ONE IN A MILLION This month’s winner is Katie, who was nominated by Sharon Williams of Nelson. She writes: Katie is my one in a million. We first bought her as a three-year-old for my daughter. When she was six we sold her on, and after the first two homes we lost track of where she was. One day I found her advertised on the internet – as a six-year-old when she was actually nine by then! I didn’t intend to repurchase Katie but when I saw her in a ‘bad’ situation I knew I just had to buy her. I rode Katie myself for a while, then decided to breed from her. At this point things got difficult – she was not behaving like a normal mare and was diagnosed with a granulosa cell tumour. This tumour was attached to an ovary and stopped the normal female hormone cycle; in short, Katie thought she was a stallion. We decided to send Katie to Massey University, where they removed the tumour via the flank – it was the size of a grapefruit. Recovery began, or so we thought. Unknown to us, she had internal infections due to a reaction to the stitches, the wound wouldn’t heal and after three months it was back to Massey. The only choice we had was to open the wound up again and hope… it was a huge internal mess and Katie lived at Massey for three weeks until the wound was deemed safe for me to keep clean. She got very sick of needles and so did I, as we had to inject her for a further month every day to keep on top of the infection. At this point, the vets confirmed that they hadn’t expected Katie to survive. It was a year-long recovery process but she defied the odds – one in a million. Even better than that, two years later we have a gorgeous palomino filly – simply a miracle. Is your horse or pony one in a million? Each month we’ll feature one very special equine on this page. They don’t have to be champions, or have won hundreds of rosettes, to qualify. Just send in a picture of your horse or pony with a brief letter explaining why you’re nominating him or her. The featured horse each month will win a voucher to the value of $100 from theSaddlery Warehouse. Send to: Saddlery Warehouse One in a Million NZ Horse & Pony Magazine PO Box 12965 Penrose, Auckland or email editor@horse-pony.co.nz. Please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope if you’d like your photograph returned.