Kona's Story

Thank you on behalf of Paula and all those who love Kona & Lucy.

Kona has made an impact on all the people who meet her, none of whom can believe this beautiful mare was moments from being someone's dinner...

In Paula's own words....

I have a story to share.    This incredible story must start at the beginning . . .

Early last summer I fell in love with a thoroughbred mare that had been sold to a horse slaughter dealer hundreds of miles from my home.  Her photo was posted on the Chronicle of the Horse (COTH) bulletin board.  I had an immediate connection with this mare named Kona.  I dreamed from afar that she were mine.

She had been sold to the dealer because she was aged and had no longer been  producing.  Her faded tattoo was not readable.

I and several other people on the COTH bulletin board pooled our money and bought her from the dealer the morning the double decker truck loaded.  We put her in a foster situation where she joined several others rescued from that final double decker ride to slaughter, including several other aged thoroughbred broodmares.

I thought for sure she would find a forever home immediately, but instead she waited and waited while the others found their way to new homes.   It took me awhile to figure out why she waited.

Fate had decided she was waiting for me!

Three months later she was on her way across the country to me.  She arrived in September just in time for my birthday.

While I am usually a very logical person, I really had to scratch my head on this one.  Here I was adopting an aged horse I had never even met, touched or watch move, and I was hauling her across the United States so I could spend money boarding her at a boarding barn!

But you see, there was this magic connection between Kona and me, and this connection was not to be denied.

She was oh so skinny when she arrived.  She had not fared well at the lot or in foster.  Despite her deplorable physical condition, she was bright, sweet, gentle and SOUND. 

Kona and I enjoyed a brilliant fall.  She was eager, willing and thrilling to ride!  For the first time in my adult life I was riding a horse who fit my long legs.  We had the best of times through Christmas, and I began to make plans to show her in 2006.  She was getting fit and muscling up and seemed to really enjoy learning new things.  I worried a bit that she remained lean, but figured the weight would come in time.

How and why she got from that owner to that dealer is another story, a story I will share at another time.  Know though that Kona worked her magic, and I am in touch regularly with her former owner. 

In January, I noticed she was finally starting to fill out.   However, it wasn’t long before I was asking the barn owner, who is a horse breeder, if she thought Kona could be pregnant.  No, she did not think so.  It was just the way she was putting weight on and it would shift in time.  BUT, then that belly started going sideways, and the girth was sliding forward to her elbows, and my once agile mare was galumping around the arena like a walrus.

It became obvious that which should not have happened, had indeed happened. 

Yes, Kona was indeed pregnant!  The aged barren mare who had not produced in several years and was sold to a slaughter dealer for being barren had one more surprise for all of us. 

Last month early one morning, Kona produced a gorgeous healthy thoroughbred filly. . . a fairy tale foal out of a fairy tale mare.

The vet calls Kona’s foal a miracle baby.  She said for Kona to have gotten pregnant in the first place after several years of being barren, and then not lost that baby through the stress of the dealer’s lot, then the foster situation, and then while being shipped across country in a debilitated condition is indeed a miracle.

We named her filly Lucy because she was born at first light, and because she’s been blessed with that Lucille Ball personality you can’t help but love.

Kona and Lucy continue to warm the hearts of all those who meet them or hear their story.  They are the living example of the thousands of unlucky horses who don’t get off that double decker ride to slaughter.  People are amazed to learn that but for the merry band of a few COTH readers and the caring people who posted her photo from the dealer’s lot, Kona would have been shipped to slaughter and the precious foal she carried would never have blessed our days.

Everyone says Kona and Lucy are so lucky.  But I think we are the lucky ones to be so fortunate to have Kona and Lucy in our lives.

Update Memorial Day

Update Tuesday Morning

Kona has taken a turn for the worse and instead of a few months, Paula and Lucy may only have Kona for a few more hours....

Please help us raise the money to help defray the medical costs and enable Paula to bring Kona's ashes home with her.

Please understand at this time during this emotional and fluid situation we are unable to answer everyone's questions regarding Kona's condition. We will provide more information when the situation settles down and Paula has time to grieve the loss of her beloved mare and has provided for orphaned Lucy.

Update on Lucy Adjusting to Life without Kona

It became apparent after the first day without Kona that Lucy needed a buddy. She had turned into my dog, quietly following me wherever I went and looking at me with a look of sadness, grief, and “what do I do now”. She picked at her food and slept fitfully in the corner of her stall. While I pondered viable solutions, Victoria Goss from Last Chance Corral, (an amazing rescue that hand raises the nurse mare foals,  www.lastchancecorral.org ), called to say she had a compatible nurse mare foal for Lucy. I took that call to mean I should get ready for a second foal. Lucy desperately needed an equine buddy.

