rob Henderson !

22/10/2023

Vinaka Rob!

21/10/2023

Saturday at the Sanctuary!
Wildfire's burns are healing quickly
The horses enjoyed a few hours eating the lush river grass while standing in the cool river.
Semi and Liga quenched everyone's thirst with sweet fresh green coconuts!
A perfect Sanctuary Saturday ❤️

16/10/2023

The rain didn't keep our Sanctuary families away from visiting, exercising and grooming the horses over the weekend!

We're always looking to welcome experienced English or Western riders to the Sanctuary to help us with ground work, lunging, training and exercising the horses Saturday and Sunday mornings!

Please do message us if you are a gentle, experienced horse person and would like to volunteer your time to work with our team and beautiful horses.

Vinaka!

15/10/2023

Kylie Scott and family are back from New Zealand and brought some goodies for the sanctuary horses!!
Kylie, Abby and Harry have been coming to the Sanctuary every Saturday to groom and love their adopted horses! They adopted 3 of our younger horses and the horses are lapping up the love, grooming sessions amd of course treats!!
Every adoption supports the Sanctuary and of course our Fiji Outreach program that teaches basic horse care and provides free bits and bridles to horses in need.
Vinaka Kylie and family for the goodies and support! ❤️

14/10/2023

2 riders from a village based at the other side of the Navua river rode to Sanctuary today seeking assistance for their horses.
They had homemade metal bits and bridles that were cutting into their horse's mouths, so we happily fitted them with bridles and bits, conducted a health check, wormed the horses, spoke to them about basic care and then, with big smiles, they were on their way!

Watching them ride into the Sanctuary made our day!
We love the fact that horse owners now know to come to us for help and basic equipment.

This dream of improving basic horse care in Fiji is very slowly but surely coming to fruition.
❤️

Thank you for the wormers Samira Orchard and Kim Woods for the pre loved gear!

13/10/2023

WOW!!
Our horse guardian in Australia Samira Orchard has sent us another round of vet and horse care supplies!!
It was like Christmas morning opening the massive box of much needed supplies that was sent along with the SPCA Fiji Islands stock.
We are down to our last 1/4 tub of Filtabac and other basics, so this has come through in perfect time!!
We're extremely grateful as we simply cannot purchase these meds in Fiji.
Thank you for always supporting the Sanctuary and our Outreach program Samira! We're truly blessed to have your love and support.
Vinaka!!

09/10/2023

Happy Fiji Day from all of us at The Horse Sanctuary Fiji! 🇫🇯

09/10/2023

Our Sanctuary team met Fiji 7's Rugby Head Coach Ben Gollings today!
This was after taking our young horses and Wildfire for a walk to eat the lush grass and enjoy the cool river!
What a fantastic pre Fiji Day!

It's definitely one our Rugby loving Sanctuary team won't forget!

As you can see from the pics, Wildfire is enjoying his new life at Sanctuary ❤️

09/10/2023

What a wonderful pre Fiji Day we had!
Our team walked all the young horses and Wildfire to the river. The horses really enjoyed the lush river bank grass and cool, crystal clear river.
The Sanctuary team also grabbed the opportunity to meet Fiji 7's Rugby head coach Ben Gollings!
It was a day to remember for our rugby loving Sanctuary team!

07/10/2023

Wildfire is getting so much love and attention from our Sanctuary kids, and he's lapping it all up!
At one point yesterday there were 5 children giving him treats and cuddles.

We also built him a shelter in his paddock so he can stay out of the elements as his burns heal.

He has a daily application of aloe in the morning and honey in the evening.

His burns and his heart are well on the path to recovery ❤️
So much love

04/10/2023

Blessed and so grateful to Jean and her team 🙏

Raw honey is the most wonderful natural healer of wounds and burns amongst other things. 🍯🍯🐝🐝(Raw is as it comes out the hive, just strained enough to get bits of bee etc out, not heated to reduce moisture etc and the best for health and healing!) Waitika is privileged to be able to be part of Wildfire's healing from atrocious burns attained in an terrible abuse case. It will surely ease his pain too! ❤️🍯💪🙏🐴🐝

03/10/2023

What a wonderful gift from Jean Hutchison Tikaram and team at Waitika Farm Fiji for the massive bottle of raw Fiji honey to assist healing Wildfire's severe burns!
This is like gold to us and we can't thank you enough Jean - vinaka ❤️
🙏

02/10/2023

Wildfire!

