Testimonials

Kelly's Chance - here what the adopter Rhonda writes: "CHANCE IS DOING GREAT--HE WAS JUST IN A PARADE A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO-- A VERY LOUD, SCARY PARADE--A 8-HITCH TEAM OF CLYDESDALES SCARED THE BEGEBBIES OUT OF HIM, THEN A SEMI DROVE UP HIS BUTT AND THERE WERE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE-- TALK
ABOUT SWEAT RUNNING LIKE A RIVER OFF OF A HORSE--- I ENDED UP WALKING HALF THE WAY TO CALM HIM DOWN--HE NEVER BUCKED OR ANYTHING JUST WAS SHAKING SO BAD I FELT I NEEDED TO CALM HIM DOWN-- AT THE END OF THE PARADE WE JUMPED BACK ON AND HE WAS FINE. WENT TRAIL RIDING TWO WEEKS AGO--HAD A BIG SCARY BRIDGE TO CROSS-- BUT WE MADE IT. HE IS VERY SMART -- HE ALSO IS A BIG BULLY--FOREVER POUNDING ON MY PAINT-- BUT WHEN WE ARE ON A TRAIL RIDE THEN HE IS THE FOLLOWER--HIS PAINT BUDDY HAS TO LEAD. I HAVE BEEN GIVING ALOT OF KIDDIE RIDES IN THE LAST MONTH AND A HALF. HE HAS HAD KIDS BETWEEN 4-14 ON HIS BACK PLUS A COUPLE OF PARENTS--LAST WEEK HE HAD NO BRIDLE AND A "DAD" ON HIS BACK AND HE WAS GREAT. SO I AM VERY HAPPY AND TELL EVERYONE I KNOW ABOUT THE GREAT PROGRAM AND HORSES U HAVE!! ... THANKS AGAIN FOR DOING WHAT U DOING AND FOR MY WONDERFUL HORSE!"

Cinny's Lucky Blade, a Thoroughbred, and adopter Brittany take a jump (below).

Brian and his family adopted Sportsbar (below.)

Dreamer and Dealer were adopted by Eric and his family--sight unseen! Here Brittney and Karl pose with the newest members of their family (below).

"Hi my name is Laurie and I adopted Izabeau who was in foster care with Linda at the BK Ranch. That is where she is still boarded and where I live. I grew up on horses and did rodeo while growing up. Izzy has been great. She has been a wonderful horse to have adopted. She is very spirited. She paces which is a new thing for me but cool. She continues to learn and grow in her understanding and our attachment with each other. She has a great independent individual personality which makes her very special." (see photo below)

"Hi my name is Katy, and I am thirteen. I've known about ASAP for three or four years now, and I LOVE it!!! Sue (the director) is a nice and caring person who loves all her animals. If she had a billion dollars she'd spend it on sick and needy animals, before she spent a penny on herself. I found out about ASAP when I was looking for a horse. A lady who works at my old school told me about it. She said she had gotten all her horses there. I looked at many horses. I fell in love with almost all of them. But then I saw a picture of Maureen Anastasia!!! I got lost in her big brown eyes. I fell in love with her immediately. Sue said she's TALL and I said "I DON'T CARE". And now I've had some of my best rides on her."

"We took her for a 2 mile jaunt last night - can she ever cover some ground quickly. Absolutely traffic safe - bomb proof. I can't believe it. I've been smiling ever since :)" Andrea, who adopted Gate Alert (below)

It is something how Promise Land Sam (right) and Jackpot (left)have bonded!! They just love each other. My 2 adopted horses are so great and have such great loving hearts as well as manners. I am so happy that God sent me your way and I have these 2 beautiful horses. Just wanted to share this with you. Thanks Cheri P.

"Here is a Pic of my 4 legged girlfriend. She is doing fantastic, we go on trail rides every weekend and she is big! She is such an easy keeper, hooves like rocks! and just a little too smart for her own good sometimes. The vet & the farrier just love her, calm and cool all the time. She rides English & western, bits and hackamores. And the best part is, she comes to me when I call her name."

Maybe I'm Right, adopted by Alison A., lounges in his stall.

"Thought you'd like to see this photo of Katy and I in our buggy taking Sky (The Sky's the Limit) for a drive. Sky is the most mellow and trustworthy driving horse imaginable, a real joy to have around." Trudy M.

