Horse Illustrated Magazine

Bubbles is approximately 25 years old. He has stumpy ears, likely due to frostbite earlier in his mysterious life. When he ended up in the kill pen in Texas, he wasn’t a likely candidate for rescue, until he took matters into his own hooves.

Becky’s Hope Horse Rescue of Frisco, Texas, happened to be at the lot to take a herd of mini donkeys back to their rescue facility. For some reason, Bubbles seemed to know that their trailer was the place he wanted to be at that moment, and he pushed through the gates and chutes toward it, then waited for the herd of donkeys to catch up as if he wanted to blend right in with them.

At this point, the rescuers from Becky’s Hope couldn’t turn him away, so they added another equine to their herd. After posting Bubbles’ story on Facebook, local news outlets picked up the tale of the horse who “staged his own rescue” by pretending to be a donkey—despite his decidedly undonkey-like ears.

Bubbles now has a forever home with Becky’s Hope. With his kind eyes and personable nature, he’ll be an ambassador for rescue horses, encouraging horse lovers to consider adopting a senior horse. Bubbles is proof that at any age and regardless of an uncertain background, older horses have plenty of love and life left in them.

Becky’s Hope Horse Rescue is a 501(c)(3) non-profit rescue organization for horses and farm animals. According to the rescue’s website, they are named after the first horse they rescued. Becky is now 23 years old and still lives on the farm as the herd matriarch and official spokeshorse of the organization.

Leslie Potter is a writer and photographer based in Lexington, Kentucky. www.lesliepotterphoto.com