Who has over 20,000 followers on Instagram, her own foundation, and Beyoncé (well, the mini horse version) as a member of her squad? This gal!
I’m Peeps, a five-year-old mini dwarf rescue currently living the good life with my human pals, Alex Granato and Josh Dolan. I tolerate both of them since they saved my life and all, and according to Josh, I’ll be with them for the rest of my life. We spend the summers in Lexington, Kentucky, and the winters in Wellington, Florida. Not too shabby, eh?
My days start bright and early, and I never have to hit snooze because I’m a big proponent of going to bed at a responsible hour. “No matter how early you get to the barn, she is always there, ready to be fed,” Josh says. I’ll refer to him as Dad from here on out. “That’s what she lives for.” For breakfast, I get half a scoop of senior feed, which might be surprising to some people, but a girl’s gotta eat!
Once we dine, my friends and I migrate outside to soak up some rays. “Our barn is 13 acres [and] the regular dwarf turnout is the whole property line on [one] side,” Dad says. I get along with everyone, so turnout always feels like social hour to me. “She’s probably the only mini we have who is genuinely friends with everybody,” Dad shares. “She’s the only one who can intermingle with them all because I think they all know that it’s her foundation.”
Speaking of foundation, did you know that my humans have rescued over 400 mini horses so far? I’m so proud to be the face of such an amazing organization that provides all of my mini sisters and brothers with fairytale endings just like mine. Right now, there are about 30 minis at our farm in Florida, and as the one and only Peeps, I take my responsibility as mascot very seriously. “She is always the nicest to a newcomer. All of them can be like, ‘This is my herd; get out,’ but she’s always first to meet them,” Dad says.
If you think I'm sassy, meet my friend Adiah HP.
One of the many perks of being me is that I’m often granted free range of the barn. “Sometimes, we’ll just let her loose and she’ll come in the ring and hang out,” Dad says. “She’s actually one of the few that we don’t put a lead rope on when we lead her in because she knows the drill.”
I know that my life seems super glam, but it wasn’t always that way. Five years ago, Dad was showing in Lexington and happened to drive by a mini horse farm. “It was horrific,” he remembers. “I saw [Peeps] first — that’s why we turned in — and her mom was just a walking skeleton. Peeps couldn’t even stand up on her hooves. I left the guy a note and he said he’d sell them to me, so I bought 21 that day and 46 in total.”
And, as the old saying goes, the rest was history. Within the first five days, most of that first group of rescued minis had been adopted and the seeds of a mini horse rescue were planted. The Peeps Foundation has been an official nonprofit for three years now, and there is so much more work to be done. “We’re trying to acquire a new property in Lexington, and if that happens, I would love to build a mini barn specially for what we do,” Dad shares. I get a little teary-eyed just thinking about it!
Enough sniffling — let’s get back to me. It’s obvious that I live the good life: I have my own custom scrims, blankets, bell boots, and even my own bonnet from De La Coeur. The humans have tried to teach me how to go on the treadmill, but I simply don’t like it and think exercise is more or less unnecessary. I get along with most animals, large and small, like the big horses, cats, dogs, and goats. Except for the vet. I shudder just thinking about needles.
As the day starts to wind down, I come in at about 4 p.m. where I share a stall with my friends Beyoncé, Sugar, and Thelwell. “That’s her main posse,” Dad says. There, we tuck in for the night and wait until night check for, you guessed it, more hay.
Want more Peeps? Brighten your day with this heartwarming video made by The Dodo.
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Photos by Kate Kosnoff.