Cheri and her family adopted Promised Land Sam when he was in terrible shape (left) and turned him into the happy healthy horse he is today (right). She states, "I am just so proud of him and all he went through. Sam is an angel and was sent from God above to our family. Sam is so smart!!!! What a beautiful Horse!" (3/03) see below



Trudy M. sent this nice, warm, and green picture of Katy riding Savannah this past fall. 3/03 (see below)



Adrienne D. sent these pictures of two wonderful Standardbreds from a trail-riding clinic held this winter. Here is Melvin Skipper with Kendra up, and here is Broderick with Kathleen up. 3/03 (See below)

Melissa, adopter of Tricky Cricket, sent us this wonderful picture of her student, Stephanie, sending Tricky over a jump. (Fall 2002)



Snafu's Choice, now known as Maire, is loving her new life down South. (See photo below)



As far as Elba (now Ella), she is doing just fine. We are having a great time. I enjoy everything about her, even scooping poop! Every time I go out to the barn to see her, I can hardly believe that she is mine. The saddle training is going really well. Her trainer is really impressed by her and says she is a really smart mare (typical standardbred). We also have been working her on the lunge line and Ella has learned voice commands for walk, trot, canter and ho. The walk and trot look good, but her canter will take awhile to develop. I can't wait for it to warm up so I can ride her outside and take her on some trails. At this point I think I have ridden her more without a saddle than with one. I rode bareback a lot as a teenager and have found that I still prefer it. (See photo below)
-- Lynette (February 2003)



Hello. I enjoyed your reflective "latest update". Funny how we handle things. Unfortunately or unfortunately, I know how you feel. Well Chocolate Choo Choo has had a great spring .... Choo and the old girl went to a show June 2nd. Choo was the center of attention. In the halter class we got 4th! The judge walked up to me when I had him set up and asked "what breed is he?", I answered, and she said "that's a big STB". Choo's canter is getting better but we decided to show in the walk-trot class, we got 3rd and as we left the arena about 20 people asked me where did I get the beautiful warmblood? I told them all about ASAP and your website, so don't be surprised if you hear from more folks here. Choo really impressed the heck out of them. I ended the day showing .... Our next show is July 14th. I can't wait to take Choo and Gala there. I should be getting some pics back soon of Choo and me at the show, I will be sure to forward them along. Well I have the day off of work so I get to play with the "fur-kids" all day :) Take care, keep the faith and God Bless,

Paula (June 2002)

I took some photos of Alto a few weeks ago and thought I'd share this one with you (see below). I'm going to take some more of him under saddle and being driven and will send them also. Can you believe I adopted this beautiful horse??!!! He's such a sweetie!

Sheryl P. in Colorado (June 2002)

I've got great news. Sam's (aka Grab Your Assets) training is going sooo well! We already put the saddle on him and free lunged him around yesterday, and he did great with that! Didn't even buck! Today we did a lot more. We got a ring of noisy cans and a sort of lunge whip with a flag and plastic bag on the end. Sam is not the kind of horse that panics, he thinks things through, he's very smart. We did the cans and the flag and even when I ran at him with he just stood there and looked as if he would say, "What are you crazy people doing?" Then I climbed up on the wooden fence and we got him to move his body sideways to me, he already having the saddle on. I practiced gently swinging my leg over the saddle and he didn't even flinch. I added some weight - he was fine. Since he was moving along so well I even got to sit in the saddle! I had one foot on the fence of course in case. I got on both sides. He didn't even care. Well, I'm just so proud of him, if you could see how quick a learner he is you'd know! I'm just so thrilled, you don't know how thankful I am to your program! Keep up the good work! Standardbreds are amazing!
Marisa (May 2002)

We are from Northern Minnesota and when we drove the 71/2 hours to ASAP last April, we had no idea what we would find that day. Horses were coming and going at a fast pace that time of year. We chose three instead of two because we couldn't decide and I can't tell you how wonderfully it has worked out. Stormy turned out to be a pacer and my sister has bonded with him . He has seen her through sending her last one off to college and a lot of upheaval in her personal life. Then he tore a suspensory ligament around Thanksgiving. He was laid up in a cast for three weeks at the large animal hospital and came home for another month of stall rest with progressively longer hand walking everyday. She is there every day to clean out the stall, haul water, rewrap and walk him. He has been a real trooper and excellent patient. I can't tell you the difference he has made in her life. (you can see them in the gallery). They are committed to each other and have FUN!!!. She hasn't tried to change anything about him. She rode him the first time two weeks after he came home and decided, if he wanted to pace, that was what they would do. He now likes to canter as well. It is a true match. He's gone camping too. (This year, you'll hear about Torpedo as he becomes my dressage buddy and I learn to drive!!!!)

