Zanadu

Sara, who is SAFE’s Vice President and Adoption Manager, keeps in touch with many of our adopters through Facebook, and a few days ago, she saw this lovely photo, posted by Karen who adopted Zanadu from us. When Sara asked Karen about it, she received this beautiful explanation:

“The name Unbridled Joy is actually the working title of a book I have been writing – I started about two years ago. The full title is UNBRIDLED JOY: A life of love, loss and horses. It’s a journal about joy, how I had it, lost it, found it, what gives me joy, horses and some wonky adventures in my life along the way.

The title came to me as I was trying to articulate in my mind how I would try to live my life again after losing my beautiful, brave daughter Heather when she was just one month shy of 36 years old in 2011. She lived her entire life in a wheelchair as a result of birth injuries and was never able to ride horses. I personally believe with all my heart that my angel girl Heather whispered in God’s ear that her Mom could reclaim that joy with a best horse friend. So Heather rides with me now.

It is fitting that the beautiful spot in Eagle Ridge where Zanadu and Raffy now share their forever home with us be called Unbridled Joy. Our neighbor, Bruce Aalmo, constructed the entry from my design with rocks we collected from our land. 

Sara, always so grateful to you and SAFE for making me Zan’s forever Mom.”

This is all we want for any of our horses: the chance to bring someone unbridled joy. Thank you, Karen, for giving Zanadu that opportunity.

Don’t postpone happiness: we have many lovely horses waiting to share your life. Click here to see them all.

It’s always a happy day when we get an update on Zanadu. We like to think that all of the adopted SAFE horses are loved, but when it comes to Zan, there is no question that she is adored, treasured, and beloved. Karen sent this update:

Zan and I are doing spectactularly well! She is a delight and quite the character.

Zanadu is such a wonderful girl — I saw that in her from the moment we met. I believe there was divine intervention in us finding each other. She had had several unsuccessful adoptions before she became Zanadu Johnson, and Sara told me that she thinks Zan was just waiting for me. She is learning to trust and to let her sweet nature show through, and I tell her every day that she has found her forever home, and I will always love and care for her, and protect her. Oh, and the singing part – I sing to her every day (she’s partial to vintage Motown). She’s sassy and independent and curious – I call her Dora the Explorer. Come to think of it, those are my qualities too!

Attached are some recent photos – one taken in front of our home for a neighborhood ride, one of her at our very first trail ride (eleven miles and she did an amazing job, I was so proud of us both!), and a picture of her Christmas ‘stocking’ that I made. She was a good pony so Santa filled her stocking with carrots! On Christmas day, my precious ponies had warm oatmeal with raw sugar and apples.

I have to laugh because she and Raffy, my special needs Arabian boy, LOOOVE to roll in the mud. And always after brushing. I showed Zan the SAFE stall plaque that I keep in my tack room so she could see how beautiful and clean her little self can be.

Also, if you and Sara, Debi, Brittany, or any of my other friends at SAFE have 18 minutes [yes, really] to spare, here’s a link to the YouTube video I posted after the pre-Christmas snow. I’m sure you have never seen any other video of Ponies in the Snow ha ha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlC4c8fhM4

While I will apologize for the lack of editing, and some shakey cam stuff, I refuse to apologize for all the cooing and laughing and kissy noises that I made for all those minutes. And oh, yeah, the ‘pocket cam video’ at about 14:00 for 90 seconds while I used both hands to feed the ponies apples – audio but no video!

Today, Zanadu completed her 30 days of post-op rehab care at Northwest Equine Stewardship Center. She returned to SAFE Harbor Stables this afternoon, where she was greeted with enthusiastic whinnying from all of her friends. Zan still has a long road to recovery but is making progress. She is now up to 30 minutes of handwalking per day, and today marks the first day since the surgery that she has small paddock privileges. I imagine she is very, very happy to be back at SAFE Harbor!

We are very happy to share the news that Zanadu’s surgery, which took place yesterday at Pilchuck Vet Hospital, was a success. In fact, Dr. Bryant said that it went better than he had expected. The bone chip was very large, coming right off the corner cleanly. He was most pleased about the overall condition of the joint, he said it looked to be in great condition overall. He feels strongly that this will improve her athletic ability in the long term. Zan was released from Pilchuck this morning and was delivered to NWESC for her first month of rehab. She’s have about three months of rest while she heals, and then will start back into work to regain her strength. It’s our hope that she will be ready for adoption by early 2013. We are so grateful to everyone who helped make this happen for Zanadu — especially the Adams family who donated the money needed for this surgery — and for all of you who sent good thoughts her way! 

