Miracle stallion takes ribbon with young handler
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Applause rang out as 12 year-old Shelby Shultis showed a stunning chestnut stallion, Caudio de Colorado, at a Scottsdale horse show on Sunday, September 23, 2007. Colorado, formerly called Zantenon, was one of eleven Peruvian horses brought from squalor and neglect in Colorado to Arizona on May 23, 2007 with the help of an emergency grant from PetSmart Charities to Conquistador Program coalition member Hacienda de los Milagros. When rescued, 6 year-old Zantenon had been in a 12 x 12 unventilated brick stall for at least 3 years without ever being out. The emaciated horse stood on compacted manure and urine, was hundreds of pounds underweight, extremely weak in the legs and his feet had never been trimmed. Zantenon was so frightened of humans that it was impossible to trim his hooves before loading him on a trailer for a 13 hour ride to Arizona. After conferring with a veterinarian and with Peruvian trainer, Juan Garayar, who went to Colorado to prepare the horses for transport, the decision was made that, despite the condition of the stallion's hooves and muscle atrophy, his only chance for survival was to bring him to Arizona. There, Luis Trujillo, a respected trainer, fostered Colorado. Luis gently brought the young horse around physically and psychologically. Four months to the day of his arrival in Arizona, Luis’s 12 year-old student Shelby Shultis showed the confident, happy and healthy Peruvian in halter where the young team took a ribbon!

Patricia
Tempe, AZ