Amidst the oak-studded, bucolic south Silicon Valley landscape, equine enthusiast Patti Ansuini and her horse Kitty Silverwings have a bond.
Ansuini—a throat cancer survivor—and Kitty—who overcame multiple birth defects—are a story against daunting odds that sprang forth from Rocking A Ranch.
“I don’t believe in miracles, I rely on them,” Ansuini said.
At the gates of Rocking A, a pack of Australian Shepherds clamor at the feet of the “Kitty Silverwings: An Appaloosa Story” author. Her newly found ranch and equine hand Crysta Causin can attest that in the barn to the rear, the blanketed, prize-winning horse “gets more cookies than I’ve seen.”
It’s a sign of Ansuini’s love for the animal whose courage and “dogged perseverance for survival in the face of impossible odds,” as she wrote, is inspiration enough to pen her own novel with more to come.
Flailing filly to superstar
For the resident veterinarians who volunteered tending to the filly to Ansuini, who spent shivering nights in the barn re-applying bandages, a special future awaited this “warrior horse” as she described. The filly would later heal and climb the ranks of Rocking A’s long line of star-studded names like Zippo Pine Chip or K D Katz.
“That’s Kitty’s wall,” Ansuini said, pointing to the prize-clad adornments that cover her office walls.
It started at birth: Ansuini said she feared foals with severe physical defects would fall to experts’ opinions and be stillborn or aborted by the mare.
Kitty, however, was born without full use of a right front leg due to a severed radial never, as well as a lack of muscle in other areas of her body.
According to Ansuini, the vets who oftentimes visited and marveled at Kitty’s tenacity didn’t expect muscle to build or regenerate itself after birth.
Because shoulder muscle hadn’t adequately developed, Kitty’s future seemed limited to life as a broodmare, the physical defect impairing her for a lifetime, according to Ansuini’s advisors.
“I was told I would never ride her,” Ansuni said.
At least that’s what the veterinarians and local horse community thought, she explained.
Because from the small ranch in northeastern Morgan Hill where Kitty was born, what began as a stumbling, visibly weak, young-and-growing foal gradually transformed into a running and bucking, Dam-defying filly destined for superstardom.
Ansuini caught it all on video.
“You are looking at an impossibility,” Ansuini said, as the videotape played.
“What a marvel to watch a mini bronc with only three good legs,” she said. “She was learning how to control herself. It was miraculous—amazing. She’s a tough little cookie.”
Kindred souls
Ansuini’s love for her horse was reverberated, notwithstanding, as the longtime local battled throat cancer and kept a picture of Kitty Silverwings by her bedside.
Ansuini said she believes Kitty helped give the strength to battle an illness that nearly claimed her own life. Her husband, Pat, can attest to that.
“They say if Kitty can do it, I can,” Ansuini said. “You just never give up.”
Despite catching eyes in the equine world, Kitty Silverwings never failed to be noticed within the tribal roots of her breed’s history, according to Ansuini. In 2003, she was given three feathers—the ancestral symbol of the war horse—by the tribal chair of the Carrizo-Comecrudo Nation of Texas, honoring and respecting her war horse spirit and courage, according to Ansuini.
Living the Kitty life
Cookies aside, Kitty couldn’t be happier loafing in leisurely retirement at Rocking A, where young, up-and-coming horsewomen like Causin give the horse crew plenty of love.
It’s Ansuini’s spirit that carries her on and her words, “anything is possible if you believe.”
For a horse like Kitty Silverwings, who jumpstarted her competitive circuit career at the age of three, Ansuini believes it just might be the proof she needs that indeed, anything is possible.
“These horses are really loved,” Causin said.
More information
For more information, visit rockinga.com, kittysilverwings.com or call (408) 846-1553.
