Happily Ever After (The Right Thing Part 2)

Many of you have followed Champagne Prayer’s story. Zorro (as we call him around here) came to us under the best circumstances. We didn’t have to rescue him from slaughter or after he had been neglected and forgotten. He was fortunate enough to have come from an owner, trainer and farm manager who all had his best interests at heart (see “The Right Thing” Oct. 4). Once he came to us, we began our role in his story, trying to help him decide what he wanted to be when he grew up.

With his striking color, beautiful conformation and endearing personality, he quickly became a barn favorite. Interested adopters began contacting the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center as soon as his pictures were added to Facebook. Finding him a home did not seem like it would be much of a challenge at all. However, here at the MMSC, we don’t just want to find horses any home, we want them to end up in the perfect forever home.

The right home for Zorro turned out to be just down the road. Dr. Fernanda Camargo, an equine professor at the University of Kentucky, was moving her mare to her new farm and decided she would need another horse to keep her company. Several UK students have interned here, so Dr. Camargo decided to check out our website to see what horses we had to offer and fell in love with Zorro. She contacted Melissa, our fantastic adoption coordinator, and had the adoption application filled out that day. When she came to ride him, he was a little off from a cut on his coronary band but he had already claimed her heart. As she was moving her mare that day, she already had her trailer with her and took him home that day. She has decided to give him the winter off to relax and realize that he is no longer a racehorse and begin his training in the spring. When asked how Zorro (renamed Tony) is fitting in, Dr. Camargo gave us the answer we had hoped to hear, “right now, his only job is to look pretty, get that leg healed, and nicker to me every time I come over to feed him! So far he is performing all his tasks with perfection!!” What a perfect ending to such a happy story!