Kelsey Kreutzer wasn’t searching for another horse when she first saw Lonesome Pine. With four horses already at home in Kansas, she considered her herd complete. But one day while flipping through a horse magazine at work a feature on the ASPCA’s Find My Right Horse caught her eye.

Curious, she visited the website and started browsing through the listings. That’s when she first laid eyes on Lonesome Pine, a then-3-year-old Thoroughbred listed by Second Stride in Prospect, Ky.

Kelsey Kreutzer has bonded with Lonesome Pine. (Courtesy of Kelsey Kreutzer)

“Oh, he’s handsome,” Kreutzer thought, but she kept scrolling. Still, something about the young Thoroughbred stuck with her. She found herself returning to his profile, re-reading it, and eventually closing the browser. Kreutzer kept telling herself it was nothing, but the days that followed told a different story.

“A couple of days went by, and I had a dream about the pictures I had seen online. I kept having them on and off for the next week,” Kreutzer recalled. “I woke up every time and couldn’t stop thinking about this horse. It was almost like he was calling to me.”

Kreutzer trusted her instincts and submitted an adoption application to Second Stride. Just a few days later, she was approved and was told that Pine was still available. That weekend, she drove the 18-hour round trip from Kansas to Kentucky to meet the horse who had already made such an impression on her.

From the moment Kreutzer met him, she was struck by Pine’s spirit and seemingly quiet intelligence. “His kind eye, his presence, and how you could just see his brain working behind those eyes,” she said.

During their first ride at Second Stride, a nearby tractor dragged the outdoor arena, and Pine didn’t even bat an eye. Kreutzer knew then that she was making the right decision.

Lonesome Pine comfortable in all sorts of situations. (Courtesy of Kelsey Kreutzer)

Lonesome Pine went home with Kreutzer on June 23, 2021. After a few days to settle in, the pair began going on trail rides together. For the first year, that’s all they did — just enjoying each other’s company and allowing Pine to grow into himself.

Though Kreutzer didn’t have a specific discipline in mind, Pine made his preferences clear. “All I knew was that he really enjoyed jumping over the little streams, creeks, or fallen logs on trails,” Kreutzer said.

In the winter of 2022, Pine joined his first Fox Hunt and was a natural. He galloped and jumped confidently, with “the hounds running under him, around him, or popping out of the underbrush, and it didn’t faze him,” Kreutzer recalled.

Recently, he and Kreutzer have been training to be a Whipper-In and assist the huntsmen with organizing and keeping the dogs focused during the hunt for the Fort Leavenworth Hunt.

Their future goals are to attend Hunter Paces and Trials and also to compete in Show Jumping. Pine has become Kelsey Kreutzer’s heart horse. She said he was, “THE BEST DECISION I have ever made.”

Recently, she adopted his younger sister from Second Stride as well, excited to begin a new chapter with another special Thoroughbred.