My father was killed when I was sixteen.  Since I was next to the oldest of eleven, I naturally became second mom to all my brothers and sisters. When I met and married Jim 55 years ago, we found we both loved children.  Our natural instincts were to seek out young people.  We loved horses with almost the same passion. The dream began:  A ranch for kids and horses. At that time in our lives we had no funds, no ranch, no horse trailer, no large barns, extra saddles, etc.  And so we began to work with the kids and horses, any time and any place. Our fame spread through word of mouth until we were snowed with both, with no place to put them. Through the years our dream never died.  We had two children of our own, a boy and a girl, who inherited our love for horses.  4-H clubs came into our area, so I became a leader.  For the next forty years, fifty or more young people became our responsibility, along with the same number of horses of all breeds and sizes. This experience helped us to realize what horses can do for kids and what kids can do with horses.

All this was done on leased property. We longed for land of my own to build a ranch, so we would have a permanent place for these kids and horses we loved.  Finally, we have it here in Arizona – twenty acres all our own. My husband and I worked hard all our lives to maintain our kids and our horses. Many hours of after-work time was consumed by building fences, barns, hauling and baling hay, cooking for and entertaining our kids, of which now numbered into the thousands.  Some stayed only a short time, others longer. Our children grew up with at least five or six extras at our home every day, but they never complained because they knew there was enough love to go around.

Three years ago, catastrophe struck our family. Our son was diagnosed with cancer - Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. We lost him within one year. Even though his sister was a perfect match for a stem cell transplant, the doctors could not get him into remission long enough to perform the operation. Between sessions of chemotherapy, we waited and prayed for a miracle. During this time, he spent many hours on his horse, riding with his friends and family. On November 11, 2000, he went to be with his God in whom he believed very strongly. We miss him very much.

We are dedicating this ranch to him and are determined to build a haven where cancer patients and others can spend time loving and working with our horses.  Even though we lost our son, we feel that he lives on in our hearts and would be very pleased to be a part of our ranch for kids, helping to ease the waiting time for a cure. We would like to give these young people a place to spend time away from doctors, nurses, needles and IV’s, a place where family and friends can be together to enjoy our beautiful ranch and animals.