Zan’s been a SAFE horse since June of 2010, and she’s come a long way from the unhandled and underfed filly she was when we first met her. Restarted under saddle by professional dressage trainer Andrea Lucianna, Zan became a superstar riding horse — willing, easy, hard working, and so pretty to look at. Since graduating from training, Zan has been ridden extensively by select SAFE volunteers. She’s competed at several schooling shows in both Dressage and English Pleasure. She’s even been to the ocean. Through it all, she’s proved herself to be level-headed, teachable, and fun to ride.

But adoption has eluded our dear Zan…she’s come close a few times, but that perfect home that she deserves so much has never quite appeared. Looking at Zan with our eyes instead of our hearts, we understand what the problem has been. Zan has a slightly enlarged knee from a past injury. She’s always been perfectly sound, but we caution potential adopters that this young horse may end up facing arthritis and need joint injections and maintenance sooner than most horses. Unfortunately, that uncertainty has been enough to scare off her potential adopters.

Recently we showed her x‑rays to Dr Bryant at Pilchuck Vet Hospital and asked him for an evaluation. He told us that Zan had bone chips in her knee joint, and that she looked to be a good surgical candidate. The price quoted for the surgery was $2300–2800 — not a prohibitive amount of money, but certainly more than a horse rescue could justify paying for itself. 

Enter the Adams family. Brenda and her daughter Krista were invited to SAFE Harbor Stables as part of our Directors Luncheon (tickets were auctioned off at the SAFE Horse Show). There they met Zan and heard her story…and immediately, they decided that they were going to help this horse. Yesterday, we got the joyful news…by combining a donation with matching funds from the Microsoft Workplace Giving Program, the Adams family — Mike, Brenda, and Krista — would be donating the entire amount needed to pay for Zan’s surgery!

So if you heard cheering coming from Woodinville yesterday afternoon, well, that was us, celebrating Zan’s good fortune and the Adams’ generosity! We’ll have more to share after we get Zan’s surgery scheduled and we know what is in store for her in terms of rehabilitation, but already we are looking forward to the day when we can announce that Zan is on her way to a wonderful new home and a wonderful new life, thanks to Mike, Brenda, and Krista Adams!! 

A big thank you to volunteer Lara B for riding Zan at the SAFE show. They made a lovely pair! Here’s Lara’s report on her weekend with Zan:

When we entered the dressage ring on Saturday, I’d only ridden Zan a handful of times. I found her to be an uncomplicated and confident mare, eager to work and game for almost anything. During her time at SAFE, she has had an extensive education, and she responds to subtle cues. She was a star in our Training‑3 ride, scoring a 67% and a second place ribbon. Zanadu is definitely a mare (somewhat opinionated and not always cuddly), but she’ll give every request her all. She likes to think about each task at hand, which made her feel and act like a true partner. She was a pleasure to work with in every class, from dressage to trail, and by the end of the weekend, I was sold. Zan will make someone an excellent all-around horse, and I hope they come to claim her soon.

Here are some gorgeous photos of Zanadu and Lara at the SAFE Show! Thank you to Liz Stabbert Photography for these great shots!!

More photos of Zanadu at the SAFE show taken by Karen Wegehenkel can be viewed online here!

Zanadu’s professional photos taken at the SAFE show.  Photo credit to Liz Stabbert and Karen Wegehenkel.

To view all of Karen Wegehenkel’s photos of Zanadu, click here.

To view all of Liz Stabbert’s photos of Zanadu, click here.

