This is my first time doing something like this so I'm not sure how it all works so I'll start by explaining the situation.
When my wife still lived at home with her parents she had a horse called Bella. She competed in dressage events and it was a big part of the family activity. Bella was picked and purchased for my wife by her mum and that horse was the pride and joy of her mum.
When me and my wife first met, her dad sadly didn't approve of me or our relationship and over time this caused the family to drift apart and after we got married all contact was severed.
What we didn't know at the time was her dad was struggling with mental health issues which he kept to himself, this was the sole cause of his attitude towards me and his disapproval. After my wife moved in with me, all her stuff, including her horse Bella, was sold and we have had no contact with her parents for two years.
We reached out afew months ago and her dad was a completely different person, he couldn't apologise enough for the past. Sadly we also learned that my wife's mum passed away six months ago and she is an absolute wreck, she blames herself for not being there with her at the end.
I have been doing some extensive online searching and I managed to find Bella and after explaining the story to her new owner, she agreed to sell her back to me. That horse meant everything to my wife's mum so I want to buy her back as a surprise to my wife, I want to give her a little piece of her mum back to her. I am planning on getting a bank loan in order to do this but my friend mentioned crowdfunding and said there are lovely people out there that might be able to help so I thought I'd give it a try before going to the bank.