Kimberly Lewis, a former vet tech and 911 dispatcher, was looking to buy a horse. She and her husband looked at multiple beautiful horses, but none of them really connected with Kimberly. Then they visited an animal shelter and everything changed.
At the shelter Kimberly found an abused mare she would later name Dolly. In an interview with The Dodo, Kimberly said “She was a heartbreaking sight. Total skin and bones, hair matted, hooves overgrown.” Dolly was a breed mare owned by a abusive breeder who started her too young. When she lost her first baby, the owner was outraged. “He beat her and starved her, and kept her locked in a small pen,” Kimberly said.
After the previous owner gave up on Dolly, she was given to a relative who recognized her terrible condition and brought the shattered horse to the shelter. “I called my husband and told him I wanted her,” Kimberly explained. “All I knew was she deserves a chance to be a horse.”
Kimberly paid the shelter $50 and took Dolly home to their farm in Tennyson, Texas. Neither Kimberly nor her husband knew what would happen next.
When she arrived at the farm Dolly weighed a mere 812 lbs, which is a terribly low weight for a horse standing 16 hands tall. After a year of love and care, Dolly recovered her lost weight and is now a healthy 1,400 lbs.
Her attitude has improved as well. When Kimberly first met Dolly she noticed the mare’s sad eyes, they looked almost lifeless. Now there’s a brightness withing her dark eyes that’s plain as day. “The biggest change is her eyes and her personality,” Kimberly said. “She is a goofy girl and loves to follow me around.”
Dolly wasn’t the only one to benefit from her adoption, Kimberly feels saved as well. “The thing is, as corny as it sounds, we rescued each other,” she said. “I am constantly learning from her, becoming a better person because of her.”
As long as there are caring people like Kimberly in this world, there’s hope.