Forever After All, 501c3 Nonprofit Organization

04/29/2026

Give Big Gallatin Valley is our community’s 24-hour giving initiative, bringing people across Gallatin County together to support the nonprofits that make this place what it is.

This year, every gift is 100% fee-free, so every dollar you give goes directly to the nonprofits you choose.

Since 2015, our community has raised more than $20.4 million for 489 nonprofits across Gallatin County. Join your neighbors April 30 - May 1 and be part of a tradition of generosity.

I’m ready to support Forever After All on April 30, 2026 during Give Big Gallatin Valley 2026. Learn more about Forever After All and all the other organizations participating in Give Big Gallatin Valley 2026.

03/25/2026

Forever After All is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to lifelong, ethical retirement planning for aging, unsound, and retired ranch and performance horses. It was created to fill a critical gap in the equine industry: when horses can no longer work, many ranches and programs lack the resources to keep them, putting these horses at risk.

Forever After All is not a rescue. It focuses on proactive, responsible retirement stewardship for horses who have spent their lives working carrying guests, working cattle, and competing. Its mission is to ensure retirement is not temporary, conditional, or uncertain.

Melissa, the founder of Forever After All, is a Montana native and a Certified Equine Sports Massage Therapist and PEMF practitioner. Raised with horses as a central part of her life, she grew up riding across mountains and trails, ranching, outfitting, roping, barrel racing, and working in guest operations. Over the years, her husband and her have personally placed retired horses in trusted homes across the country but eventually reached capacity leading to the creation of Forever After All, a sanctuary dedicated to ensuring these horses can live out their lives with dignity, stability, and lifelong care.

Through its sanctuary model, partnerships, and education, Forever After All ensures these horses are honored with dignity, stability, and lifelong care.

Pictured below is Bo, who was at a Montana Guest Ranch for 13 years below landing his retirement at Forever After All.

01/20/2026

Forever After All

“A permanent sanctuary for retired horses, because retirement should be a reward…not a risk.” -Founder Melissa Puckett

Our Purpose & The Problem We Address

Forever After All is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) dedicated to providing lifelong sanctuary and retirement for aging, unsound, and retired working/guest ranch, and performance horses.

Founded by Melissa and Kurt Puckett, the organization was created to address a serious and growing gap in the equine industry: What happens to horses after their working years on the ranch are over?
These horses have spent their lives serving people, carrying guests, working cattle ranches, competing, and forming deep bonds with their handlers. Forever After All exists to ensure their final chapters are written with stability, dignity, and compassionate care.
Across the United States, thousands of horses are retired each year due to age, soundness, or health limitations. While many are still healthy and content in pasture settings, permanent retirement options are limited. Long-term care is expensive, space is scarce, and well-intentioned owners often face heartbreaking decisions.
As a result, retired horses are frequently rehomed multiple times, placed in unsuitable environments, or transported far from familiar surroundings. In the worst cases, horses who have provided decades of service are sent to slaughter simply because safe retirement options do not exist.
“Forever After All was created to be a guarantee that retirement is not temporary, conditional, or uncertain.” -Founder Melissa Puckett
Our Sanctuary Model
Forever After All offers permanent, pasture-based retirement focused on quality of life. Horses remain in familiar environments whenever possible, with attention to herd dynamics and emotional well-being. The sanctuary emphasizes natural pasture living, access to feed, water, and shelters, stable herd structures, and minimal stall use, ensuring each horse enjoys freedom, comfort, and a dignified, secure retirement.
Education & Stewardship
Forever After All also serves as a teaching and stewardship-based program. Through workshops, mentorship, and community outreach, the organization shares knowledge on responsible horse ownership, aging care, and lifelong welfare. These efforts help prevent future neglect and promote ethical, informed decision-making throughout the equine community.
Our Promise
Every horse accepted into Forever After All is promised a permanent home for life, where they will be cared for with compassion, respect, and individualized attention. Each horse receives ethical, thoughtful care tailored to their unique needs, ensuring comfort, stability, and dignity throughout their retirement years. Once a horse enters our program, they are protected from sale, abandonment, or slaughter and will remain safe, valued, and secure for the rest of their natural life.
Comprehensive Care
At Forever After All, aging and retired horses receive individualized, lifelong care tailored to their age, health, and comfort. Each horse benefits from regular veterinary attention, dental care, farrier services, and customized feeding programs, along with daily monitoring for health and behavior. When needed, horses also receive advanced therapies such as PEMF, massage, chiropractic care, acupuncture, red light, and laser treatments. Every decision prioritizes the horse’s quality of life, dignity, and safety.
“Because retirement should honor a lifetime of service, not put it at risk.” -Founder Melissa Puckett
Donations & Support
Forever After All is sustained through individual sponsorships, donations, and community support. Sponsors receive regular updates and stories about the horses in our care, along with the assurance that their contributions provide comfort, stability, and security for life.
Donations directly support the daily needs of the horses, including quality feed and nutritional supplements, routine and emergency veterinary care, farrier services, and therapeutic treatments, including PEMF therapy, equine massage, chiropractic care, acupuncture, red light therapy, and laser therapy, all focused on comfort and quality of life. Support also helps maintain pastures, shelters, and essential infrastructure on currently leased land, as well as providing general horse supplies such as blankets, halters, grooming tools, and daily care equipment.
Forever After All is raising funds for long-term infrastructure projects that ensure we can care for retired horses safely and ethically for decades to come. These projects include securing additional pastureland for low-stress retirement, building and improving fencing, pastures, and run-in shelters to protect horses from extreme weather, and installing reliable electricity and water access. Planned improvements also include automatic waterers for year-round clean water, the construction of a dedicated barn with a veterinary care room for medical supplies, feeding, therapy, and emergency shelter, and the development of our website and secure online giving platform so supporters can learn, sponsor horses, receive updates, and donate safely.
Gifts toward these projects are investments in permanence, creating the space, safety, and stability retired horses need to remain home for life. Every improvement directly supports our promise of lifelong sanctuary.
Support a Forever After All Retiree
With your donation, retired horses get to stay in the home they know — forever after all. Your support provides lifelong care, comfort, and dignity for horses who have already given so much.

