This one’s for all the animal lovers. The little fourth grade version of myself, the one with EVERY piece of the little play horse-farm + the one asking for a horse EVERY christmas – this ones for that little girl too. 🙂
Killian was bred in Eastern Washington on the Colville Reservation as bucking stock to be a rodeo horse. These horses are raised to be “feral.” They are bred to be fearful of people, untouched, and unhandled. For some reason, unknown to us, Killian and 3 of his other feral horse-mates ended up at the feedlot to be shipped to slaughter. One of Kate’s friends saw Killian and his horse friends and knew she had to save them. She started a fundraiser and found people to adopt two of the other feral horses. A few months after being saved from slaughter Kate was offered Killian as a gift, she had already gotten to know him from a distance and just had to keep him. Killian was so fearful of people that even standing within 15ft of him he would be on high alert, bobbing his head, shaking, and had even tried to run through many fences to avoid any human interaction. With help from friends and trainers Killian then started his journey into becoming a “real” horse. After countless amounts of hours, patience, carrots, and love. We are here today. Killian has become a fun loving and kind horse who is learning that people are good and back scratches are what it’s all about.
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my heart is the happiest when I read that story. SO MUCH WORK to rescue a horse like this. The idealist in me wants to round them all up, the realist in me is so grateful there are people like Kate – taking on such a massive task. Such beautiful creatures with brains that want to learn and play and THRIVE. Getting to shoot this session was so meaningful + Jill with Sound Blooms Floral hit the beautiful florals out of the park. Making this guy look as valuable as he is.
