Project Ponies owners’ Brooke and Ellie Kelaart’s sad goodbye to beloved rescue horse Lola

Gold Coast twins Brooke and Ellie Kelaart have rescued many horses over the years, but it was saying goodbye this special mare that really broke their hearts.

GOLD Coast twins Brooke and Ellie Kelaart have rescued many horses over the years but Lola — the 27-year-old pregnant mare — is one that remained close to their hearts.

The sisters have now made the tough decision to say goodbye to the old girl, years after she was saved from the clutches of a dog food manufacturer at a horse sale.

“In her condition we had expected her to last about two weeks, and decided to give her the best two weeks ever and that was three years ago,” Brooke told the Bulletin.

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Ellie and Brooke Kelaart with Lola the rescue mare.

The emaciated horse surprised them by unexpectedly birthing a foal, called Princess, just months after arriving at their Tallebudgera Valley property.

Since then she enjoyed a life of leisure roaming around the 14-acre spread.

But then Lola’s health took a turn.

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“The vet believed she had some larger tumours in her vital organs which were making her sick in the last few months,” Ellie said.

“It was about her quality of life so we had to make the call — she was 30 years old which is about 90 in human years so she had a good run.”

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The twins with Lola and foal Princess in 2017. Picture: John Gass

The sisters, who founded Project Ponies, rescue horses destined for slaughter, rehoming them on the Gold Coast, housing up to 20 horses during peak times.

While the cost of feed has limited their uptake ahead of winter, Ellie said they were still contacted at least once a week by desperate owners trying to offload their horses.

“A lot of people message us trying to palm off horses … there’s a lot of skinny horses out there because of the drought which is sad,” Ellie said.

“People don’t intentionally do anything wrong, they just don’t know, but it’s the horse that suffers — buying the horse is the cheapest part of owning one.”