Born broken — Iona Rossely

We live in a world where we all want perfection but in brokenness there is hope.

Kismet was born with deformed front and back legs. Regardless of her disabilities Kismet was a fighter and determined to live life as normally as possible. Four days after arriving into this world our farrier had constructed special plastic glue on shoes to help her leg conformation. With her new shoes, there was no stopping this little Arab cross appaloosa - she galloped bucked and screamed around the green pastures of Devon like a spotted rocket. As she grew her front legs came good but her back legs got worse. She had very severe stifle locking – which meant her back-knee joints would randomly just lock and couldn’t move.

The crunch came when Jeff and I had to choose four horses out of our 23 to relocate to Australia. This was a tough call. We wanted to take the three we had bred which included Kismet, who was just two years old, plus one other. Knowing that Kismet would probably never be ridden or bred from we would have been crazy to spend that money on quarantine and flight costs when we could have easily chosen one of our good riding horses.

So what did we do? We took the crazy option. Kismet was on her way to Australia. The rolling hills and pastures of our farm in Australia helped Kismet get bigger and stronger. At the age of five I started working her on the ground to help build muscles with the aim of maybe overcoming the joint locking and maybe getting to ride her. Sadly, when I did get on her she panicked as she locked up behind and was unable to move. We then discussed putting her into foal but that was ruled out as her legs would not be able to take the strain. We looked at many options, but nothing seemed to work. Did we give up on her -NO!

Three years later a light of hope appeared when our vet Greg agreed to carry out a surgical procedure he had never done before – on both her back legs. While he did his stuff, we prayed. After months of physio – yes horses do physio exercises, I was ready to put her back into work.

So, whilst in lock down in Australia Kismet became my pet project. Slowly and gently we worked together – every day she improved until finally I was able to ride her without any major joint lock up issues. She loves hacking out around the farm and playing tag in the round pen. We still have work to do and I still believe she will improve even more. But that doesn’t matter – what matters is that she’s loving life and feeling useful. Now I look her and I know what she’s thinking – our journey over the past eight years has seen many barriers but we climbed over them together. We have a bond that cannot be broken. Sometimes it’s in the time you have together that builds an invisible connection. Is she a gift from God? Yes – as is every creature on this planet.

**Eight years on Kismet and I enjoying life**

Never give up on anything that looks broken. We all come into the world broken but God never gives up on us – if we let Him he can mold and shape us – in this process we see hope, peace and love.