Thank you ASAP

Linda (February 2002)

It's hard to believe we have had Swannee for over a year now. What we heard about the standardbreds being easy to retrain was true. We got Swannee in October 2000 as a three year old from the trainers farm in Harvard. At 16.2 H it was a little scary to be the first one to put a saddle on him, but he did great. The thing we didn't know about the standardbreds is that they can be late bloomers. Swannee has continued to grow and is over seventeen hands, but as sweet and gentle as a lamb. We live right at the entrance to the Kettle Moraine trails and do a lot of riding in the woods. He loves it, and with his size, and four white socks, he is quite a sight coming through the woods. My wife rides a saddlebred, and at times Swannee will even mimic his high tail set when he gets excited. He loves to please, and when you tell him he's a good boy, you can actually feel him puff up with pride and get a spring in his step. He loves little kids and will do anything for my six year old daughter to get a treat. We are glad we found out about your program at the Midwest Horse Fair and have recommended it to several people. We will try to stop in and say hi at Madison this year.
Randy and Anne L. (1/02)

We've had "Bob' for about a little over 2 weeks now and he's adjusting very nice to our barn. The other horses here thinks he's "pretty handsome", as they are mares. We've been riding him with a loose hackamore and he seems to respond very nicely with no problems. He's really taken an affection for his new adopters . Bob is always the first one at the gate ready to go riding. Last weekend we rode up through the woods and did some road riding which went really well in fact he did better than our older veteran mare. She was a "stinker". We just want to say a big THANK-YOU to the A.S.A.P. for giving us the opportunity of a lifetime to own and adopt one of the these beautiful animals.
Thanks again,
Theresa and Stephanie P. (12/01)

I am pleased to hear you speak as you did regarding a horse owner/adopter's commitment. I too feel very strongly about when you choose a horse, any horse, that it is a commitment for life. Thank you for allowing me the pure joy of having a lifetime companion in my Troubadour (B-Dean as you know him). I still call him Dino, and he is progressing fabulously. We will be starting lessons with a fabulous instructor, Maryal, I met last week at a clinic. A friend at my barn has been training with her for some time. I went along last week and am enthusiastic about joining her clinic.

Kristine (11/01)

The littler mare is doing fine, she's melded into our mellower herd without any trouble. She's very nice to handle. Because "Pucker" sounds like that other word, we're going to call her "Duana" (Dwana) which means"small dark one" in Celtic. She does stand out as the only dark horse here, as the others are paints and POA's, spots and splotches.

I ground drove her on her 2nd day here and that went fine, so last weekend we hooked her up to the cart. Overall she did pretty good. She did kick out a few times, probably at the crupper and breeching, which are not used on harness racers. And, she needs to learn to relax a bit for ground handling in harness and to learn the word "WHOA" very well. She does turn and back in harness quite well and has an excellent soft mouth. She mainly singlefoots and paces but sometimes will trot.

Her old owner called and had told me she was unflappable in harness and had been driven many times, and that both parents were very quiet. She also sent us baby pictures of the mare.

We'll likely drive her this fall a few more times, and in the spring we'll start her under saddle. My daughter Katy is very active in the Sauk County 4-H horse program so maybe Duana (pictured below) will be shown, especially under harness.

Thanks, Trudy M. (11/01)

Just a short note to update you on Pavin. He's doing great!! We went on our first weekend trail ride, and he was just awesome. The people we rode with couldn't believe I had just started riding him. He is so smart and catches on easy. We still drive him also, my husband isn't interested in riding but does enjoy driving him. I keep thinking how lucky we were to find him and to have met people like you and the Andersons. I feel we have met even if its only threw your web page. Its knowing people like you that makes the bad things in life easier. Just reading your updates I know for sure you were sent by God. Hope to meet you in person someday. Thanks again for a great horse!!!

Shirley B. (10/01)

Last week(end) was Trempealeau Co. 4H Horse Camp - we had three horses there for the three days. Biskit was ridden by a young(12-yr-old) girl from our 4H club who does not have a horse; she participated in several events, even though she has only ridden 2-3 times before. Quite an accomplishment for both Biskit and his rider! Lots of nice comments on Biskit, and two families who were really interested in adopting after they saw how easy he is to work with, despite his size. People were amazed that these little girls could get up on these big, tall horses and handle them without any problem.

The thing that surprised me most, however, was Broderick, with Kathleen(11) riding. For the first time ever, I allowed her to participate in the speed show events. At horse camp these are strictly for fun, and everyone goes at their own pace. Without ever breaking out of a trot, Brody and Kathleen took a second and two thirds in their age group! Brody is 18 this year, and still is a winner! Kathleen has done enough work with Brody that she can get him to trot, canter and gallop as she asks, and boy does he love to go. Our only problem is whether we can get him to slow down far enough that he won't overtake every other horse in the classes she's in.

