The Ranch's New "Digs"

Much has happened since the last blog update. Most notable is that the ranch operations have moved to a more permanent home in Sodus.

In an amazing series of events, God orchestrated a "house swap" of sorts for the Meyer family, enabling us to purchase a piece of property that we could share with Shily's Promise, for no cost to the ranch. This eliminated the need for the ranch to fund its own property purchase or to pay for boarding for the horses - a huge blessing!

The summer found us busy putting up fencing, building a shelter, running a water supply to the pasture, and clearing woods. Since the open land had previously been used for crops, we had to start from scratch in establishing pasture. That meant the horses had to be given hay all summer to make up for the lack of grass for grazing.

Even with all of the busy-ness of getting set up, we were able to start working with a handful of young people. Some helped with fencing, shelter-building, and woods-clearing. Others came for lessons. Their excitement and joy were just what we needed to remind us that the hard work, the waiting, and the obstacles we faced during the last three years had been worth it. This was what we had been working toward through all of that. Laughter, smiles, confidence, trust ... yep, they more than make up for blood, sweat and tears!