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Monday 2pm - 5pm Tuesday 10am - 4pm Wednesday 10am - 5:30pm Friday 12:30pm - 5pm Saturday 10am - 4pm

http://www.thewholehorseplace.com/

The Whole Horse Place, 4764 SW Old Forest Way, Port Orchard, WA (2026)

09/11/2026

Meet Charlie ❤️

I wasn't actually looking for another horse.

Charlie was already coming here before we knew we were going to lose Max. One didn't lead to the other. Charlie needed the kind of home and care we could give him, and Max's body told us it was time to let him go. Those two completely separate decisions simply happened to overlap.

I saw an ad for Charlie because his owner, Linda, was looking for a retirement boarding situation for him. That's som**hing I've been thinking about offering here because we are already set up for horses with special needs that can make retirement boarding difficult.

Charlie has foundered in the past and is metabolic. For him, green pasture isn't a good thing. He needs a dry paddock without grass, carefully managed hay, including soaked hay, and mash. Basically, Charlie needs to live the way quite a few horses around here already live.

Charlie has actually been rescued before. Years ago, he was going to be sent to the game farm for euthanasia when another nonprofit stepped in and saved him. Linda adopted him from that organization five years ago, and he's been hers ever since.

So I contacted Linda thinking maybe we could help with retirement boarding. Then we talked. And talked. I think our first conversation lasted an hour and fifteen minutes.

As I listened, I realized Linda wasn't really looking for a boarding barn. She and her husband, Scott, are trying to retire and move into a townhouse or apartment in town, and keeping horses simply isn't going to be possible anymore. She was facing the incredibly difficult decision to find Charlie a new home, and there was one condition that wasn't negotiable.

Charlie came first.

She needed to know where he was going, how he would live, who would care for him and whether it really was the right place for HIM.

Somewhere during that very long conversation, Charlie's story unexpectedly crossed paths with the story of a horse who used to live here many years ago.

That horse mattered to us. I let him go believing I was giving him a forever home with someone who had known and loved him for years. I was naive, and if I could change one decision I've made with our horses, he would never have left here.

What happened afterward is one of the reasons our policies changed. Today, when we accept a senior horse into our sanctuary, we make a commitment to keep that horse for the rest of its life.

That horse was passed along and became Linda's horse. He and Charlie were not a good match, and when Linda advertised looking for the right home for him, we recognized him and reached out.

Linda was thrilled to discover that he'd once been ours, that he'd been happy here, and that we wanted him home.

But when the person we'd originally given this horse to found out he was coming back here, things turned ugly. And that person being who she was, took him from Linda and passed him along yet again.

I hadn't realized until Linda told me that story that the woman on the other end of the phone was that Linda. Suddenly Charlie wasn't just a horse in an ad. I couldn't change our former horse's story, but I knew what I could do with this one.

Charlie was coming here.

At the end of our conversation, Linda asked if I wanted to come meet him. I said, "No."

There was a fairly long silence on the other end of the phone.

Then I asked, "When can I pick him up?"

I had heard everything I needed to hear.

We made arrangements, and Linda and Scott followed us back here when we brought Charlie home so they could help him settle in.
Our paddocks aren't huge. They're dry, and they're certainly not a picturesque field of green grass. For Charlie, that's exactly the point. But that doesn't make it easy to leave a horse you've loved and cared for for five years in a new place and drive an hour and a half home without him. Linda cried for the next couple of days because she missed him.

Since then, she's been back several times. This week she was here when our veterinarian and farrier came out together to evaluate Charlie. We took X-rays of his feet so they could see exactly what we're dealing with and make a plan together. We also did a full blood panel, and scheduled a dental float.

We got some really good news. Charlie isn't nearly as bad as we feared he might be.

That's not luck. Linda took excellent care of this horse.

Charlie arrived here with a medical history, but he also arrived after five years of having someone pay attention, manage him carefully and make decisions based on what was best for him. Now our job is simply to continue what she started.

At one point, Linda was very quick to assure me that she didn't want to become someone who gave up a horse and then interfered with everything afterward. I told her she didn't need to worry about that.

She's Charlie's mom. That didn't stop being true because his address changed.

