A horse rescuer

Everything Meghan Ornellas Goodale touches relates to animals, children or the land.

But horses, especially ones in need, top her list of passions.

“My grandpa loved horses,” she said.

Goodale founded Kauai Horse Rescue in 2011, a small, independent, privately-funded business in Moloaa. Two of the horses she’s caring for after rescuing them are Kona and Savoy.

“Kona is a big giant teddy bear,” Goodale said. “He is a cross, part Quarter Horse, part Belgian. Savoy is a Quarter Horse. The crate that he was shipped to Kauai in was dropped. Later, he suffered additional trauma when he was mishandled by a previous owner.”

Kona was put out to pasture due to a sidebone condition.

“He couldn’t move. His mane was dreadlocked,” Goodale recalled. “I was told he would never by rideable.”

But Goodale trimmed his hooves every three weeks, and now, nearly five years later, besides wearing therapy boots, he has recovered and is rideable again.

At the height of her rescue endeavors, Goodale was boarding and caring for six rescue horses. She found new homes for four of them only after ensuring the new owners were an ideal match to the personality of the horses.

“They are ohana,” said Goodale. “They are my family.”

Her family’s roots on Kauai date back four generations, when they first immigrated from Portugal in the 1860s.

But as a child living in San Diego, Goodale was frequently bringing home different animals on a regular basis.

“There was a mockingbird, a turtle and a raccoon,” Goodale said.

She vividly recalls visiting Kauai during the summer months when she was six years old. Her uncle took her riding up to what was then called the Kapaa Homesteads, where they rounded-up cattle together.

“He taught me the ropes,” Goodale said. “I was a paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy). It was exhilarating to see the horses as they lived in the wild. They were free and grooming each other.”

Upon returning to San Diego each fall, Goodale was struck by the difference in the way horses were kept in stalls compared to the way island horses ran free. She couldn’t get enough of horses, on the Mainland or on the island.

“I was a ranch rat,” Goodale said. “If I could smell horses, that was all that mattered.”

But she didn’t like seeing them in a cramped environment.

“They were in a limited space in a stall or stable and only turned out for one or two hours a day,” Goodale said.

When she turned 17, Goodale was given a spirited horse as part of the Future Farmers of America program.

“I learned how to care for horses, the costs and the time commitment,” she said.

Fast forward to today.

When she isn’t working full time at the National Tropical Botanical Garden as an education coordinator, Goodale is hand grazing rescue horses, trimming hooves and loving every minute in the name of horse health.

The horse rescuer is concerned about the horse population and lack of care for them on Kauai.

“If you drive up the North Shore, you can see a pasture where the horses are tied down and their manes are dread-locked. They aren’t being cared for,” said Goodale. “It doesn’t look like they’ve been wormed, which needs to be done every eight weeks.”

Goodale remembers when she was young and would drive to the Westside.

“You’d see these horses just tied up by the side of the road,” Goodale said. “I think owning horses for some people is a status symbol. For others, they want to ride but don’t have a friendship with the horse.”

Prior to working at the NTBG, Goodale taught science and agriculture at Kapaa High School for six years.

“One year, I brought Kona to school for a semester to teach the children about animal husbandry,” Goodale said. “I had an acre of land for him there.”

Today, Kona and Savoy run freely on Goodale’s nine acres of land that she has been clearing with her husband and father. They’re also managing eight adjacent acres.

“Now, I’m a steward of my own space,” Goodale said.

She is optimistic about regularly taking in up to six rescue horses at a time and adopting them out to new families.

She regrets having to turn away horses in need due to her limited funds.

With the remainder of her time, Goodale hopes to farm the land with her other rescued animals nearby — two goats, 10 chickens, a parakeet, a love bird and two dogs named Lily and Piglet.

For more information, call Goodale at 346-1719 or send an email to meghanornellas@gmail.com.

• Lisa Ann Capozzi, features and education reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or lcapozzi@thegardenisland.com.