Ranch
History...
A way of life...
We currently work with two ranches in the Queen Creek and Prescott areas. Our daughters grew up around horses, but we weren’t familiar with the ranch culture. That is until a beloved friend introduced one of my daughters to a stable run by a sassy barrel racer just down the street from us. What started as a weekly lesson turned into a way of life.
Getting lost...
It was during this time that we read Hope Rising, a story by Kim Meeder about how rescuing horses saved her life. She and her husband started Crystal Peak Youth Ranch in Oregon from a cinder pit. With great anticipation, we packed the camper heading to Oregon to volunteer for a week on our summer road trip.
Our Rescue...
On our way to the ranch, we experienced our own unexpected and personal loss. We felt firsthand the healing atmosphere of a “rescue” ranch. Not just a working ranch that rescued horses, but one with an atmosphere of belonging, playfulness, and kindness. A place where we were wanted, remembered, and chosen.
Rescuing more than horses...
Creating our own culture...
This trip was to be the first of many that led us to experience how deep meaningful healing can happen in a ranch setting. It brought our past experiences of hospitality, horses, and family together in a new, tangible way.
Now that we have experienced a place safe without secrets how do we create this for those we invite to our ranch? Who is visiting our ranch with the same secrets of grief and loss?
We were invited to attend a training conference with thirty other ranches at CPYC to learn how to replicate this environment on our own ranch. How do we create a place that not only welcomes them as they are but becomes a part of the healing process?
A place, a family, a home that says . . .
I see you.
I choose you.
I will fight for you.
Ranch Lifestyle...
The ranch lifestyle has a lasting and meaningful place in our American culture.
It involves long days of hard work, feeding, mucking, exercising horses, seasons, traditions, family, and faith. It’s repairing, improving, patriotism, and parades. It is a place that is familiar with death, that celebrates life, and that is aware of the need for others.
It is also a place filled with the laughter of children running through the sprinklers, getting dunked in the horse trough on your birthday, and watching the sun rise and set. The sound horses make when you let them run free in the front pasture together, and a potluck with the community with worship and late-night talks around the firepit.
You belong here...
Swing a hammer, tend the garden, pull some weeds, saddle a horse, watch your kids come alive, pull some more weeds. Or maybe just sit on the porch with a strong cup and a soft chair by a warm fire.
A kind ear, a wise word, a time to talk, listen, pray, laugh, or just enjoy some hard-to-find quiet.
Project days and worship nights, potlucks, daily chores, monthly projects, and seasonal harvests and celebrations.
Kids Sessions...
Each child who visits the ranch is carefully and intentionally paired up with the same mentor and horse for every visit. We have three 8-week periods of weekly sessions per year. The sessions are 90 minutes long, and they include one chore and the rest of the time with “their” horse. The first day the child walks onto the property, they get to choose their horse, though it’s usually the other way around. From then on, the child learns to care for and ride their horse. Even more importantly than that, they get to learn what it means to have connection with their horse, to know and to be known over time with love and dedication.