Our Story

My name is Leana Kennedy. I am the proud mother and step mother to 2 boys with a loving husband that supports most of my constant evolving dreams. We own a waste removal company and a fishing business. I manage our garbage business which includes: waste collection, recycling product sales, education, project management and consulting services. Shane manages his crews, gear prep and maintenance. He captains a snow crab vessel during the spring and a lobster vessel in the summer.

My home is full of boys that love either sports or video games, I however, love horses, donkeys and alpacas. Horses and my love for them have been a part of my life, on and off, since birth. My love for donkeys began over a decade ago when I was visiting my sisters farm and woke up to the sound of her donkey braying. I knew at that moment that one day, I would have a donkey of my own. Alpacas I find intriguing and hilarious but honestly they were a bit of an impulse buy but I have big plans for them.

The journey that led me to start these new venture began unexpectedly in 2020 when I sent Glimmer, my only horse at that time, for training at Meadow Brook Stables (MBS). The first year I worked on the road extensively and I barely even went to see her. However in 2021, I started making myself and her a priority and began going once a week.

I met some amazing, knowledgeable and like minded people at MBS and one of my very best friends. Through friendships, new experiences, hard work and partnerships I became immersed into a world I never thought possible. Working with animals as a career had never been an option to me and every time I go to the barn, I learn or experience something new.

Later in 2021 and 2022, I decided to make some big life changes and began to follow my dreams, even though I didn’t really have all the kinks worked out. One thing was for certain, I found a part of me I put on the back burner 23 years ago when I sold my first horse and I am determined to not let that happen again.

The rest has kind of been a whirlwind. I purchased more horses, a herd of alpacas and a few more mini donkeys than I had originally planned. You see, I was supposed to purchase 2 mini donkeys in the Fall of 2022. Somehow, instead of 2, I purchased 7 and than 1 had a foal. Today, our current herds consists of 4 horses, 5 alpacas and 8 mini donkeys with 4 on the way.

Most people seem to get the horse purchases but common questions I am regularly asked by family and friends are:

- Why do you have a herd of mini donkeys?

- What are alpacas?

- What do you even do with these animals?

- Why?

So here goes…

The horses are starting to all have jobs:

- Glimmer is now a working horse at MBS and provides advanced riders with a few lessons per week.

- Trashy has produced 2 foals for us that have sold to Canada and the United States. She has been in training at MBS to gain experience and confidence under saddle when her foals are weaned and off to their new homes.

- Jazz has produced 2 foals for us that have sold to Belgium and the United States. She is heading off to a local university for the next few months to be pampered by students while she gets to be the teachers aid in the university’s equine program.

- Soran was my first foal born in Nova Scotia from Jazz. I imprinted with him at birth and have a strong connection with him. He sold to Arizona but is my boomerang horse that came back to me. I purchased him back and moved him to Texas for training to see if he has what it takes to make it in the reining world and a potential stud when the time comes.

The alpacas all have chocolate bar themed names:

- KitKat is definitely the drama of the group, she missed her calling as a rodeo queen and likes to show us her skills on herd health days

- Cookies-n-Cream aka Cookie is the most unique color and has the coolest eyes. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything that looks as unique as her.

- Twix is the friendliest and definitely the most curious and confident of the herd. She loves her food and snacks.

- Mirage aka Coffee Crisp aka Karen (no offence to any lovely humans named Karen) is the spitter, you gotta be on your toes with her. She’s got a tough exterior but I think there’s hope that one day she’ll love our snuggles.

- Hershey is dark chocolate brown and she keeps to her self and doesn’t cause trouble.

The alpacas jobs have consisted of producing crias (baby alpacas), fleece and manure.

- Hershey, Coffee, Cookie and KitKat have produced Skor, Jersey, Oh Henry and Aero. The 3 boys sold to our close friends in Nova Scotia and our female cria sold to Newfoundland.

- Fleece - all the alpacas have been shorn and will be shorn annually. We will be selling their fleece once it returns from local manufacturers through our company TruLee Alpacas that will be launching in 2024.

- We will be offering experiences with the alpacas as well as manure sales.

Last but definitely not least, the mini donkeys. The donkeys role so far is mainly to be cute and cuddly. However, they have recently become working donkeys.

The animals ensure I get fresh air, exercise and social time. I am learning daily from them their behaviours, herd dynamics, likes and dislikes. I find them extremely useful for reducing my stress and anxiety and their mad skills are too good to not share with people.

In Spring of 2022, a friend and I travelled to Toronto and took an Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) Course. Here, I learned what I would like to do as my next career. I still will manage our waste removal company but have hired a manager to run the day-to-day waste collection portion of the company. My husband is sharing more of my other roles in his off seasons so that I can chase my dreams and build OakLee Equines, TruLee Alpacas and OwnLee Dwellings.