STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

For 16 years, the Slocums have leased an 83-acre site in Bonsack to run a horse farm, most recently having nearly 100 horses there. But that is coming to an end after the land's owner died. The new owner has other plans for the property.

Marilyn Slocum is overcome with emotion over the hurdles she had to face prior to finding a new home for her ranch in Bedford County.

The story of her life is right there for anyone to see on Marilyn Slocum's face.

The deep brown painted by years in the sun.

The weathering brought on by a life outdoors.

The tears she vainly tries to hold back as she describes the horses -- many of them old and unwanted by others -- that she's tended for most of her 66 years.

It's the tears that have been more frequent over the past few weeks as Slocum and her daughter faced the prospect of losing their horses and their small business in Bonsack -- teaching students, leading rides on trails through the 83-acre site and boarding horses.

This week, however, there's a hint of hope on Marilyn Slocum's face.

It's tempered by the stress of preparing to move nearly 100 horses from a leased farm -- that offers a stark contrast to the nearby Lowe's and Walmart -- to a larger, more remote tract in Bedford County.

Her countenance also belies the desperation of a woman trying to hold onto a business that has never been about money -- but about her love for the animals.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Slocum and her daughter, April, 44, had no idea what was going to happen to their horses.

The man who owned the Bonsack property they've leased for the past 16 years, Charles Weaver, died recently and the property was sold.

A new owner, 414 Farms LLC, had given the Slocums until Oct. 21 to move off, they said. Brian Holbrook, a 414 Farms representative, said the new owner has other plans for the property.

The property has been a cheap lease for the Slocums -- at $600 a month. The cash-strapped pair weren't sure how they would ever afford an appropriate location.

Marilyn Slocum said Wednesday, however, that she and her daughter have arranged to lease a 127-acre farm not far from Staunton River High School.

It will cost more than three times what they're paying now, but she hopes it will be a good location to market their services. She's going to get some help with that from Susan Cromer-Garcia, a Miami resident who grew up in Christiansburg. Cromer-Garcia's three teenage daughters spend their summers in the Roanoke area, and most of that time at the Slocums' ranch.

The daughters have a Web site -- healthehorses.blogspot.com -- aimed at helping raise money for the old horses. Their mother is going to donate her online marketing expertise to the corporation the Slocums have formed, April Meadow's Ranch.

While the business has never been booming -- "People would look at my tax return and say, 'How can you live on nothing?' " -- last year was a disaster, Slocum said.

She said she has bartered with the fathers of riding students to get some big-ticket items taken care of -- a pump for the well, a portable toilet, a used van. In return, she gives up a horse or provides lessons or riding time.

She feeds her horses bread, along with the hay she buys and some grain, a practice that doesn't sit well with some of her fellow horse owners, Marilyn Slocum acknowledged. Too much bread can make a horse fat or put it down with colic, but Slocum defends the practice by saying her horses are healthy. And the day-old bread is cheaper than hay or grain.

In Bedford County, however, there should be more grass for the horses, particularly if she continues to reduce the herd.

In the past few weeks, she has let go of 12. That still leaves 72 of her own, and 15 or so boarders and consignment horses.

She hopes eventually to be able to buy the Bedford County spread bordering Goose Creek. About 80 acres is in grass, 20 in hay and 27 in woods.

The Slocums say they are looking to sell their small adjoining homes on U.S. 220 just south of Fincastle.

It will take a couple of days to move the horses next month. Tougher, Marilyn Slocum said, will be gathering up all the accumulated "stuff" on the Bonsack farm. "That will be the hard part."