Linda lives an hour and a half away, but she's already made the trip back several times, and she'll keep coming. She doesn't have to wonder what's happening to him from a distance. She can come see him, be here for his care, and love him exactly the same way she always has.

The only difference is that now there are more of us loving him.

We're Team Charlie.

So, meet Charlie. ❤️

09/09/2026

Max

Max was with us for just over a month.

It doesn't sound like very long when you say it that way. But somehow, Max managed to fit an awful lot of living into that month.

When Max came here, we knew his body had some miles on it. He had severe arthritis in both knees and couldn't be ridden. His family had been through circumstances that made keeping him impossible, and he came here so that whatever time he had left could simply be good time.

And it was.

Max was scared when he first arrived. He didn't know us, he didn't know the horses, and he wasn't quite sure what had just happened to his world.

Then he found Joanie.

Max absolutely adored her, and Joanie did what Joanie does. She mothered him. She gave him someone to stand beside and follow while he learned that this strange new place was safe.

Later, Paris took over as his companion, but theirs was a very different relationship. Paris was much more his peer. She liked Max just fine, but she also had opinions about how he should behave and wasn't particularly interested in putting up with his nonsense.

Max loved her anyway.

We found out just how much during Stable Paths.

The kids were given an assignment to move Max without touching him. Max had absolutely no intention of cooperating.

Eventually they stopped trying to convince Max and moved Paris instead.

Paris went.

Max went.

Problem solved.

That stubborn old horse helped teach a group of kids about influence, communication and leadership that day. He also helped one girl who thought she had been "too much" understand that stepping up, making mistakes, listening, adjusting and trying again wasn't failing at leadership.

It WAS leadership.

That's what these old horses do.

Max also went to Horse Camp, where the kids decided the horses needed a wedding. The only tie we could find belonged to a clown costume, so Max got married wearing a clown tie and a hat that he wasn't particularly thrilled about at first. Eventually he gave up resisting the hat and left it alone, and it just moved around on his head as his ears moved while he looked around.

He was groomed and fussed over endlessly. Several of our volunteers fell head over heels in love with him and spent hours just being with him. One of our kids even chose Max to be part of her senior pictures.

He wasn't here long enough for us to imagine how quickly he would become part of this place.

Then the nights started getting colder.

We had always known that Max's knees might eventually make the decision for us. When the colder weather came, he began to hurt.

And when it became clear that we could no longer keep him comfortable, we kept the promise we make to every old horse who comes here.

We let him go before his last chapter became one of suffering.
I struggled with it. It felt much too soon.

And then Max's former owner sent me a message.

She told me she wasn't sure whether I believed in things like this, but Max had come to her in a dream.

When she had Max, he had struggled to walk on gravel. In her dream, the very first thing he did was show her himself walking down a gravel road with no trouble at all.

And then he took off running.

As fast as he could.

She knew he was showing her that he was okay now.

A little later she messaged me again:
"He was SO fast. :)"

And then:
"I think it was very important I saw how fast he used to be."

I don't think I could come up with a better ending for Max's story than that.

He came here for a little more time.

He found Joanie when he needed someone to make him feel safe.

He found Paris when he needed a friend who could keep him in line. He was loved by volunteers. He taught kids. He got groomed and fussed over. He posed for senior pictures. He even got married in a clown tie.

He was here just over a month.

It was enough time to matter.

And now, according to someone who loved him long before we ever knew him, those old knees don't hurt anymore.

Run really, really fast, Max. ❤️

09/02/2026

💩 FREE AGED HORSE MANURE! 💩

Gardeners, come get it! 🌱

We have plenty of well-aged horse manure available FREE at The Whole Horse Place in Port Orchard. Great for gardens, flower beds, trees, landscaping, or anywhere your soil could use a little horse-powered help. 🐴

Take a little or take a LOT. Seriously. A lot would be wonderful. 😂

🛻 **Bringing a truck or trailer? We’ll load it for you!**
🪣 **Want a smaller amount? Bring your own bags, buckets, or containers and load up what you need.**

No charge, just come help our horses recycle! ♻️🐴🌱

Message us to arrange pickup in Port Orchard.

