This photo was taken on May 8, the day Zip arrived at Sassafras Farm–she had just been unloaded from the trailer:

Here she is in July, when she was with the horse trainer:

This is Zip in September:

You can really see her color deepening dramatically. This is Zip now (photo by Jerry Waters):

She’s really put on a lot of weight since I’ve had her, and she’s made a dramatic color change. Her color has gradually deepened since the time she was originally rescued, which has continued since I’ve had her. My cows’ coats particularly darken as they put on their winter coats, so part of her color change right now may be her winter coat coming on, but part of the change also is a natural change that occurs when horses return to a healthy state. Zip looks so different between now and the time she first arrived at my farm, both in weight and color, that she doesn’t even look like the same horse. Which is a good thing–what she is now is a fully recovered horse. She also made a dramatic change, of course, from the day she was rescued until the time she came to my farm.

I’m going to post a photo that shows Zip when she was rescued, so please click away now if you don’t want to see it.

This is a “virtual poster” put together by Tinia from the Heart of Phoenix to show the dramatic change in Zip’s condition at rescue and following recovery. What surprised me most–not Zip’s color change from rescue to today, because after all, I’ve seen the continuing color change right before my eyes–is the response when Tinia posted the photos on Facebook here. I couldn’t resist pointing out to Tinia in a private message that if she was going to fake out horse rescue before-and-after photos, she really needed to do a better job of getting two horses of the same color. (JUST KIDDING.) I also couldn’t resist commenting there myself since this is my horse–and she is the same one. Wow. I’m in such a bubble here with all of you, who are the best readers on the web, that I often forget that the internet is not a kind place. I first met Zip in March, and there is no doubt that this is the same horse who was in rescue rehab at that time, the same horse who came to my farm in May, the same horse she is today in my pasture. And I also have no doubt she was the same horse in March that she was a few months before when she was initially rescued. (Hello, I know my horse, just look at her markings from day of rescue to today–that is the same horse.) I’ve been to the farm in Kentucky where many of the Heart of Phoenix rescue horses are rehabilitated a number of times and have seen the same horses from time to time as they change and recover. They do a fantastic job, and those horses make night and day transformations. (One of the most fascinating cases is one of a horse that had to be put in a sling because she collapsed–I saw that horse on her feet not long afterward when I visited the farm in Kentucky and was amazed!)

I’m a huge fan of horse rescue and of the people at Heart of Phoenix. Good time to post another link to them–if you’re interested in a horse and you’re in this area, you can find their current adoptable horses here, and if you just want to show the horses some love, no donation is too small.

Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink  

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