Timmy was the first horse that Karen Caton remembers from her Colorado childhood, but Timmy was her father’s horse, and when Caton and her sister Virginia “Ginny” Caton Johnson asked for their own when the family bought some acreage, Dusty rode into their hearts.

Eventually.

“I think the horse was probably drugged when we went to see her because she was very rideable, but when we got her home, you couldn’t get near her,” Caton remembers. “Ginny took it upon herself to work with her, and she worked with her and worked with her. We got to the point we could get a saddle on her, and we were, like, OK, we think she’s ready.”

Ginny, about 10 years old, decided her younger sister should test Dusty out.

“She says to me, ‘Well, OK, you get on,’ so I did, and Dusty didn’t do anything,” Caton says. “She didn’t buck, didn’t freak out. So Ginny says, ‘OK, you can get off now.’ And that was it. Ever since, Dusty was her horse.”

Virginia “Ginny” Caton Johnson went on to spend decades training horses and riding in competitions, moving to Greensboro, North Carolina, to live close to horse-loving friends she had met in college at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. Ginny chose Hollins, Caton says, because the school had an equine program as part of its physical education department, but she majored in economics and later earned an MBA from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where she lived more than 40 years.

When Johnson, who spent her career in the financial sector, died last year at age 73, her love of animals and the care her horses received at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine had inspired her to leave more than $250,000 to the college.

Caton and Johnson’s friends Betty Washburn and Carrie Miller recently visited campus to share Ginny’s generosity with Dr. Kate Meurs, the Randall B. Terry Jr. dean of the college, and members of the philanthropy team. 

“Planned gifts play a vital role in helping us fulfill the mission of the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, and we are so very grateful to Ginny Caton Johnson for her generosity,” Meurs says. “Gifts that are unrestricted like this help us address our most pressing needs and dream our biggest dreams.”

Johnson and her husband, Mark, who died in 2009, owned an 18-acre mini-farm with horses, dogs and cats in Summerfield, North Carolina, for many years. In 2022, Johnson moved back to Colorado after suffering a serious concussion in a fall that left her needing living assistance and physical therapy. 

Caton eventually urged Johnson, who wasn’t able to walk, to try animal-assisted therapy, knowing it would bring a sparkle to Johnson’s eye.

“I had been working for a place called Harmony Acres, so I kept bugging her, ‘Let’s do some therapeutic horseback riding,’” Caton says. “And she says, ‘No, I can’t do that till I can walk.’ And I said, ‘No, Ginny, this is what you do to help you get to that point.’ And we finally got her back on a horse.” 

Johnson was doing well enough to leave assisted-living and get her own apartment, but she contracted pneumonia and died last December after spending several days in the ICU. 

“She was just an animal nut,” Caton says. “We all are. We all are just animal nuts. I won’t even say within reason. We’ve both spent a boatload of money on vet care. We came by it naturally, our love of all animals, but her critters were just her life.”

The innovative and life-changing work of the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, which improves the lives and care of all critters, can’t be accomplished without generous donors like Johnson, and the college community is thankful.

“She wanted to give money to a place that’s going to help animals, where students who want to be veterinarians get their experience,” Caton says. “She just wanted to help anybody who wants to be a veterinarian. Out here in Colorado, large animal vets are in such short supply, it’s scary.”

Interested in giving?

To explore the many ways your generosity can support the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, please contact Hyemi Sevening, assistant dean of philanthropy, at [email protected].