02/10/2023

Wildfire is home!!

02/10/2023

This boy is on his way to sanctuary!!
His new life name is "Wildfire"
Vinaka to Alana, Marc from the USA and team who pursued to get him.
Now give us a shout and a wave if you see him on the road from Nadi to Navua!

24/09/2023

It was a wet and wild weekend but that didn't stop horse health checks, grooming and taking some of the horses out for much needed exercise.

We also said "ni sa moce" to Michelle Benzing who has been a wonderful member of our sanctuary family for the past 2 months, working with some of our advanced horses. She will be missed by all of us as she moves back home to Europe.
We wish you all the best on your new journey ahead Michelle ❤️

Rain or shine, there's always so much love and warmth at the Sanctuary!
Have a wonderful week ahead!

21/09/2023

20/09/2023

Working with our West team trying to get this poor horse to our Sanctuary.
Spotted by visitors from the USA who are willing to support the rehabilitation and homing at sanctuary ❤️
Updates on progress to come....

18/09/2023

We've received some beautiful bridles, bits and bitless bridles from Jane Scobie of Scobie Saddlery for our Fiji outreach!
We placed one of the bitless bridles on Vanua, who is one of our rehabilitated horses and its was perfect! He's had a lot of trauma around his head and mouth so the bitless bridle was easy to put on him and gave the rider excellent control!
We'll be adding some of these beautiful bridles to our October outreach....where we provide free bits, bridles and riding pads to horses in need across Fiji.

Vinaka Jane and thank you Peter Ovenden for sharing the Sanctuary's story!
Vinaka

17/09/2023

Sanctuary weekends are the best!
So many of our Sanctuary family members came to groom, ride or just relax at the Sanctuary.

It was Nylla Young , one of our founders, last weekend with the horses before she heads back to University in Oregon.

Lucky, Cookie and Dancer have been sponsored / adopted by Kylie Scott and her family Abby and Harry! They've given these young horses so much love and attention They've been craving....thank you so much!

We'll be heading west for Horse Care Outreach early October! More details to come!

15/09/2023

We strung up prayer flags at the Sanctuary today. Each flag has a special prayer and blessing that we share with the sanctuary community and beautiful horses present and past ❤️ 🙏

11/09/2023

We're shattered that Spirit took an unexpected turn for the worst late last night and passed away :(

Our team were by her side day and night and did all we could to save her since her complicated stillbirth.

Dr. Ash and team at Animals Fiji were amazing providing fantastic vet care and emergency surgery.
Unfortunately they are a 3 hour drive away .... yet still managed to assist us in Spirit's time of need.

Von Iam and Trina Mitchell we thank you for bringing Spirit into our lives and to our Sanctuary 3 years ago...if you hadn't found and rescued her, she would never have known love, compassion and been so well cared for. Thank you for loving this angle.
RIP Spirit. We will always love you ❤️

08/09/2023

We believe in miracles..
Spirit has been down for 3 days, she had a late stage stillbirth that was extremely complicated resulting in severe tearing and blood loss / infection.
With a tremendous amount of love, faith and Spirit's earth angles Trina Mitchell and Von she is finally standing...as of 30 minutes ago!!

Extremely grateful to Animals Fiji Dr. Ash, Casey and team for the 7pm to midnight emergency surgery....they managed to stich her up, control bleeding and hydrate her...Spirit is alive and now well on the road to recovery.

We are blessed and we are grateful 🙏

01/09/2023

Bula!! We're closed to visitors this weekend as we only have a very limited team on the ground!

We hope to welcome you to the sanctuary next weekend, when we're fully operational.
Vinaka!

31/08/2023

The children in our community are on school break! The sanctuary horses are lapping it up as the kids groom and bathe them as part of their holiday job!
Thanks Maya, Fili and gang for the help!
Vinaka Liga Liku for supervising the kids and our 25 horses!!

05/08/2023

Today the crew braved the rain, cold and mud to check each of our horses to tend to their medical needs, rub coconut oil on them and place rain sheets on our more vulnerable sanctuary horses.
It's been raining for weeks so everything is waterlogged....
Thanks to the team for spending a solid 3.5 hours in the cold to care for the horses!
Let's hope the rain stops and it warms up soon!