A wrong turn
Kelsey Allonge alway had a love of animals and was specifically fond of horses growing up, and, as she grew older, was fortunate to have some of her own.
Fate brought Kelsey to an interesting point where her love of the animals and desire to care for them would lead to something wonderful.
Early in the morning
As Kelsey and her mother drove to a nearby town for a swap meet, they took a wrong turn and ended up taking a new route to the flea market.
However, they never quite made it as they noticed a thin horse in a ditch scrounging for food.
Terrible condition
Given that it was very early in the morning, about 5.30am, this seemed very odd.
Pulling over to inspect the horse, it was evident that it was starving and barely able to stand.
Far away from any properties
The condition it had been left in was terrible.
Central Illinois Proud
So far away from any properties, it was as though the horse had been abandoned and so Kelsey felt she had to do something.
“We didn’t think she was going to make it,” Kelsey later told Central Illinois Proud, a local news station.
When she returned
“We just felt so bad for her, just overwhelming sadness.”
Walking home
Her mother agreed to return home to get their own horse trailer so that they could get the horse some much-needed attention, but when she returned, the foal would not get in and had collapsed in the ditch.
Away from its mother
With the only other option of walking the ailing animal home, it seemed unlikely it would make it but Kelsey managed to coax it along.
She had been starved
Somehow managing to get the young horse home, they determined it was about 6 months old, which means it shouldn't have been away from its mother.
“We just felt so bad for her, just overwhelming sadness”
On closer inspection, the horse had swollen joints, eyes and whip marks and had clearly been abused.
“What kind of person can do that to an animal?
Sunny
Willingly go to bed every night knowing that she’s out there starving?” Kelsey said.
After a week
Naming the foal Sunny, Kelsey spent the next five nights sleeping next to the horse and making sure it ate and drank properly.
“I didn’t really sleep real good. Pretty much woke up every hour and just peeked in on her,” Kelsey said.
My pain wasn’t comparable to what she was in
After a week, the foal seemed to be on the mend and it soon transpired that the horse had been released by someone who was incapable of taking care of her.
“A life’s a life and no matter how small it is she needed to be saved.
Kelsey and Sunny
My pain wasn’t comparable to what she was in,” said Kelsey.
6 years together
Seeing the bond between Kelsey and Sunny, Kelsey's mom Cara knew she had to let the horse stay.
6 years on and Kelsey and Sunny are still together but Kelsey doesn't see herself as Sunny's guardian angel.