Meet Ellie
- Emily Cristofich
- 14 hours ago
- 3 min read
Ellie arrived at Heritage Oak Rescue just under two months ago on April 19th. We had been wanting a mini to join our herd for a long time. It's safe to say, Ellie is everything we wanted and need for our lesson program. She's great with kids, stands patiently for grooming, leads well, and is generally very healthy!
Ellie was an owner surrender. At her previous home she was a companion horse, she lived with one other horse as a pasture pet with little human interaction. When her buddy passed away Ellie's owner wanted to find a good home for her. Mary Ubach, a trimming mentor of mine, had been trimming Ellie since June 2025 and connected Heritage Oak Rescue with the owner. We are incredibly grateful to be trusted as her forever home!
We didn't know how Ellie would handle being around kids, dogs, and other horses, but we were willing to work with whatever challenges came up. Luckily, she has fit right in and hasn't needed any major behavior training to start her new job teaching basic horsemanship lessons. She does have some anxiety being taken off by herself for a lesson so we are still bringing another horse along to ease her worry. It's normal for a horse to become anxious when separated from the herd. As we continue to build a relationship with Ellie she should improve and be able to handle the separation better.
The most concerning health issue with Ellie has been her hooves. Mary Ubach had made some progress trimming her for the past year, but Ellie's hooves grow extremely fast and even a 4 week schedule was not enough to make lasting changes. Her first week here, we got X-rays of her front hooves. Mary graciously came along to help interpret the radiographs and do another trim on Ellie. We confirmed that Ellie has had a past episode of laminitis which caused structural changes in her front hooves. I was relieved to hear from Mary that the X-rays didn't look as bad as she thought they would, and she is hopeful that with frequent correct trimming Ellie will be able to grow healthy hooves. Most important is that Ellie is moving around much better these days. We are so grateful to Mary for her continued support correcting Ellie's hooves!
Ellie's weight is very good, she doesn't look metabolic, but to be sure we had her tested. She came back negative for Cushings and her ranges for insulin and glucose were well within normal range so we don't have to worry about her being metabolic at this time. Since Ellie has been here we've gotten lots of rain, which means lots of green grass! I've had to limit everyone's grazing time to make sure I don't create a flare up of laminitis. We just got in Ellie's grazing muzzle, she's not a big fan, but now everyone can go out on grass longer.
Ellie has a lump on her right shoulder. We don't know what it is, but it hasn't changed size according to her previous owner, so we are leaving it alone. It is most likely harmless and one of the things that makes her special and unique.
Ellie also had her teeth floated along with the rest of the herd just after she arrived. She had some incredibly long hooks on her lower front molars. No telling when the last time Ellie had her teeth done. I bet she felt a big relief getting those off and her mouth back in balance! Thanks to Anna Gambarotto for her hard work tackling that tough job.
Overall Ellie's arrival into the herd has been smooth. Other than weekly trims to keep her hooves where they need to be she is pretty low maintenance. Ellie saw Osteopath Kayley Neville and we determined that she has no major issues in her body. Ellie's size makes her perfect for working with kids and has even encouraged some of the really young ones, that normally just watch their older siblings, feel safe enough to join in themselves. Ellie is roughly 14 years old so she'll be around a while. At 37" tall we'll never ride her, but I hope to someday train her to pull a cart.
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