NORTH KOHALA — Spend a day with Shay Van Zandt and you’d be hard-pressed to believe she’s ever been anything than what she is today — a woman devoted to helping animals survive and keiki thrive.
Van Zandt is well known in North Kohala for her work rescuing hurt and abandoned animals, horses in particular. She’s also co-leader, along with Renee Perez, of the Kohala Ride Wild Club (KRWC) which teaches horsemanship, horse care, cow tending and rodeo skills to children and youth.
Before she was an animal rescuer, Van Zandt lived a much different life and needed rescuing herself. She was married for seven years to an abusive husband and feared for her safety and the safety of her son on a daily basis.
“I just could never make it to come home and my family was so disturbed,” she said. “I was one of those girls that always went back. I wanted that little white picket fence plus I had Tyler, my son,” Van Zandt said.
Tyler is 12 now but was only three years old when she made her escape with the help of concerned coworkers at a Walgreens in Tennessee.
“It was your friendly neighborhood Walgreens, literally,” Van Zandt said.
Her ex-husband would hide across the street and come into the store and spy on her. So, on a day they had planned, the pharmacy and everyone in the store took off and made a caravan to keep his car away from hers on the interstate. He got lost, and she got out.
From Tennessee, Van Zandt moved to California where she got a job on a ranch breaking horses. And this time, instead of rescuing horses, the horses rescued her.
“I shouldn’t say I rescue horses because they rescued me,” Van Zandt said. “Being with horses again was so healing. It brought Shay back to Shay. It was me getting away and finding myself again.”
In 2009 she made it back to Hawaii Island and North Kohala, where she was born and raised. And now that she’s home, she doesn’t have to worry about her ex ever again.
“He wouldn’t dare follow me here,” Van Zandt said. “If he did, he’d be fed to the sharks because this is home, and I’m protected here.”
She now lives a simple, happy life and Tyler has adapted quickly to life in Hawaii.
“Between horses and the ocean, he loves it here,” Van Zandt said.
She’s also reunited with her older sons, Curtis and Oliver, who are 23 and 24 and live in Hawi. They work full-time but still find time to help their mother with the horses.
For her paid job, Van Zandt grooms Friesians four days a week. But she spends the majority of her free time working with the KRWC 4-H Club, and helping anything with four legs, hair or fur.
Animal rescue is her way of repaying all those who have freely and willingly helped her over the years. On a recent sunny Friday — her only real “day off” — Van Zandt was busy hauling feed, teaching animal husbandry to high schoolers and checking on her rescues. She has many sponsors who help her with the animals.
That day she was visiting Carl Lucas, whose Hawi pastureland supports rescue animals and provides a spot for the 4-H children to practice their farming and ranching skills.
“The kids are a big part of what we do and they’re all hands on deck,” Van Zandt said. “They’re constantly saying, ‘What’s the next adventure, Auntie?’”
In the pasture, youngsters run through the tall grass and learn how to rope goats and pen sheep.
“That’s how I teach them cow sense. They love it; it’s like a little rodeo,” she said.
Van Zandt is also there to check on Clementine, a rescued donkey who currently lives there. Upon seeing her “mother” arrive, the baby donkey comes running across the field in excitement. Clementine is now one-and-a-half years old but was only two weeks old when Van Zandt got her. She needed to be bottle fed, had a broken leg and an IV in her neck.
“When we got her on her feet, IV’d and all strong, she instantly thought I was her mother,” she said. “I fell in love with her, too. She’s so cute.”
Lucas loves having Clementine as a backyard buddy and talks about her positive influence on him, and also on an army friend of his, a retired a lieutenant colonel Special Forces guy who was visiting Hawaii.
“He had extremely high blood pressure and couldn’t relax,” Lucas said.
But before long, he and Carl were feeding chickens, petting horses and taking Clementine for walks. In just four days his blood pressure dropped dramatically.
“It was really funny seeing this special ops guy taking some dogs and a skinny donkey for a walk,” Lucas said, “but it was really so good for him. I’ve had other friends come and stay with me too, because the word got out.”
His neighbor, Juliette Telander, also donates pastureland for Van Zandt’s rescues, where she cares for several rescued bulls. They look quite tame and they were — when they were little.
“Jelly was the cutest little calf but now he’s a dangerous tame bull that will kill you in a heartbeat,” she said.
Finicky, an all-black bull, now stands tall but, “When we got him he was so weak he had to be pumped up with steroids to live,” Van Zandt said.
By a rough estimate, she is currently caring for 40 horses, 11 or 12 of which are rescues, and a bevy of goats, cows, bulls and dogs. She provides individualized love and care for all, but doesn’t want the animals to get spoiled.
“I’m a strong believer of putting animals to work,” Van Zandt said. “I want them to have a purpose. Then, if something were to happen to me, there won’t be a wild, crazy scared donkey around that’s going to kick and bite.”
Her philosophy shows again how much she cares for the animals and how deeply she’s committed to their long-term well-being and care.
“Shay is an angel sent to Kohala for the benefit of the locals,” Lucas said.
Juliette added, “She works so hard for the animals and the keiki.”
KRWC engages children ages four and up in the care and riding of horses through a free, ongoing weekly program. They also run an animal rescue program for neglected horses and other large animals in Kohala.
The KRWC Education Program meets Fridays from 3-4 p.m. followed by the KRWC Horse Club from 4-6 p.m. On off days, they have Kohala keiki rodeo practice at their new riding facility in Hawi, a quarter mile up Iole Road. Major sponsors are The Dorrance Family Foundation, North Kohala Community Resource Center (NKCRC) and True Value/Sunshine Hardware in Hawi.
Info: Contact Shay Van Zandt at 756-4192
