CELEBRATION at Gypsy Gems Farm! - Koda's story

Seven (7) years ago today, we rescued "Angelina" from a horrible fate that thousands of horses meet every week: the slaughter truck. You will see "Angelina" and "Swanky Prize" on the rescue poster; we saved both of them but sadly couldn't take any more.

We renamed Angelina to "Miakoda" which comes from Native American languages and means "the power of the moon" or the "moon is powerful."

We often call her Koda for short, and she was estimated to be about 3-years old at the time. When she came to us, she was so traumatized from the trip from Nevada to our farm, and no telling what else, and was so distrusting of humans, it took me over a year to get her to trust me enough where I could touch her, and that had to be with a bucket of grain and me on the opposite side of the fence.

​The picture of Koda taking food from my hand was HUGE and took well over a year of patience for this to happen. She would bolt to the other side of the farm if you approached her.

Eventually, when she was ready, I got her to load on to a trailer (a trailer full of love!) and she began to allow me to groom her. She was awesome for the two vets and stood quietly when they needed to give her a shot.

Koda is still a little wary of everything but she has allowed other people around her and maybe ... just maybe ... she has learned that humans aren't that bad.

We consider this Koda's BIRTHDAY! Happy 10th birthday, Koda!

---