After 21 years together, help Cody give Imperial Melody the happy, healthy retirement she deserves.

If you know Cody, chances are you know Melly.

Imperial Melody — affectionately known as Melly (personally nicknamed Melly Belly), but to most of us simply “The Queen” — has been beside Cody for 21 years.

He got her when she was two.

She’s 23 now.

That means they’ve spent virtually Cody’s entire adult life together.

And Melly has never been an ordinary horse.

She’s only 15.3hh — with new shoes on — but nobody ever told her she was small.

And if they did, she didn’t care.

Together, Cody and Melly competed at the 5-star level in Three-Day Eventing, jumping some of the biggest fences in the sport and proudly representing Canada together.

She loved it.

She loved to jump. She loved to compete. And when it mattered, she had the heart of a lion.

But anyone who actually knows Melly knows that being an incredible athlete is only half the story.

Melly gives zero fucks about what anyone thinks of her.

She has always known exactly who she is. She does what she wants, when she wants, and the rest of us are basically here to serve her and provide treats on demand.

She’s opinionated.

She’s unbelievably tough.

She’s completely unapologetic.

She’s also incredibly spooky and has a very strong sense of self-preservation — usually at everyone else’s expense.

Somehow, the same little horse who would fearlessly tackle some of the biggest jumps in the world can still be convinced that she might die walking through the same barn door she has walked through for 21 years.

That’s Melly.

She’s The Queen. She knows it. And the rest of us know our place.

Now, after everything she has given Cody for 21 years, we’re trying to help him give something back to her.

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We Found Something We Never Expected

Over the past year, Melly has experienced three episodes of colic.

After the third one, Cody couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

He knows this horse.

And he kept pushing for answers.

Eventually, further investigation revealed a large, freely mobile mass inside Melly’s abdomen.

We still don’t know exactly what it is.

And getting that answer has been far more difficult than any of us expected.

Because of where the mass is located, how mobile it is and the structures surrounding it, testing and biopsy have not been straightforward.

The options have been incredibly limited.

Cody has spent months gathering records, asking questions, researching, speaking with veterinarians and advocating for Melly.

There have been points where it felt like there simply wasn’t a good path forward.

But he kept looking.

Not because he wants to put a 23-year-old horse through treatment at any cost.

Quite the opposite.

Melly’s quality of life comes first.

If Cody is going to ask her to go through this, he wants to know that he has done everything possible to give her the safest and best chance.

And right now, Melly is telling us she still wants that chance.

She’s bright.

She’s eating.

She’s happy.

She’s pushing Cody around.

She is completely, unmistakably Melly.

As far as The Queen is concerned, we’re all being dramatic.

And that is exactly why we want to act while she still feels this good.

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We Searched Across North America

This case isn’t as simple as finding a surgeon willing to remove an abdominal mass.

Melly is 23 and also has a compromised hind limb.

That means Cody needed a team capable of looking at the entire horse — the mass, her leg, the surgical approach, anesthesia and, critically, how to get her safely through recovery.

He spoke with numerous veterinary hospitals across North America before ultimately deciding to take Melly from Ontario to Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania.

For the first time in this process, there is a real plan.

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The Plan for Melly

When Melly arrives at New Bolton, the team will start by performing detailed imaging to reassess and map the mass.

The following day, Dr. David Levine will perform a complete lameness evaluation so her leg can be considered as part of the overall surgical and recovery plan.

Then comes surgery.

Dr. Levine will be joined by Dr. Maia Aitken, whose work includes gastrointestinal and emergency surgery and critical care.

There is a long-shot possibility that, depending on what their imaging shows, the surgeons may be able to reach and remove the mass while Melly remains standing.

If that is possible, she may be able to avoid general anesthesia altogether.

But it truly is a long shot.

We won’t know until their team has examined her and completed their own imaging.

If general anesthesia is required, one of the biggest reasons Cody chose New Bolton is the number of recovery options they have available.

Their facilities include an equine pool recovery system, an Anderson Sling and several other assisted sling and support systems.

No one is pretending to know today which option will be right for Melly.

That decision will be made once the surgeons know exactly what they’re dealing with.

And that is exactly what Cody wanted:

Options.

After surgery, Melly is expected to remain at New Bolton for several days before transferring to a rehabilitation facility, where she will likely spend another four to six weeks recovering before she can finally come home.

The goal is simple:

Remove the mass if it can be safely removed.

Find out exactly what it is.

Get Melly safely through recovery.

And bring The Queen home.

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This Time, Cody Needs Help

Anyone who knows Cody knows that asking for help is not something that comes naturally to him.

I’ve watched him step up again and again when other people, animals and causes needed help.

He has organized fundraisers.

He has donated.

He has rallied people together.

He has helped without expecting anything back.

But he almost never asks for help for himself.

This time is different.

Getting Melly from Ontario to Pennsylvania, completing the diagnostics, involving multiple specialists, performing surgery, hospitalizing her and then supporting four to six weeks of rehabilitation is expected to cost approximately:

$30,000

So this time, I’m asking for him.

I’m asking people to help Cody do for Melly what I’ve watched him do for so many others.

Funds raised will help cover her transportation and cross-border requirements, diagnostic imaging and specialist evaluations, surgery, anesthesia and assisted recovery if required, hospitalization and medications, postoperative care, and her rehabilitation.

The final cost will depend on what the New Bolton team discovers and what Melly ultimately needs.

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You’re Coming With Us

Cody made one decision very early in this process:

If people are going to help Melly, they deserve to come along for the journey.

So he is going to document it.

The preparations in Ontario.

Her export paperwork.

Loading up for Pennsylvania.

Arriving at New Bolton.

The imaging.

The evaluations.

The decisions.

Surgery.

Recovery.

Rehabilitation.

And hopefully, the moment we have all been waiting for:

bringing The Queen home.

We don’t know how this story ends.

There may be great news.

There may be setbacks.

There may be difficult decisions.

We aren’t going to pretend otherwise.

We’re going to share the journey honestly as it happens.

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And If We Raise More Than Melly Needs

We currently do not know whether Melly’s mass is cancer, and we desperately hope that it isn’t.

But we want something bigger to come from her story regardless.

Any funds raised beyond Melly’s actual medical, transportation and rehabilitation expenses will be donated to Penn Vet/New Bolton Center to support equine cancer research.

If we are fortunate enough to raise more than Melly needs, we hope her journey can help another horse and another family facing something like this in the future.

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She Gave Him 21 Years

It’s hard to explain what 21 years with one horse means.

Melly carried Cody over some of the biggest jumps in the sport.

They competed at the highest level of Three-Day Eventing.

They represented Canada together, and they did it proudly.

She gave him everything she had.

And Cody isn’t asking her for another competition.

He isn’t asking her for another five-star.

He isn’t asking her for one more jump.

He just wants to give her the thing she has earned more than anything else:

A happy, healthy retirement.

If you can help us give Melly that chance, please donate.

If you can’t donate, please share her story. A share may be what puts this in front of the person who can help us get her there.

For 21 years, Melly gave Cody everything she had.

Now it’s our turn to help him give something back to her.

Let’s Bring The Queen Home.

~ Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Lindsay Kuipers