A New Kentucky Home: Lori Cooley And Her Animals Find Happiness At Her Farm

Lori Cooley, 58, shares her Harrison County farm with two dogs, three cats, seven goats, eight chicks and 10 horses.

Lori Cooley rides her horse Galiana, on June 28th, 2018, in her riding ring on her farm in Harrison county, Kentucky.

She lived in Houston for 28 years, but left after her boyfriend died in a polo accident nearly five years ago.

“It was a bummer,” she said. “I can say that now.”

Cooley washes the paws of her dog, Spot, after doing chores on a muddy day. Dec. 27 2018.

She said after going through something like that, her brain didn’t work, that she couldn’t process anything. So she moved back in with her family in Indiana.

“After two weeks in Indiana I remembered why I left in the first place,” she said. She then moved to Kentucky.

Cooley holds a day old chick in her home in Harrison county, Kentucky. The chicks have to be kept at 95 degrees so Cooley set up a heat lamp in her covered back porch. She purchased 16 eggs from eBay, 14 were fertile and 8 have hatched. “A bottle of wine and a computer and eBay and look at what can happen,” Cooley joked

Cooley had always loved Kentucky, so she began looking for a home there, finding one in Harrison County.

Cooley’s farm is 25 acres and houses a cemetery, barn, both an indoor and outdoor riding ring and a cabin-like home with antebellum roots.

Lori Cooley gives one of her mares prenatal vitamins on June 28, 2018, on her farm in Harrison County, Kentucky.

“I mean, it’s nothing. It’s not anything fancy, but it fits the bill— with the funky old house and the cemetery...” she said. “I’m super happy here. I’ve never been as happy as I am now. I love this place.”

Light hits a photo in Lori Cooley’s house showing her time as an eventer on July 4, 2018.

In her time in Kentucky— about a year and a half— she has completed a plethora of projects, including hauling the spare wood out of her hayloft. She’s repurposed that wood, creating a kitchen table and overhead lamp for herself.

She’ll do just about anything, but nothing too crazy.

“What would happen to my animals?” she said.

Lori Cooley trains a foal in getting used to wearing a bridle on Cooley’s farm in Harrison county, Kentucky. The foal’s mother takes dirt bath and stays close by during training.

Cooley is proud of her home and her animals.

“It was just me,” she said. “But I got it done.”