08/19/2026

Home from the Jefferson County Fair, and I don't even know where to start. What a week.

Buddy, Brice and Paris made the trip with Sofia, Jenna and Fred, and I think one of my favorite parts of the entire fair was simply the group we went with. A week of camping with horses can be A LOT, and this group was just fun. Everyone pitched in, everyone helped each other, everyone laughed, and there was just no drama. I don't think you realize how much that matters until you spend a week together!

Jefferson County Fair itself has this wonderful Charlotte's Web kind of feel to it. It's a real old-fashioned county fair. Kids and horses and livestock everywhere, ribbons and contests, people camping together, people wandering over to help when somebody needs som**hing, and things like a pie-eating contest with your horse. It just feels like what a county fair is supposed to feel like.

We also had the honor of taking part in the opening flag ceremony, carrying the flag for the grand opening and National Anthem. Standing there with our horses as the fair officially opened was pretty special, and som**hing I think all of us will remember.

And then, because these are horses and apparently we aren't allowed to have an entire week without SOMETHING happening, Buddy managed to hurt himself in his stall the very first night.
Thankfully our vet was wonderful and helped us right away by video. We did all the things, and by the next day he was fine.

Someone helped get the MagnaWave machine out to us, the one that was donated to The Whole Horse Place at Christmas, and it helped him enormously. And since we had it there, we used it on some other horses too. Because why not? That seemed to be what this fair was about. Someone needed som**hing, someone else helped.

There were ribbons too. Lots of them!

Sofia and Buddy earned several Grand Champions and Reserve Champions, Fred and Paris earned a Reserve Champion, and everybody came home with their share of white, red and blue ribbons. But even better, there was SO much learning. The judge was wonderful about giving feedback and explaining things, and the kids had a chance to really listen, learn and try again.

And then there was Paris.

Paris was well on her way to a Grand Champion in showmanship. She had done everything beautifully. They got to the very end, where she was supposed to set up and stand for the judge...
Paris broke into a trot, strode right past the judge and headed for the exit.

Apparently her interpretation was, I did my part. This is nonsense. My hay is waiting.

So the judge actually walked over to Paris to finish judging her.

There was definitely a judge in that arena, but I'm not entirely sure it was the one holding the clipboard.

And the PIE EATING CONTEST! I think that may have been the most fun of all. Brice was a shark in a fish pond. Who knew that horse could move like that when apple pie was involved?

There are a hundred little things I'm forgetting because we are all exhausted, so I'm just going to post a pile of pictures and videos and let them tell the rest of the story.

I'm incredibly grateful that our kids and horses had the opportunity to attend the Jefferson County Fair. They got to show, challenge themselves, learn from a really good judge, earn some ribbons and be proud of what they accomplished.

But I think what I'll remember most is everything around the show ring. The opening ceremony, the laughter, people helping each other, kids playing Red Light, Green Light at the campsite at night, horses munching hay, the ridiculous contests, camping together and that wonderful little Charlotte's Web feeling of a county fair.

Good horses. Good kids. Good people.

And apparently, really good apple pie.

08/18/2026

Look what you all did.

Remember the nebulizer we were raising money for because the wildfire smoke around Spokane Valley has been so awful?

It arrived, and Jenna is already using it.

Today a neighbor's horse was really struggling with the smoke, so Jenna treated her with the new nebulizer. Afterward she sent me these pictures and said, “She practically fell asleep! She LOVED it!”

She was so relaxed after her treatment.

THIS is why I wanted to get a nebulizer over there so badly. Not just for Jenna's rescue horses, but so it would be there when a horse in the area needed help.

You guys donated $1,032 toward the $1,175 cost. We bought it, got it over there, and it is already helping.

I don't know how to adequately thank everyone who donated and shared our post. This horse isn't one of ours. She isn't even one of Jenna's fosters. She's simply a horse who was having a hard time with all that smoke, and because all of you helped, the equipment was there when she needed it.

That's pretty darn wonderful.

Thank you.

And thank you, Jenna, for not only taking such good care of the rescue horses, but for helping the horses around you too.

08/12/2026

Jefferson County Fair, here we come! ❤️🐴

Three of our kids who are in the Seabeck 4H club are getting ready to take horses from The Whole Horse Place to the Jefferson County Fair in Port Townsend this year!