On June 1, my friend LeeAnn graciously offered to go to Last Chance Corral with me to pick up Lucy's new companion.

On the LCC website he was pictured as Cupid's Quiver. He had been promised to a family in New York, but they had postponed picking him up twice. Victoria finally said, "enough", and offered him to Lucy and me when the prospective owners tried to postpone pickup one final time. I guess, like Kona, he was meant to come my way.

He was pasture born the first part of April, which makes him a couple weeks older than Lucy. He was described on the website as a Quarter Horse/Draft cross, but it just took one look for me to say no way. The barn where I board is full of Walking Horses and this guy was DEFINITELY a walking horse crossed with a draft or part draft.

I decided to call him Desi.  (Yes, we all needs some laughs these days!)

Desi’s imprinting had not been as kind as Lucy. His first interacting with humans was someone taking him away from his mother and his home when he was about 5 weeks of age. Then off to LCC he went. Needless to say, he brought with him some touch issues. I am jumping ahead of myself. . . .

The drive to LCC from my house is about 2 1/2 hours through beautiful hilly rural southern Ohio to Athens Ohio. LCC is nestled at the bottom of a steep hill on a country road. How Victoria does what she does with such a small setting is truly amazing.

The horses are very well cared for in a very small space. The horses are in a barn at the foot of the drive and the foals are kept in a Swiss Alpine looking wing to Victoria and Donny’s home, complete with stalls, critical care room, medicine room and large open play yard with milk replacer buckets hanging on the support beams.

Desi was one of 5 babies in residence, 3 being her fundraiser foals which will travel to horse events during the summer as educational and promotional foals,  and one being a very young colt not ready to go to a new home. Victoria explained that Desi had not had much handling because he came to LCC very healthy and a bit older. With only so many hours in the day, those hours end up being spent on the needy ones.

Desi had to be herded down the lane into the trailer. Hmm I thought. What was I in for?

The ride home was uneventful. We pulled the trailer into the large indoor arena. I climbed in back and slipped a halter on Desi’s head. . . the first time he had ever had a halter on. We opened the door and out he came.

Up close right now, he isn’t what anyone would describe as handsome. But step back and oh my. . .is he a looker! Right now he has a very plain head complete with Roman nose so up close that’s all you see. BUT, when he moves, he moves! Big big confident strides of walk, running walk, trot, canter and gallop. He moves off his back end super well and when he trots he arches his neck, sticks his tail straight up in the air and floats way above the ground straight and true as can be. One on-looker said, “touch of Arabian”.

He is not as tall as Lucy but he is more than twice as thick.

When we brought Lucy out to meet him she hid behind me like a frightened child looking at an alien creature. She wanted nothing to do with him.

After both foals settled a bit, we figured it was time to take them to their stalls. Desi said no way are you going to put your hands on me. It took three of us to finally calmly corner him so I could get a lead rope on him. The idea was to let him follow Lucy who walks like some obedience trained Great Dane. Well Desi said nuttin doing Miss bryn, and off he went with me on the end of the lead rope. I always wondered what it was like to be a wrangler. I found out. Eventually he came around to my way of playing the leadrope game and walked with no protest behind Miss obedient filly.

Lucy saw no purpose to this alien creature. All he did was freak out at people and try to steal her hay. And then on top of that he stuck his mouth in this frothy white stuff and came away with the stuff all over his whiskers. And worse of all, he had this very odd appendage where the milk machine was supposed to be and no amount of nosing or sucking was producing any milk!

By the next day, Friday, the bonding had begun and she too had a bit of froth covered chin and he had “Lucy’s hay” hanging out of his mouth. Lucy was still bound and determined to figure out how to get milk from him though.

Friday we worked teaching him it was ok to be caught and haltered. Then we worked on leading him in the stall, which again to Lucy seemed like a real stupid thing to do. . . round and round we went with Lucy in the lead.

Today, we worked in the stall and then led them both to the large indoor arena. Quiet at first, they strolled around. Then he couldn’t resist, he had to climb on her – that’s a boy for you – and she said, “catch me if you can!” The games began. It was good for all.

Soon it was time to put them away. With patience, eventually I got a hold of his halter. He did not fuss too much and he calmly followed Lucy back to their stall. Both were tuckered out and finally Lucy relaxed into a deep sleep.

The barn has now been thoroughly educated on the subject of nursemares and nursemare foal rescue. Being largely a gaited horse barn, people love him. The barn manager said, “You’re not going to sell him either are you”.

Oh my, just what have I gotten myself into!