Category Archives: Volunteer

The Family that Judy Built

Our Founder, Judy Lazarus 1942 – 2021

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we say good bye to Judy but the family that she built at Xen will last forever. Her warm and giving personality enveloped everyone involved, and her passion was endless. Judy was a horsewoman who understood the healing power of horses and saw a need for an underserved community. She started with a borrowed horse, and two students and with her extraordinary leadership, grew Xenophon to over 60 participants a week. Her story of Xenophon started years before she broke ground in Orinda, digging post holes with a couple hearty friends, and continued as she embraced new friends with her vision of a joyful, fun, safe place for all of us…kids, volunteers, adults, and families…to reap the physical & mental benefits of sharing time with horses. We thank her for the foresight to set up Xen for success, to ensure its sustainability through the people involved, but her legacy is our caring culture where Joy and Family are always the words used to describe how someone feels about Xenophon. She touched so many lives, every one forever changed, forever better.

In Judy’s honor, the family has set up a memorial fund and if anyone is so inclined, you can make a donation to support Xenophon and continue Judy’s passion to provide life-changing experiences for our vulnerable community.

Support Xenophon through the Judy Lazarus Memorial Fund
You can also mail a check to Xenophon TRC at PO Box 16, Orinda, CA 94563




Xenophon Takes Part In Glorietta School’s “Abilities Awareness Week”.

On February 8th and February 10th Xenophon  once again participated in both Orinda Intermediate School and Glorietta Elementary School’s  Annual “Abilities Awareness” Fairs. Each school is passionate about sharing with their students what opportunities exist for the special needs community.  At the fairs, students visited a variety of informational booths for about 10 minutes. Each booth offered students a chance to see and do hands on activities to get a sense of what children with special needs can participate and accelerate in. Canine Companions, local Occupational Therapists, Optometrists, Special Skaters from Oakland Ice Arena, a brail organization as well as many other groups were in all attendance.

Lindsay & PaulaXenophon had an engaging and informative booth set up with brochures, program photos and a sampling of therapeutic activities/toys and tack to help students understand what therapeutic riding is all about, as well as the benefits our riders experience. We also spoke with some parents who were interested in our program for their own special needs child and we were sure to mention to the students stopping by our booth about volunteering and opportunities.

A big Thank you to those assisted and represented Xenophon at these events: Lindsay Hendricks (Volunteer Coordinator) and volunteers Paula Newton and Barbara Donovan.

Meet Massey… Massey Ferguson, that is.

TractorAll of the staff at Xenophon would like to thank our donors, who made the purchase of a tractor a possibility for us. After a lot of searching, and many phone calls by our board member, Bryan Goldwyn, the center was able to find a gently used tractor with a front loader, that perfectly fit our needs. Xenophon implemented a sophisticated composting system for our manure. We recently were able to connect with a landscaping company that is using the compost. Until now, we did not have a way to load the compost into the trucks and emptying the bins often meant backbreaking shoveling work. We can now meet the demands of the landscape company, get our bins emptied in a timely manner and perform a number of other maintenance type jobs that in the past required hiring a contractor. We are so grateful to have this new useful piece of equipment.