Equine photographer Karen Wegehenkel was kind enough to come out to the SAFE farm last week for a photography session with Zan, Dexter, Annie, Summer and Bucky. The results are simply stunning. We’ll be sharing some of these images with you over the next few days. Let’s start with the lovely Miss Zanadu: (click the photos to enlarge)

Zanadu’s potential adoption unfortunately fell through. Some concerns over her soundness in her right knee were raised by the vet which caused the adopter to back out of the adoption. We had Dr. Hannah out the following week to further evaluate her knee, which is slightly larger than her left. Dr. Hannah saw no lameness on the lungeline, but she did show a mild, Grade 2/5 lameness with flexion. She took some xrays and conferred with Dr. Bryant at Pilchuck. The xrays show a bone chip as well as an area of arthritis. This will probably cause her some soreness at some point in the future and require some maintenance (joint supplements, Adequan, joint injections) to keep her comfortable. She’s not going to be a jumper or do anything super strenuous, and potential adopters should be made aware of the issue, however she is still fine for low-level dressage, flatwork, trail riding, pleasure riding, etc. Dr. Bryant did say that the arthritis was in an area where surgery to remove the chip and clean up the joint could be an option to give her a little more time before she would need joint maintenance, however as she is sound now that is not an option that SAFE plans to pursue for her. Dr. Hannah also flexed her left hind leg which has the old barbed wire injury on it, but she showed no positive response to flexion on it and it does appear to be superficial scar tissue only. Photos of her knee and left hind pastern below.

Zanadu was a popular girl this weekend, having two potential adopters come and meet her this weekend.  She has been a little grouchy lately on the ground, not sure if it is related to coming into heat or what.  She’s fussy and overly sensitive about being groomed before she is ridden, but after that she is much happier and more settled.  Holly also had two visitors this weekend, so hopefully we might see a pending adoption on at least one of them soon!

Here is the video of Sara riding Zanadu in her lesson on 2/20/11:

Sara had a lesson on Zanadu today that went really well. They are using trot poles to help with canter departs and it seems to help her a lot. No more kicking out in the departs and she is picking up the correct lead right when asked, not rushing into the canter like she was before. I didn’t get any pictures, but did get some video, which I will post tomorrow once I figure out how to get it off my phone.

Zan and I rode last night, despite the wind. I decided to lunge her first to see how she felt with the wind whipping and let her adjust to the sound the arena roof makes with a big gust (it even made me jump the first few times I heard it!). 

She gave a few bucks on the lungeline but seemed to have her wits about her so I hopped on. At first she was on her toes a bit and kept trotting faster and faster (and breaking into canter). I figured this was as good at time as any to work on our transitions. We did lots of walk/halt/walk/trot/walk/trot/walk/halt in both directions. When she felt like she was listening we did a couple of trot/canter transitions in each direction. The right is easy, the left requires more work. To be fair, I think it’s me not asking quite right. She’s very sensitive to leg so I’m trying to get with the program of asking with my seat, while not losing my leg, without giving her a “bump” (which is my natural inclination). When I get it right- she just steps right into the canter- it’s just figuring out how to recreate that feeling reliably that’s the challenge! 

I liked Zan so much I called the trainer to see if she’d come down and give me a lesson today. 

While Zan was a bit of a nut on the lunge line yesterday (bucking and racing around before settling in) today she gave me a quiet, rythmic trot instead. I’ve been told this normal for her- she needs to be lunged if she has more than one day off- but otherwise it’s fine to just jump right on her. 

Andrea gave me the rundown of what they had been working on with her (encouraging a slower, more rhythmic, trot) how to get a nice canter depart (no kicking out today at all), how to push her steering buttons, how to keep her from curling behind the vertical and some work on better walk/trot transitions (up and down). 

My background is not dressage (and, a lot has changed even in the 10 or so years I took off rom riding) so I still feel a little like a pig on rollerskates but such an interesting process.

Jamie took some video of us riding. She does give a small buck/kick out going into the canter. She’s had over 60 days of professional training but *is* still green. Also, she has had over a month off. As you’ll see, canter was easier to the right than the left. 

She’s still a little green (note the buck into the canter) but also should note that she had had over a month off when this video was taken. When in regular work, that goes away pretty quickly.

Zan’s thread just does not reflect what a little gem she is. 

It’s been a dark icky winter so far and I have not been as motivated, as I should be, but the weather was crappy in the mountains and I was up early this morning (and bailed on riding last night) so I figured I’d try and get a few rides in today. 

