The fate of an old thoroughbred horse with obvious hard miles – but lots of life and love still to give – was in question until patrons of the new Golden Ears Pub interceded.

Now, thanks to a new fund called Pennies for Ponies – designed to collect donations for J&M Acres Horse Rescue – Penny (as she’s been aptly renamed) was saved from slaughter.

About four months ago, a patron of the new Pitt Meadows bar built a donations box for J&M, hoping it would become a fixture at the local liquor establishment. It did.

Since the bin was erected behind the bar more than $2,000 in loose change has been collected for the non-profit horse rescue facility.

And recently, J&M owner and operator Julie Macmillan, also a bar keep at Golden Ears Pub, used the first $300 from that fund to buy Penny.

Penny is a 19-year-old thoroughbred mare that stands just over 16 hands high, and given her demeanor and abilities isn’t likely going to stay long at J&M. She’s expected to be adopted quickly.

While J&M volunteers have seen at least 500 horses go through the facility in its 16-year history, Penny and another eight-year-old thoroughbred – possibly Penny’s sister or daughter given the markings – were the first bought thanks to the Pennies for Ponies fund.

J&M doesn’t typically have to go out looking for homeless horses, most are surrendered. But Macmillan attends horse auctions and stockyards whenever there’s extra room in her 224th Street stables.

At present, she takes in an average of one new horse a week, and adopts out one horse every week and a half to two weeks.

The first step in the process is to assess the horse’s health, temperament and abilities, she explained.

“We cross our fingers and hope we don’t eat dirt when we get them home,” Macmillan added, noting she’s been thrown off a few horses that she’s been assured were saddle-ready.

Based on the horse’s assessment, that’s when the volunteers go to work with the animal, offering training, conditioning, love, and medical assistance as needed to make the horse as sound as possible before adopting it out to a new long-term loving home.

So why did Macmillan select Penny?

Looking into the mare’s eyes, Macmillan said she knew immediately Penny was a good horse.

“She was sweet, and she has a good singing voice, as we can tell,” Macmillan said between loud nays from Penny, who stood in front of the pub doors recently, more intent on luring admirers than listening to Macmillan’s discussion. Macmillan brought Penny down to show the patrons just what their kind donations were helping to achieve.

Around horses most of her life, Macmillan said she was active in the show and training horses before taking on her current labour of love working with ill-fated horses.

And that hobby, she admitted, has turned into an obsession, noting the $500 fee paid when a horse is adopted from J&M seldom covers the costs of having a horse in their care.

The high overhead was part of the reason why a supporter chose to create the Pennies for Ponies fund, and that’s also why, Macmillan added only half joking, she tends bar at the Golden Ears Pub whenever she’s not in the saddle or mucking stalls.