When Kelsey Allonge and her mom were driving as early as 5:30 in the morning to a swap-meet a couple of miles away in Illinois, Kelsey saw something strange lying in a ditch on the side of the road.
A completely starved horse had collapsed and desperately needed help.
It looked like the horse escaped her previous home, and there were clear signs of abuse. The six-month-old mare had one eye that was completely swollen shut, a damaged backbone, and she suffered from swollen knees as well as whip marks around her body.
“Me and my mom were up to go to a swap-meet at 5:30 in the morning,” Kelsey recalls. “She just looked like a skeleton. We didn’t think she was going to make it. We just felt so bad for her, just overwhelming sadness.”
The horse, who Kelsey later named Sunny, was also extremely skinny and was desperate for food.
Kelsey and her mom, both avid animal lovers, immediately canceled their plans to go to the swap-meet. The teen’s mom then returned home to get a trailer and transport the horse.
However, Sunny wasn’t strong enough to get into the trailer when Kelsey’s mom returned. She was weak, kept falling on the ground and the only thing she could do was stand up and walk slowly.
“For her to just lay there, she just gave up. We decided that there was nothing else to do but walk her home.”
However, this kind teen wasn’t planning on giving up on her.
Kelsey was determined to save this starving horse from her predicament at all costs.
The trailer wasn’t an option anymore, so Kelsey decided that she would walk Sunny all the way home. The trip back was more than nine miles long, but this animal lover would do anything to save her new friend.
“What kept you going, that whole way that you were walking?” a local reporter asked. “I guess just the idea that a life’s a life and no matter how small it is, she needed saving. My pain wasn’t comparable to what she was in.”
What makes this even more special, is that Kelsey’s mom didn’t take their regular route on the way to the swap-meet, as if it was predetermined for them to find and help this poor horse. She simply took a wrong turn and ended up on the road where they found Sunny.
Kelsey then finally arrived home with Sunny after four hours.
Even though Sunny finally had some food and tender loving care again, the kind horse wasn’t out of the woods just yet because of her injuries. Kelsey cared for her as best as she could, and also spent five nights sleeping with her in the stall.
“If she was going to die, she wasn’t going to die alone,” Kelsey mentioned.
As you can expect, these two have developed a very special bond for each other.
“She’s just like my little baby,” Kelsey said proudly. “Sunny sees me as food, but she sees Kelsey as love,” the teen’s mom funnily added.
Nowadays, Sunny is doing fantastic and she is a happy, healthy horse with tons of energy. Kelsey is even training her to become an eventing horse.
Such a sweet and absolutely heartwarming recovery story!
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