Call Me Dolly, or Dolly for short, is one of those adorable miniature horses you just want to hug and squeeze. Or at least I do! While I know mini horses are still horses with personalities, behavioral quirks, and everything else that can come with being a horse and that too much spoiling is bad, they always remind me of stuffed animals. So I alaways just want to hug and love them.
Dolly, however, did not share my love of hugs and snuggles. She came from a big breeder where the horses were handled and trained, but they weren’t coddled pets. And her owner had been quite ill for a long time, so Dolly and her pals had been left to their own devices. And quite frankly, Dolly was fine with that.
She came to us when her owner went into hospice care and the family decided the horses needed to move on so they could focus on her instead of her horses. Dolly moved into a foster home and settled in quickly. Her foster home said she was ok to catch, lead very well, and had obviouslhy been handled. But she would prefer to not be pet and wanted to rule the roost.
That didn’t seem like the recipe for a quick adoption, really. But a good friend and mentor of mine always said there was a person out there for each horse (or mini horse) and Dolly managed to find hers about ten months after she arrived at Bluebonnet.
She’s now part of a three mini herd. Her new “mom” said she settled in well and that all three of her little equines get along great. Dolly also seems to like her new human family: she lets her adopter catch her, lead her, and handle her with no fuss.
She’s fitting into her new home beautifully, her adopter says. And who knows? Maybe Dolly will eventually learn to love hugs and snuggles, too!