08/13/2025
Another adoption success story, featuring Pistol and Lovey.
Earlier this year, Bearfoot Ranch was contacted by a sweet woman who was looking for a home for two beautiful horses, Pistol and Lovey. Her elderly mother who cared for these horses for years had to go into a memory care facility and she, the daughter, lived two hours away. The new responsibility of taking care of the horses or trying to find someone to take care of them, became very difficult. She had to make the heartbreaking decision to rehome her mothers horses.
Bearfoot Ranch was contacted and we went straight away to pick up Pistol and Lovey, we didn’t want them to be separated since they had been a bonded pair for so long. Once they were at Bearfoot Ranch, they stuck together and distanced themselves from the herd. They were in a totally new world, but they had each other for support. Both horses were extremely kind and gentle, just scared.
After a few days, they stated to acclimate to their new home and became more curious about the other horses and about us. They accepted more scratches and love from the volunteers and they started trusting us.
Pistol is a 23 year old Quarter Horse gelding, red dun color. Lovey is also 23 years old, Tennessee Walking Horse mare, black color. We tried both horses in our therapeutic lesson program and found Pistol has fused hocks and Lovey has a history of Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM).
Pistol was able to be used very lightly at a walk and limited short trots in lessons with small children. We supported his fused hocks with stretches, medication and bodywork and, liniment after lessons.
Lovey’s EPM (caused by contaminated opossum fecies that have an infectious protozoa that crosses the blood brain-barrier and infects the central nervous system) caused her gait to be extremely “swishy” so beginning riders found her difficult to ride. She was not in pain but because of the way her body moved, we did not use her for lessons and let her enjoy her life grazing all day in the pasture.
Over the summer, we tried Lovey at a foster farm but it didn’t work out. Everything happens for a reason, that reason was that she and Pistol were meant to be together!
A friend of Bearfoot Ranch had a sister that was looking for two horses to adopt. She wanted easy, friendly and tenderhearted horses to be her pretty pasture pets. We immediately considered Pistol and Lovey. She came to the ranch to meet them and fell in love!
This past weekend, Pistol and Lovey were officially adopted and moved to their new forever home. We are thrilled to report both horses are doing great and their new Mom is overjoyed to have horses again. Once a horse girl, always a horse girl!
We are so blessed to have the support we need to help horses and humans. We cannot do it without your help! Please consider making a donation to Bearfoot Ranch so we can continue our mission, YOU can make a difference!
To donate, visit our website:
https://bearfootranch.org/donate/