These kids wanted to participate in 4-H, and we happened to have some pretty wonderful horses who could give them that opportunity, so we thought...why not? Jefferson County also opened their fair to Kitsap County 4-H kids this year, and since their fair is before school starts, the timing worked especially well for our kids.

One of the kids in the club had planned all year to show her 4-H project horse from another barn, but unfortunately he became sick and she wasn't going to be able to go. Then there was Brice. He was available; she recently began working with him, and now the two of them get to go with us too.

We went to Pre-Fair and everyone is getting excited! Jefferson County Fair is a lot smaller and has such a fun atmosphere for the kids. Along with showing their horses, there are all kinds of activities and fun things to do, including a pie-eating contest with their horses, which I personally cannot wait to see.

If you're looking for som**hing fun to do, come see us at the Jefferson County Fair in Port Townsend this Friday, Saturday or Sunday and cheer these three on! And if you can't make it, send them a little good luck. They've been working hard and they're pretty excited. ❤️🐴

08/09/2026

Stable Paths today.

We started the day the way we usually do. We cleaned stalls, brought up grain, fed horses, and then sat down and had lunch together.

While we were eating, I asked everyone how their week had been. After they talked for a while, someone asked me how mine was.
I told them it had been good, but exhausting. We had Horse Camp this week and I was tired. But then I told them I had also had this INCREDIBLE boba tea, and somehow that made the whole week better.

That turned into a conversation about how sometimes it really is som**hing that small. The hard things don't disappear, but finding one good thing can change how you look at everything else.

I didn't think much more about that conversation until the end of the day, when one of the kids brought it up again as som**hing that had stuck with them.

Then we brought out Max, Paris and Cracker Jack.

We broke into groups of three and gave them an assignment. Get a horse to go where we ask. Through cones. Through a pattern. Into a box made from poles on the ground.

One rule.

You cannot touch the horse.

They had to work together, watch the horses, and figure it out.
At one point, absolutely nothing they tried was convincing Max to go where they wanted him. So eventually they changed strategies.

Instead of trying to convince Max, they moved Paris.

Max LOVES Paris.

Paris moved. Max followed Paris. And pretty soon everybody was following Paris.

Which gave us a pretty great real-life lesson about influence. Sometimes you don't have to convince everybody. Sometimes you need to figure out who everyone already trusts and respects, get that person on board, and the others will follow.

As we changed the assignments, they also discovered that what worked with one horse didn't necessarily work with another. They had to change their energy, change their approach, communicate with each other and keep problem solving.

And then som**hing happened that I loved.

One girl stepped up when the other two members of her group weren't really doing much. She was trying to carry the whole assignment herself, and at one point she came in with too much energy and startled Max. We asked her to bring it down, and she did.

Later, though, she felt like she had failed.

She told us she had been “too much.” She said she should have communicated better, listened better, and asked the other girls to do more instead of trying to do everything herself.

And what she couldn't see was that what she had just described WAS leadership.

Leaders don't always get it right the first time.
Sometimes leadership is being willing to step up when nobody else does. Sometimes it's realizing your approach isn't working. Sometimes it's listening when someone tells you to change som**hing. Sometimes it's recognizing that you're doing too much yourself and need to bring other people into the work.

She did all of that.

She didn't fail at leadership.

She practiced it.

The activity we used today came from Girls Rule! / Teen Sense / Sister Sense, an equine-assisted group activity guide from Horse Sense of the Carolinas. I love this book because the activities are so easy to adapt to the horses, the kids, and whatever lesson happens to unfold that day. Today's activity was called “Bring Us a Horse.” We changed it around quite a bit, and the horses took it from there.
At the end of the day, I wrote down what everyone said they had learned.

Different people noticed different things.
Problem solving.
Confidence.
Communication.
Leadership.
Learning that different horses, just like different people, need different approaches.
Understanding why people do things differently.
And finding the positive, even when the week has been hard.

All that from cleaning stalls, eating lunch, three old horses who wouldn't necessarily cooperate, and one really good boba tea. ❤️

08/08/2026

The smoke in Spokane Valley from the wildfires is horrendous right now, and we are buying an equine nebulizer for a barn in the middle of those fires, that is very special to us.