Forever After All
6334 Madison Road
Three Forks, MT 59752
Registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
[email protected]
Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Bo-sorrel thoroughbred pictured below is 35+ years old
Two Ton-quarter horse chestnut pictured below is 20ish
Prizm paint pictured below is 30isg hhc

01/11/2026

We did it!!!!

I am beyond thrilled and deeply grateful to share that Forever After All is now officially a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. What started as a simple dream in my heart has grown into a vision and now, that vision is a reality. We created Forever After All to provide a true retirement for the horses who have spent their lives giving so much to people in ways that can never be measured. These are the horses who have changed lives, taught people to ride, carried riders safely through their first fears and biggest milestones, and traveled countless miles in the backcountry, always showing up with quiet steadiness, strength, and heart. Now, it’s our turn to do right by them.

Our mission at Forever After All is to provide a permanent sanctuary for retired horses, ensuring they live out their lives with dignity, stability, and love. We honor the service and companionship these horses have given throughout their lives by guaranteeing that their later years are safe, comfortable, and fulfilling. This means they are surrounded by familiar pastures and herd mates, protected by safe fencing, with reliable water, shelter, proper nutrition, and daily care tailored to their aging needs. Each horse receives multiple feedings if needed, appropriate grain, veterinary or therapeutic care, protection from the elements, and consistent, hands-on attention from people who understand and respect them as they grow older.

This work is very much in progress, but it is full of purpose, hope, and gratitude. I truly believe 2026 will be a remarkable year. I had a vision to redefine what horse retirement could look like, and I am committed to seeing it through one horse at a time. So they can live on Forever After All.

If you would like to learn more about Forever After All, volunteer, or support this mission, please feel free to call 406-231-2435 donations can be mailed to Forever After All, 6334 Madison Road, Three Forks, Montana 59752.

Forever After All is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

From the bottom of Kurt and my heart, thank you for believing in this vision, sharing it with others, and helping us to build something meaningful and lasting for the horses who have given us so much.

Below Picture: Two Ton and Braxton, Two Ton is a Forever After All Retiree. He has been at the Covered Wagon Ranch for 10 years and now enjoying retirement with his best friend, Daizy. Before retirement Two Ton taught lots of kids to ride, rope and went out on trail rides. He loved to work cows and loves people….especially the little ones!

❤ Founders-Kurt & Melissa Puckett

11/07/2023

https://coveredwagonranch.com/blog/2023/11/forever-after-all

We have a problem. And we found the solution….. My husband and I own and operate a guest ranch that specializes in horses and backcountry riding. A lot of our […]