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| About Mustang Rescue Ranch |
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About Mustang Rescue Ranch
About Us
My 2 children and I started the Mustang Rescue Ranch about 35 years ago when my youngest was only 2. Although I can't remember when I wasn't around horses. As a child I spent a lot of time in Nevada, and I was always out looking for or watching the herds. Back then there were a lot of them. It would just make me sick when the "mustangers" would drive up with thier trucks and start shooting them. I also watched a lot of the old time trainers and some of their cruel methods of training, so I was no new comer to horses or the cruelty man can inflict on them. One day we were driving down a dirt road and I saw two men beat a horse bloody. I won't go into the whole story but enough to say we stopped and we ended up taking this wild abused mustang home. That is how we got started! These
men besides beating her bloody, had hobbled her front legs with barb wire and ran a barbed wire bit in her mouth. I decided right then and there, that I had to
help change things.
As my kids got older, they would bring home some of their friends from school. I learned a lot from them most had home problems like parents that drank to much or used drugs and all the hell that goes with it. Well the kids started hanging out out the ranch, then just a little 2 acre piece of dirt with a small trailer on it. Soon they were at the ranch more often than home. It got to where the kids would call me in the middle of the night and ask me to come and get them. Of course we did and many times the parents didn't even know they were gone for days. I decided that these kids needed something to hold on to, something to love and have love them back. Then it dawned on me when a couple of the kids were watching, and one of them said how proud I must be to be able to save the horses like we did. So I offered to let the kids "help" me out with the horses. Soon I noticed that these trouble making kids were doing less troublemaking and more helping. Their grades were better in school, and most importantly they seemed to deal with their home life better. So my kids and I decided to start a youth program. One with an "open door policy" any kid could come over and work with the horses, and unlike other programs there were no sign ins or questions asked. It became a haven for the kids a, "SAFE" haven. Within about 3 years we had over 40 kids on a regular bases. Working full time and a single mom, it was hard to take care of the horses. But as for the kids, "well if you already have them whats a couple more. My son worked after school and my daughter watched after the kids that came over while I was at work. (not many I worked nights). As time went on the kids grew up but there seemed to always be more to take their place.
In 1988 I met the love of my life my husband Wes. No matter what, he has and always will stand by me and the kids, even if he feels we are wrong. If it is what we want it is what we got. Then later in 1988 tragedy hit. My son was injured and left a quadriplegic with sever brain damage. No not by a horse. My husband and I said there was no doubt that he would live with us. I would quit work and take care of him and the ranch. If you thought I was busy before shortly after that I had to move my father in with us he developed alzheimer's. Somehow we managed, with the help of God. By then we had moved to a bigger house, a 6 bedroom, and we had gone from rescuing 4 or 5 horses a year, to 20 to 30 a year and of course our youth program grew right along with us. Then in 2001, one my son passed away and a month later so did my dad. By now my daughter had got married and started having kids. She didn't quit
until 3 years ago giving me 8 grandkids. Let me tell
you they are the heart and back bone of the ranch
and all the programs.
As for our community service program, my daughter was at the feed store one day when an elderly lady came in to get some medicine for her injured horse, but she didn't have enough money. My daughter started to talk to her and the lady asked her to take a look at her horse. Of course she called momma. I got there the horse was hurt bad, not sure it would live. The lady was beside herself. She had no money and no family near. So we took care of the injured horse for her. All the lady could do was cry and say thank you. The horse had been her best friend and companion since her husband died several years before. A couple of days later when we came to check on the horse she greeted us with two huge boxes of apples from her tree, and a role of dimes she had been saving, some how they got left behind we were to busy with the apples. Word got around that we were the ones to call if you needed help, and soon we added our outreach program to help the elderly and disabled. This turned out to be as good for our ranch rats as it was for the elderly. The kids loved going out and helping them. It was as one kid said, like helping out grandma. It didn't matter if it was a sick horse or broken fence, or someone that needed help feeding and watering, we always had a crew for them.
Then sorrow again in Nov. 2006, our ranch burned to the ground. We lost everything, except our lives and the horses. The mortgage company got the insurance money and left us with nothing. We had bought about 200 acre's when land was cheap up in Cottonwood, so we have relocated up here. It is so far back, we are "off grid", but we are going to make it. We are just trying to get through the next year. We lost all our horse tack and vet equipment,our backhoe and quad, our furniture, and clothes, but we didn't lose our faith or the love our kids have for us. At least once a month we try to bring some of them up here and some of the older ones get a bunch of the younger ones and come up to when they can. If you want to help, check out our "wish list page". Well thats about it. That is how we got started and what we do. And God willing we will do it till the day we die. My grandkids have already said they will keep it going. Much Respect and Many Blessings to all of you that were able to read this story.
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