10/08/2026
This may look like a regular old pickle jar full of loose change, but it’s actually so much more than that.
This is the adoption jar.
From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to keep our adoption fees as low as possible. So many rescues charge an arm and a leg to adopt a horse, especially in modern times.
I get it. I really do.
Horses cost A LOT to rescue, rehabilitate, maintain, feed, and care for. Sometimes they would stay with us for months or even years before they were adoption ready. There are always unexpected expenses and little things that come up along the way. Even the simplest cases can cost a few thousand dollars when all is said and done. While the more complex cases can easily climb into the tens of thousands, particularly when extensive veterinary care is needed.
Then there’s the immense overhead that comes with keeping a rescue operating. Horses are, without a doubt, one of the most expensive animals to help. I understand why rescues want to recoup some of those costs through adoption fees. The reality is, no rescue can ever really make back what they have in a horse through thier adoption fee, not when rescue is done right anyway.
But I wanted to make sure horses were still accessible to everyone, even “the little guy.” So, every horse (or dog) ever adopted through us cost only a quarter.
Sometimes it was a nickel, a dime, or even a penny, with very few exceptions. Basically, any form of legal tender was enough to make the contract binding through an exchange of currency.
Here’s the catch.
We never advertised this. We never publicly told people they could get an entire horse for a quarter.
Instead, we focused on matching the right people with the right horses. We had an extensive interview process, asked for countless references, and often did a LOT of digging on our adopters in the age of social media.
In my mind, if someone made it through all those hurdles and was going to give an ALI horse the best possible life, THAT was always more important than trying to recoup the money we had invested.
We could make up the difference somewhere else, after all.
If an adopter could provide adequate care, training, veterinary care, and a loving home and they were the perfect match; why should a horse in need of a home be kept behind a paywall?
My first pony cost me $200.
She wasn’t much to look at. She bucked me off more times than I could ever count, and she was never going to be anything more than a lower-level, all-around “backyard” horse.
Could I afford the fanciest boarding barns or the best tack?
Absolutely not.
But that little gray mare taught me more about horsemanship, life, and hard work than any other living thing could have at that point in my life.
I always wanted to make sure that if someone came along with the perfect home to give, horses were accessible to them, regardless of their status or financial class. So long as they could responsibly provide for that horse that is.
So often during Appalachian Legacy’s operations, I heard:
“She’s getting rich selling horses.”
“She’s exploiting the horses by selling them for profit.”
Those words came from online trolls, other rescue figureheads, and, during the last six months of our operations, time and time again during the infamous county wide “witch hunt" I barely survived.
The truth was always so much more simple and, frankly, a lot funnier than that.
The rescue spent thousands upon thousands of dollars making sure each and every horse who came through our gates had everything they needed to become all they could be.
And when their person finally came along?
They could be adopted for pocket change.
That little pickle jar full of coins represents something much bigger than an adoption fee.
It represents the belief that the right home should never be out of reach simply because someone can’t afford a mid four-figure price tag.
It represents what we believed rescue should be about:
Putting the horse first.
Always 🩷
