Advertisement

Have you seen this horse? Hampton woman's quest to reunite with Twilight

The French novelist Anatole France once wrote that "until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

That's something Kayla McGarity can relate to.

McGarity and her fiancé have a a little tortoiseshell cat, Arya, an old black tom named Kunta, Duke the black lab, and Hammy the hamster, who belongs to their four-year-old son Elijah.

They've also purchased a foal, Nova, who will join them on their 1.6-hectare property in Salt Springs this summer.

But despite the small menagerie, there's still an ache in McGarity's heart when she remembers Twilight.

Against all odds, and with many struggles to overcome in her own life, she's hoping to reunite with the quarter horse mix she loved as a child.

While her search might be a long shot, she said, "just any little piece of knowledge would go a long way."

'Always my girl'

McGarity, 28, met Twilight when she was 11 and visiting Hampton Bible Camp.

"I sort of wandered over," said McGarity, who grew up on a neighbouring property.

She struck up a friendship with the camp director, later attending camp there and becoming a counsellor.

From the start, "Twilight was always my girl," said McGarity, who was drawn to the bay mare's sassy spirit, combined with a "very gentle, very loving" personality.

Overcoming struggles

But those milestones came to an end in 2010, when she stopped working at Hampton Bible Camp and and moved to Toronto.

She "got in with the wrong crowd," developing an addiction to speed and opiates that derailed her life for several years.

"It was rough," she said, "but we're going on a few years now that I've been getting my life back on track."

She's clean, healthy, and a stay-at-home mother to her four-year-old son. She quit smoking cigarettes three months ago.

"Everything is baby steps," she said.

"You take it day by day. It takes some people longer than others. I encourage anybody who wants to better their life to try."

Chasing Twilight

As she got her health on track, and started a family, McGarity, said she "never stopped thinking" about Twilight.

Hampton Bible Camp has changed hands several times since McGarity spent time there.

No one at the camp, she said, seemed to know anything about what happened to Twilight. She tried posting flyers, checking horse rescue Facebook groups, posting Kijiji ads, all without success.

One horse dealer claimed they'd purchased Twilight from the camp in 2012 and sold her to a "sweet older couple" in Stratford, Que. But McGarity said that's only "hearsay" and hasn't resulted in any leads.

Yet she's not giving up hope.

"I've heard of one lady who was looking for her horse for 13 years and finally found him," she said.

She's hoping that anyone who's seen Twilight — a stocky bay quarter horse mix between 15 and 17 years old — will contact her.

"Even [when I look at] for-sale ads — even if it's not her, I'm looking in the background, trying to see if she's there," she said.

Mainly, McGarity said, "I just want to know how she is. If I was able to purchase her, that would be great, and have her retire with me. Give her the send-off that most horses deserve and don't get.

"If I could just see her or touch her again, that would be amazing."