Donna was Nadia's replacement. I searched for 10 years to find her & spent more on her than I had ever spent on a horse. When she arrived she had no interest in being with people. I didn't get the sense that she was abused but instead it just felt like she was just maybe livestock to former owners. Her breed came dangerously close to extinction so she was part of the careful rebreeding program for the Friesian breed of horses. 

​

We spent a solid 8 months just working on her haltering "with permission." Eventually she started holding her head and allowing us to halter her but it still felt too much like compliance. It was probably about a year and a half before she came up joyfully asking to come connect with people and that made me feel so proud of myself and my friend Jacinda who did a lot of the relationship building with Donna. 

​

Sadly we lost Donna to colic in September 2025. It was the first horse I lost to colic, even counting the boarded horses in my care over the years. In all that time I only lost one horse in my care; a 36 year old horse that had lived an exceptionally long life being loved by his people. It was a big loss for us all and we are still working through some of those feelings and figuring out what horse will come in to fill her very big shoes. Donna was a mother 3 times and so was buried with bushels of flowers under an oak tree in the mare and foal pasture at Kohls Cobs.