ACTHA Monthly | September 2015 | 32
ACTHA CHARITY of the Month
By Betsi Bixby
Freedom Horses Healing Hearts
One in four women in America have been the victims of abuse. Mental, physical or sexual. Many all three. It was some time ago at Bible study that I heard a particularly upsetting story that just wouldn't let go. The story haunted me. And as time went on, I heard others.
But it wasn’t until during an ACTHA ride at Morning Star Ranch, a riding camp devoted to helping inner city at risk children that an idea began to take shape. I saw the wondrous change come over the children at Morning Star Ranch, and I asked myself, "Why can't we do this for battered women?" And hasn’t God provided myself and others with beautiful ranches and great horses that should be shared?
A few months later, my lovely buckskin mare, Boston's DeeDee and I were entered in ACTHA's, America's Favorite Trail Horse competition. One of the speakers there was Monty Roberts. When he spoke about reaching out and helping others I felt as if he was talking directly to me. I thought about the past few months, the stories at Bible study, the Morning Star Ranch, and now Monty's talk. I felt as if God were nudging me to get moving, as if He was asking me to help these women who were afraid to ask for help. I told that group of about 150 women my intent to help abuse survivors and if they wanted to help, let me know. I was overwhelmed with the response. One of those women was Tammy Sronce.
I knew we would need a reliable conduit to reach women who were enduring abuse or had been abused and were unable to let go. Sadly, often getting over the abuse is harder than getting out of the abuse. We approached "Freedom House," a marvelous organization which is devoted to helping battered women and girls cope with the wounds their abuse had left them with. Our plan, to use horses and let the women feel the healing powers in a horse's heart, was received with so much enthusiasm at Freedom House they started working on plans to make it happen right away. A dedicated group, of about 12 women quickly banded together to make the idea a reality.
Within weeks of our first meeting with Freedom House in 2011, we set up a pilot program and brought the first participant to Tammy Sronce's, Echo Ranch in Weatherford, TX and introduced her to Tammy's horse, Memphis. It was overwhelming. She stood in the barn and looked at the horse, just looked at him. Then she walked over and touched him. We could almost see the comfort flow from Memphis to the girl.