Marathoner goes extra mile to help horse rescue center
[teaser]Excerpted from an article by Kimberly Piña in the Houston Chronicle.[/teaser]
Five miles north of Katy on more than 70 acres of green pastures is where Pops and Honey are living out the golden years of their life, relaxing and enjoying time together.
They often have visitors who spend time with them like Katy mom Kelli Kerkhoff, who said she is grateful to see the couple happy now after neglect and suffering marred their lives.
“Pops is just really sweet and he was about to be sent off to a slaughterhouse so he was brought there,” said Kerkhoff, 39. “And Honey had been kept in a garage for a couple of years and she was underweight and malnourished but she’s there now and doing well.”
Pops and Honey are enjoying a different kind of retirement as horses, being protected and cared for at the Blue Ribbon Equine Horse Rescue at 25150 Beckendorff Road. As a volunteer, Kerkhoff grooms horses, walks them around and feeds them.
“I’ve always had a love for animals, dogs, cats and horses especially, and since they can’t speak for themselves, I have a strong urge to work with them,” said Kerkhoff, who grew up around horses as a child and sought out a place to volunteer after she and her family moved to Katy last year.
Kerkhoff recently combined her love of horses and running to participate in the Chevron Houston Marathon in January to raise funds and awareness for the horse rescue. An avid runner who has competed in five other marathons, Kerkhoff trained with a Katy-area running group for six months to prepare for the Houston marathon.
“I ran my fastest marathon yet by 13 minutes and qualified for the Boston Marathon,” said Kerkhoff, who ran in a rainy and windy Houston marathon. “It was a total shock that I qualified, especially considering how bad the weather was.”
Kerkhoff was “Hoofin’ It for Horses” at the marathon, a catchy name that Blue Ribbon owner Barbara Jacobs came up with once Kerkhoff decided to run to support the rescue.
Read the rest of the article here.