LOLA

Birthday: 2005 Gender: Mare Color: Bay

Lola was given to us by a very sweet young lady who was convinced the Lord wanted her to go back to school for nursing. As she walked in obedience to Him, she felt that, though it would nearly break her heart, it would be wise to sell her two horses – both for some ready money, and also to free up her time for studies. After some tearful wrestling, she sold her gelding, but didn’t feel right about letting Lola go to any of her potential buyers. She told us it was hard to let her go to just anybody because “Lola has brought me through a lot of tough times and I always felt like she was taking care of me.” In September, 2016 she decided to donate her to us. She felt it was more worthwhile that Lola keep helping kids through tough situations – than that she should make money. After Lola’s arrival at the ranch, we looked up the meaning of her name and learned that it means “sorrowful.” Her name put a whole new perspective on information we had gathered about her. Not only did we know she had participated in alleviating her former owner’s sorrows and troubles, she had also lived through sad circumstances of her own. She was bred and trained for speed games and cow work. She was good at it, and she loved doing it. Yet she was forced to give it all up when her former owner discovered that she had genetic hock issues, and that the sports she loved so much had made it worse. While situations around her (both her own, and her owner’s) have been occasionally sorrowful, God has faithfully brought sweetness out of them all. Her “personality,” is sweet; she has sweetened her former owner’s life; her hock bones will eventually fuse together and she will be free of pain again and able to participate in a lower level of sports. And now she has the work of sweetening the lives of sorrowful visitors to our ranch.