Horse Community Bands Together to Support Knaus Family Who Lost Eight Horses in Barn Fire the Week Before APHA World Show
By: Brittany Bevis
Image courtesy of Peggy Knaus.
Typically, this time in October is marked by hopeful anticipation as Paint Horse enthusiasts prepare for the largest event of the year, the APHA Fall World Championship Show. Horse trailers are cleaned, show tack is polished, and vet certificates are readied to make the journey to Fort Worth, Texas for the prestigious event.
That was the plan for Peggy Knaus and her daughter Summer until a late night barn fire on October 25th destroyed their barn, tack, show clothing, equipment and took the lives of their eight show horses. Now that the insurance company has made their final assessment and the horses have properly been laid to rest, Knaus is beginning to sift through the remains of what’s left from her 20 odd years spent as a trainer in the industry.
“It’s rough,” Knaus says. “We lost all eight of my World Show horses and Summer’s two horses. All of the horses were going to the World Show next week. Another week and it all would’ve been different…”
“The insurance company wouldn’t let us start getting cleaned up until they were finished. We’re now just starting. I found all the bits and spurs that I could find and a couple of metal feeder rings, but there is nothing else. We lost the truck, the tractor, the golf cart, all of our bridles, show equipment, and show clothes. The house here is very small, so we kept everything in the barn. I can’t even list all of the stuff that we lost, all of the things that you don’t think about until they are gone, like tools or a screwdriver or something it takes to fix a fence. Literally, everything that we owned was in there. We don’t even own a brush.”
Knaus explains that the windy conditions during the night of the fire and the excellent insulation in the barn are what helped the blaze burn so hot and fast. This unfortunate combination of circumstances meant that the horses stabled inside had no chance of escape.
“The fire department was actually dispatched well before we knew anything was wrong,” she says. “The wind was blowing from the north and carrying the smell away from the house. A neighbor on the other side [of the property] had a dog who started barking. He got up and saw the flames. By that time, the roof had already caved in, and we knew anything in the barn was gone. The whole barn was very well-insulated. There isn’t a piece of wood left from the tresses. The metal shell actually held it up for a long time before it collapsed. That was about 4 o’clock in the morning.”
One positive note amidst all of this sadness is that Knaus’s premier APHA hunt seat stallion, All Time Fancy, was not in the barn at the time of the fire. He, along with seven other horses that were housed outside, all survived the blaze. Although the survival of her stallion is a bright spot in the darkness, Knaus is just now coming to the realization that she no longer has the items necessary to care for the remaining horses, let alone to prepare for the upcoming 2014 breeding season.
“The other day, I was sitting in the yard with a horse,” she says. “I was thinking, if he got sick, I don’t even own a syringe and my vet lives an hour away. I wouldn’t bring most of these horses in until spring, but we hope to put up a building before February 1st, when breeding season starts. We only have a couple of months before the ground freezes too hard where we can’t build anything.”
“Nike [All Time Fancy] is at Brad’s [Perkins]. He needs to be under lights, which I don’t have. He will be ready to go December 1st to freeze semen for overseas. I want to bring him home. I miss him.”
Knaus took a moment to remember the eight horses that she and her daughter will deeply miss.
“The two oldest horses were eight years old,” she says. “Knockin Boots, aka “Destiny,” and Looked All Over, aka “Outkast,” were both Summer’s horses that she showed. Outkast is a six-time World Champion. I just got an e-mail from the Missouri Paint Horse Club that said that Summer and Destiny and Outkast won all of the High Points for the year.”
Summer Knaus and Looked All Over. Photo courtesy of Peggy Knaus.
“[Another horse lost was] Awesome All The Time, a 3-year-old hunter under saddle horse. I had three three-year-olds: All I Do Is Win, Way Too Fancy, and Big All Star. The World Show would’ve been the first time any of those would’ve been shown. All of them were by Nike. We had a yearling in the Select sale that hadn’t ever been shown. He was still a stallion, and he was a really cool horse. He was a blue roan by Nike. Then, I had a Quarter Horse mare named Best Annie Ever. She was by RL Best of Sudden. She was a really cool little mare. They are all buried on the property.”
While the recovery process continues for Knaus Show Horses, members of the horse industry have banded together to help in any way they can.
“People have been really wonderful,” she says. “We didn’t own a brush or a halter after it happened. It’s incredible the amount of things [you need] when you start thinking about it. We’ve had people who don’t know anything about horses come by and give us a hug or give us money. One little old lady stopped by and gave me $10. That was probably all she had.”
“People have been dropping stuff by our gate like halters and buckets. People are really kind. You don’t realize how many good people are out there until something like this happens.”
If you have any horse-related items to donate to the Knaus family, they can be shipped directly to Peggy Knaus at 4406 East 253rd Street Cleveland, Missouri, 64734. In addition, a Peggy Knaus Show Horses Barn Fire Relief Fund has been set up on FundRazr.com. $5,295 has been raised thus far with 79 contributors participating. Also, a benefit page has been set up on Facebook, Knaus Show Horses Benefit, with auction items that include, but are not limited to, the following.
Stallion breedings:
- All Up Honor- APHA
- Scenic Zipaloot- APHA
- Mellow Yellow Zippo- AQHA
- CK Style- AQHA
- Hot By Invitation- AQHA
- The Gift Of Midas- APHA
- Lazy Loper- AQHA
- The Best Martini- AQHA
- Winnies Willy- AQHA
- John Simon- APHA
- Heza Kidclusion- AQHA
- Blazing N Style/APHA/AQHA
- He’s Suddenly Famous- APHA/AQHA
Items:
- five stalls for the 2014 Reichert Celebration
- a fleece necksweat
- LKM Design Print/Logo certificates
- JML Design Full Page Ad Design
- Scott Schuetz Web Hosting/Domain Services
- Silver Buckle Services – Equine Marketing Web & Ad Design
- B. Hornbeck Custom framed drawing of All Time Fancy
We would like to send our love and prayers to the Knaus family during this difficult time and wish them the very best in recovery and rehabilitation moving forward.