This is the barn where Dillon, Joanie, and Cowboy came from. Our board member Jenna fosters rescue horses there, cares for them, and helps find them homes when they're ready. Some of those horses have eventually found their way all the way across the state to us.

With the smoke as bad as it is right now, we want Jenna to have a nebulizer available for the horses in her care. We're purchasing a Flexineb E3, which is $1,175.

We're buying it either way but we need help. If anyone would like to help us with the cost, we would be very grateful. Donations of any amount toward the nebulizer will go directly toward purchasing it and getting it to Jenna in Spokane Valley.

It feels especially important to us because this is a chance to give som**hing back to the place that gave us three horses we have loved so very much.

Dillon came from there.
Cowboy came from there.
And our Joanie came from there. ❤️

Now there are other rescue horses standing in that awful smoke, they are getting sick because they can’t breathe, and we'd like to help take care of them too.

07/31/2026

Welcome, Max. ❤️

Every once in a while, a horse comes along that just speaks to your heart.

This is Max.

Max is in his twenties and can no longer be ridden because of severe arthritis in his knees. His family loved him very much, but life changed overnight. After a serious car accident, they lost their jobs and are now losing their home. They had already found a home for their other horse, but no one wanted the old horse that couldn't be ridden.

Before they found us, they had made an appointment to have Max euthanized. When the day came, they just couldn't do it.

Four years ago, they rescued Max from a terrible situation. He had been living in a m**h home, standing among broken glass and barbed wire, emaciated and forgotten. They named him Max's Second Chance.

Now he has another one.

The good news is that, despite what his knees look like, Max isn't showing signs of being in pain. After talking with our veterinarian and our farrier, the plan is simply to let him be a horse. He'll spend his days making friends, enjoying good food, getting brushed, soaking up the sunshine, and receiving all the love we can give him. We'll reevaluate him in September and let him tell us what he needs.

One thing we didn't expect happened almost immediately.

Joanie adopted him.

From the moment he arrived frightened and unsure, she stayed close. She watched over him, wouldn't leave his side, and the two have become inseparable. Sometimes horses know exactly what another horse needs.

I also have to give a huge thank you to our farrier, Katlin. Max can barely lift one of his front feet because of the arthritis in his knee, but she never rushed him. She gave him all the time he needed, patiently working with him until she was able to get his feet trimmed. Watching someone meet an old horse where he is, instead of expecting him to meet us where we are, is a pretty special thing.

We don't know how long Max's journey with us will be.

But we do know this: every horse deserves to be valued for more than what they can do. Sometimes the greatest gift we can give an old horse isn't more years. It's making sure the years or months they have left are filled with kindness, dignity, and people who care.

Welcome home, Max. ❤️

07/25/2026

One thing I've realized lately is that people may not know we only scheduled two camps this summer on purpose.

Instead, we're here three days a week, and families can choose the days that work for them. The atmosphere is completely different.

It isn't camp.

It's being a ranch hand.

The kids don't show up expecting to be entertained. They show up expecting to work. They clean stalls, fill water buckets, groom horses, learn new skills, help each other, and slowly become part of the rhythm of the barn. Somewhere along the way, the horses become "their" horses, the wranglers become mentors, and the barn feels like a place they belong.

Looking through these pictures, I realized they probably don't seem extraordinary to anyone else. They're just snapshots of kids, horses, volunteers, and ordinary days. But to me, they're everything.

It was hot this week. Really hot. We survived with fans, popsicles, plenty of water, and a lot of laughter.

I'm especially grateful that, because of the grants we've received, so many of these young people are here on scholarships. Families don't have to choose between paying the bills and giving their child a place where they can work hard, build confidence, and simply be part of som**hing good.

These are the days your support makes possible. Not flashy. Not exciting. Just good kids, patient senior horses, incredible wranglers, and another week spent taking care of one another.

Honestly, those are my favorite kind of weeks.

The Whole Horse Place

09/11/2026

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09/02/2026

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Monday	2pm - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 5:30pm
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Saturday	10am - 4pm