PEABODY

The Tiny Horse the World Gave Up on

“He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
He will carry the lambs in his arms,
holding them close to his heart.
He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.”
— Isaiah 40:11 (NLT)
 
I’d like to share a story that touched me deeply when I first heard it. It stayed with me afterward, and I kept thinking about it. Over time I sensed there was something meaningful within the story and worth sharing with others.

This is the true story of a tiny dwarf horse named Peabody. Before the little foal had even found his feet, it seemed that many around him had already decided his life would not continue.

A mare had given birth to a foal so small he could not even reach his mother to nurse. His legs were crooked. His jaw did not line up properly. He had almost no strength in his little body.
 
Those around him arrived at the conclusion that so many others would have drawn. Every soul who laid eyes on this tiny horse abandoned hope entirely, each one convinced, in their heart, that the most merciful thing they could offer him was a quiet end.
 
Several hours away, a kind woman received a phone call. The voice on the other end explained the situation and shared the plan to end the horse’s life.
 
This kind lady paused and then said with a tender expression, “No, please don’t do that.”
 
There was something inside of her that could not bear the thought of this little boy being put down. So she got in her car, filled her tank with gas, and drove across the country to bring this little rejected horse home…to give him a place where he could receive love.
 
When she first saw Peabody, he was only three days old. There he was, lying on the ground, and he didn’t even have the strength to stand. He had no muscle tone, and his little legs bent in awkward directions. He could barely eat because his bite was misaligned.
 
Most people would have looked at this little horse, shaken their heads, and considered him a lost cause. The easy route would have been to put him to sleep. But not this woman. She saw a life that was worth saving.
 
She held this little horse in her arms and began feeding him milk from a bowl because he could not nurse properly. She watched him constantly. Later she declared something that tells you everything about the kind of woman she was. She said, “If he sneezed, I was there. If he was cold, I wrapped him in a blanket. My eyes were on him 24 hours a day.”
 
And this big heart of love began to do a healing work inside of Peabody.
 
She was filled with joy and hope. Special little shoes were made for his tiny hooves so his legs could learn to stand straight without collapsing beneath him. The shoes were made wider than normal, giving him the balance he needed so he wouldn’t lean to one side or tumble backward when he tried to walk.

Slowly, Peabody’s story began to change.
 
That little horse who once could not stand began to strengthen. First he wobbled. Then he took a step. Then another step. First he stumbled down the stairs, and later he was able to take them with ease.
 
It became the most adorable thing to see, because before long Peabody’s small hooves, which had once struggled to hold him up, were clicking across the wood floor of the house as he trotted behind the woman he believed was his mother. Peabody followed her everywhere.
 
If she moved, he moved.
 
If she walked into another room, he hurried behind her.
 
Once she tried leaving him in the barn with the other horses.
 
He looked at her with confusion and followed her all the way back to the house.
 
That settled it.
 
Peabody became the house horse.
 
He played with the family dogs. He begged for scraps at dinner like they did. Sometimes he even rummaged through her purse and ran off with whatever treasure he found inside.
 
He was mischievous.
 
He was fragile.
 
And he was deeply loved.
 
The woman once joked that if Peabody had asked for her credit card, she probably would have handed it to him.
 
That’s what love does.
 
It doesn’t measure itself.
 
It simply gives.
 
For a time, life was full of joy.
 
The tiny horse who once could not stand was now running everywhere he went.
 
But dwarf horses often have short lives.
 
One day the veterinarian gave the news no one wanted to hear.
 
Peabody only had a few days left.
 
The family gathered around him.
 
They held him close.
 
At one point the woman’s husband gently picked the little horse up in his arms.
 
“I just want to take one last walk with him,” he said.
 
And he carried Peabody down the driveway.
 
It was quiet.
 
Tender.
 
Sacred somehow.
 
And while he was being held in loving arms, the little horse slipped peacefully away.
 
Peabody’s life touched people around the world.
 
And it all started because one person refused to give up on him.
 
In her story she shared something that touched my heart very deeply. She said she hoped that twenty years from now Peabody would still be remembered.
 
When I read those words, something inside me paused. There was such tenderness in that simple hope.
 
It is my prayer that this warm devotion might help that wish come true. Perhaps in some small way it will help keep Peabody’s memory alive. His story now lives here in these pages, and Lord willing it will also find its way into some of my future books so that others may hear it and smile.

 
Dear friend, when I hear that story, something inside my heart whispers a deeper truth.
 
Because that is very much like the heart of God.
 
Many people walk through life feeling like Peabody once was.
 
Too broken.
 
Too weak.
 
Too different.
 
Too damaged by the crooked places of life.
 
Some have been told—directly or indirectly—that their story is already finished.
 
But heaven does not see you the way the world does.
 
Jesus once told a story about a shepherd who had one hundred sheep.
 
One wandered away.
 
And instead of simply accepting the loss, the shepherd left the ninety-nine and went searching for the one that was missing.
 
When he found that wandering sheep, he did not lecture it.
 
He lifted it onto his shoulders and carried it home.
 
That is the heart of Christ.
 
He does not love us because we are strong.
 
He loves us because we are His.
 
Sometimes the healing we need does not begin with dramatic miracles.
 
Sometimes it begins with love.
 
Patient love.
 
Watchful love.
 
The kind of love that stays close until the weak places grow strong again.
 
The Shepherd still goes after the one.
 
And when He finds you, He does not push you away.
 
He lifts you into His arms. And He carries you home.
 
And perhaps that is the quiet message hidden inside Peabody’s little life: sometimes the world may give up on a life… but love never does, and neither does the Shepherd who still searches for the one.
 
With Love,
Steve Porter
www.morningglorydevo.com
 
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NEW BOOK BY STEVE PORTER 2026

THE CROW AND THE BOY WHO WAS BOOED
How God Rewrites the Story of the Rejected

What if the thing that made you feel “different” wasn’t a defect… but a doorway?

In a quiet field in the Finger Lakes, a pastor notices a small flock of crows—misjudged birds living under a reputation they never chose. And in that simple moment, a holy revelation begins to unfold: many people are living the same way—carrying labels, misunderstandings, and old wounds that never told the truth about them.

In The Crow and the Boy Who Was Booed, Steve Porter takes you on a healing journey for the rejected, the overlooked, and the misunderstood. With tender storytelling, biblical hope, and honest reflection, he explores how rejection doesn’t just hurt—it tries to rename you. It trains the heart to brace for disappointment, to shrink back, to distrust love, and to live at a distance.

But Jesus is still the God who walks toward the one the crowd walked past.

Inside these pages, you’ll discover:

• The hidden ways rejection gets inside the heart—and how God gently heals it

• Ten “quiet strengths” that help you see yourself through heaven’s eyes again

• A moving true story of a boy publicly booed—and the God who reversed the verdict

• A call to become “the safe one”—the kind one who breaks the cycle of pain

This is not a book for those who want quick fixes or shallow slogans. It’s for the soul that needs to breathe again. It’s for the one who has kept smiling while carrying booing on the inside. It’s for anyone ready to lay down the old name and receive a new one from the Father.

Because the chapter that hurt you is not the chapter that will define you.

And the God who rewrites stories in Scripture… still rewrites stories today.

NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND KINDLE