SEPTEMBER 1995 BACK ISSUE

Part of Horse Previews Magazine website. Posted on 9/1/95; 10:00:00 AM.

Against All Odds

In April of 1991, when Barbara Armstrong of Spokane bred her young Thoroughbred mare, Princess Selero, to the athletic Paint horse stallion, Machos Scat Man, she had high hopes to get a big, strong, athletic black and white Paint foal. In March of 1992 her mare foaled, and she got her black and white foal, but to her chagrin the mare gave birth to twins. Naturally, twins among horses are very unusual and, as is often the case, one of the twins was stillborn and the other was very small and underdeveloped.

When Marion Dresel-O'Connor of Careywood, ID saw the somewhat small but finely chiseled black and white weanling filly offered for sale at the semi-annual Paint horse auction in Coeur d'Alene, she was certainly interested, given her plans to concentrate on breeding black and white Paint horses. Sure, the filly was a little small, but she knew that good food and lots of love could do wonders. When she discovered that the filly was born on March 22, her own birthday, Marion knew that the horse was destined to be hers.

As Marion hoped, the filly developed very rapidly during the snowy winter of 1992-1993 and was showing real signs of advancement by the time the snow began to melt. One point of concern was a bit of puffiness in the hocks. A visit to the vet brought the response that this was simply caused by the rapid growth. When the puffiness grew more pronounced, Marion sought a second opinion, only to learn the shocking truth that the horse had a hereditary degenerative bone disease, O.C.D. The vet suggested that very expensive surgery was necessary and he advised disposing of the horse or donating her to a vet school.

Naturally, Marion would not hear of such a thing and took the young filly to WSU for diagnosis and finally surgery. Dr. Schneider of the WSU staff said that surgery was risky, but if successful, the horse had a ninety percent chance of full recovery. Marion decided to go ahead.

A year later, the spunky young twin that should never have survived, who certainly could have been lame, and who was always considered a little underdeveloped, was broke to ride by Scott Seeklander. Well, Marion was determined, and Scott was patient and by the Spring of 1995 everyone was optimistic, but no one ever thought she would go so far.

On a Regional basis, Kokolo was very successful in her first shows this year, and in Western riding's most difficult discipline, reining. And even more astounding, in July, at the American Paint Horse World Show in Reno, competing against many older horses by some of the most well known riders on the circuit, Kokolo was named Reserve World Champion in the Open Reining Sweepstakes, against all odds. Congratulations to Scott, Marion and most of all to the gutsy little filly.....Kokolo.