We absolutely love the horse that we adopted from your program. Emaline "Emmy" is a real sweet horse with a lot of potential to be a great children's hunter in the future. She is in training and doing great. The trainer says that she has a wonderful extended trot and moves really well. I love coming into the barn in the morning to her nickers, and she loves to nuzzle. To watch her in the snow is a sight to behold, she really loves this weather though I think I could do without it. I think we are all looking forward to spring. Simply put the organization has really done special things to help these horses find the homes they rightly deserve. I have told many people on the Internet to check into adopting either from this organization or others in their area. I hope to adopt others in the future, maybe a whole herd of them! But until we move to a spot in the country I am content with boarding Emmy and spending everyday with her. I will update you when Emmy comes home with her first ribbon, maybe this spring!

Until later,
Kathy B. and family

Pictured Above: Monty (Blue Chip Master NZ) a New Zealand bred pacer, is my second STB adopted from Susan at A.S.A.P. Here he is shown under saddle at the Danada Fall Festival, Wheaton, Il, riden by Carol Plett, followed by my first STB (Egyptian Fashion) ridden by Ann S. Monty was adopted last year after he was retired from racing at Maywood Park. He took to the saddle and leg aids immediately, suggesting that he may have been started under saddle in New Zealand. He has been ridden by many of my friends, and my 9 year old grandson, all of whom have glowing comments about his talents and disposition. Both horses share a 15 acre pasture adjoining a large forest preserve. They are level headed, well behaved trail horses who give lots of pleasure to me and my riding buddies.
Ralph D.
Wayne, IL

Gretchen R. --- We thoroughly enjoy our new Standardbred, Rustbelt Rascal or "Rusty". He is so "kind -eyed" and calm, yet ready to go with very little coaxing. He is well mannered and road safe even with dogs running underfoot. Although he hadn't been riddin extensively in the last year or so, he seems to want to please and doesn't make attempts to try anything naughty.

ASAP helped us find the right horse in a very short time and were even able to help us save the transportation cost by enabling us to pick him up at his former owner's home! We appreciated that and I'm sure he did too, because it eliminated a short stay at a foster home and then another trailer ride to another new home. He has fit in with his new horse friends very well and stands quietly to have his feet checked out and his mouth too.

A good horse and a new friend for a long time to come.

Update on rusty: Now that we have had some beautiful weather, and have been able to do some riding, Rusty has proven to be a great horse. He is intelligent, curious, always looking and interested in his surroundings, and isn't spooky. Several longer rides have shown that he is sound, and his performance for the farrier was exemplary. No bad habits, obedient, willing to please, and easy to trailer. We are looking forward to many wonderful rides. (See picture below.)

Our family recently adopted a Standardbred horse named " Kaboodles". She is a 4 year old bay mare that has the sweetest temperament of any horse I have been around. At first, I was looking for a horse that both my kids (8 and 10 yrs. old) could ride. I was looking for an older horse that was broke to ride. I found out that this is what a lot of people are looking for, and I couldn't find one for less than $1000. I didn't even consider a young horse, as they can be unpredictable and spook when you least expect it. Well, we have a 4 year old mare, and she is the most trustworthy horse that I know. We have had kids from 3 to 10 on her, and she is just super with them. I don't have to worry about her running off or spooking. She took to the saddle very well, and had no training to speak of beforehand. If someone brags to you about the temperament of a Standardbred, they aren't kidding when they say how great they are. We are extremely happy with our new horse and would like to thank Susan and Craig Wellman for making this all possible.
Sincerely,

Tom D.

Update from Tom:
Our family recently has adopted two Standardbred horses from A.S.A.P. We have a 5 year old bay mare named Kaboodles, and a 16 year old black mare named I Deserve It. Both horses have proven to be very gentle, sweet, and kind. I have found that this is quite typical of the Standardbred breed. Our two boys (8 and 10) ride both horses unassisted, with no problems at all. This actually surprised me because neither horse has had a lot of training under saddle. I ride both horses as well, and love both of them. Many thanks to Susan, Craig, and Scott for helping us find such wonderful horses.
Sincerely, Tom D.

Pictured Below: This is Charlie RL owned by ASAP volunteers, Don and Mary Ann B. in Lake Geneva, WI. Charlie is being ridden by Stephanie....the 12 year old daughter of Patti Mirsky, who recently adopted Hizor Amos.