Zan is simply a pleasure to be around. She’s a very good girl on the ground… easy to catch and handle. Good with her feet, blanket, fine with being sprayed (showsheen for her tail) and so on. She’s also fine in a stall and seems to get along fine with the other horses on the property. She is very easy to tack up- no issues with the saddle (she would prefer the girth go a little at a time but isn’t nippy or kicky about it) or bridle.

She is very forward at the trot, but not naughty. I did get a small kick-out each direction at the canter. Not in a balky way, just more of a “woohoo!” I think. She’s just not very complicated to ride. 

I’m hoping maybe to do some schooling shows on her, if she lasts that long. She is just ready to go and I think the first person who comes to look at her will take her home. 

Update from SAFE Volunteer Coordinator, Allison Sheka:

I took Zan out yesterday for a good grooming and photo shoot. She stood nicely in the crossties and has good manners on the ground. She was shy about being caught, but came around with cookies. I put her in the arena to run around a bit and she is a SUPER CUTE mover. She bucked and cantered around and showed us her pretty trot. She had her tail up in the air like an Arab, and she was adorable. Super super sweet little mare!

Photos — click to enlarge

Unfortunately, Zan’s pending adoption has fallen through. This has nothing to do with Zan herself, but rather a change in the status of the family that was planning to adopt her.

Zan has returned to SAFE and she looks great. We are hoping to get a rider on her ASAP and get some pictures and video, but all reports from the trainer was that she is a super horse that turned out to be surprisingly nice. Nice mover, sensitive and forward but not lazy or spooky, very willing and sweet. Walk/trot/canter, goes nicely on the bit, does some leg yields, etc. Didn’t get her out on the trails due to weather but ridden out and about on the farm and did great. Pastured with several other horses and gets along well with others. I’ve got a volunteer rider for her so hopefully get some pics/video in the next few days.

Zan has turned out to be a really super riding horse. Our trainer reports she is super cute under saddle, with a really pretty trot, naturally on the bit, very sweet. She’s solid walk/trot/canter now and while in training, she caught the eye of a young girl that takes lessons with our trainer. For the last couple of weeks she has been taking lessons on Zan and even though she’s a beginner, she’s doing really well with her. So well that they have decided to keep Zanadu as a foster-to-adopt situation. She will keep her in partial training and ride her mostly in lessons for now, and another more advanced girl will be riding her a few days a week as well. 

If this works out, it will be an inspiring story, as this girl has been though some very tough times this past year and SAFE would love to have one of our horses play a part in helping this girl heal. So cross your fingers, toes, and anything else you can cross for this adoption!

Good news on Zanadu — she is now going well at a walk and trot in the big arena. She is much more confident now and very cute under saddle with a nice trot! She is also loving the work and the attention and comes running to the gate when its time to work! She should be ready to come back from training mid-October and will be available for adoption then!

Update on Zanadu: her trainer reports she is coming along — a little slower than expected as she was a little nervous about the mounting part — but is now trotting under saddle following another horse. She had a couple big spooks the first time but settled quickly. She will be finishing up her 60 days of training mid-October and available for adoption then.

Zanadu went up to training a week ago. So far she has learned how to lunge, wear a saddle/bridle, and lunge with the saddle and very loose side reins. She was fine with the saddle on Day 1 and 2, Day 3 she had a little bucking fit but got over it pretty quickly. She tested a little bit and got a little sassy on the lungeline at first and coming in at the handler but once corrected completed stopped the behavior. Other than that though, she’s been super easy to start, very quiet and sweet. She has a couple of teenage girls that are her fan club right now. Next week they will start leaning over her back and hopefully be on her by the end of the week.

Zan is a 5 year old unregistered chestnut paint/pinto mare surrendered to SAFE by her owners due to financial distress. Zan was previously rescued from a feedlot in Eastern WA (not sure if it was CBER, if anyone recognizes her, please let me know!). It was some time ago as she has been with the owner that surrendered her almost 2 years ago, and prior to that she had two foals (one of them a mule). She is not broke and has only been used as a broodmare. She is slightly underweight and does have some rain rot/skin fungus issues due to lack of shelter. 

Zan was surrendered along with another mare named Calamity. 

These horses have not had any vet care and the last time they saw a farrier was July of 2009. Zan appears sound but does have an enlarged right front knee and a swollen left hind fetlock/pastern.

First photos of Zan: