Blind Rodeo Queen Named Finalist
Blind Rodeo Queen Named Finalist
Phoenix, Arizona – August 4, 2008 – Pfizer Animal Health and Stable Management magazine named Moonreach Ranch one of five finalists in the 2008 “Giving Back” contest honoring equine businesses that give back to the community – Moonreach Ranch in a very intimate and special way! It’s a “touching” story:
Every year, vanloads of students from Foundation for Blind Children (FBC) venture on field trips to Moonreach Ranch, a deluxe natural horsemanship training center near Phoenix, Arizona. Way beyond pony rides, the visually impaired kids enjoy a sensory safari, taste-testing various varieties of hay and horse treats and learning to distinguish the symphony of stable sounds: anticipatory nickers, barn doors sliding open, Luxy peeing in his stall…
Ten-year-old Mary declared she was not an animal person and had no intention of getting within breathing distance of a horse. Coaxed by Moonreach Ranch co-owner Ralph Carr, the young blind girl ran her hands over Zoe from head to hoof, softening her demeanor as he showed her how to “see” Zoe’s Paint colors: the white spots feel cooler than the dark spots!
Mary whispered something to her chaperon.
“Ask Sam,” he told her.
She addressed Moonreach Ranch co-owner Sam Madden. “Is Zoe a girl horse or a boy horse?”
“She’s a mare, which is a girl horse,” Sam explained, proud of herself for teaching the kids a horse term in her answer. She was not the least bit prepared for what came next.
“Can I feel a boy horse?”
FBC newly blind adults, adrift in a sea of self-doubt, muster the confidence to ride for the first time, spurred by a “cowboy up” dose of determination from Sam, blind herself since age 29 and a kidney and pancreas transplant recipient and former diabetic with osteoporosis, anemia, a clotting disorder, malabsorption narrowly escaping requiring a home feeding tube, admonishment not to ride from her doctors, and a dream.
Sam was crowned Ms. Country Western Arizona, the only totally blind woman ever to earn the title and reign as a rodeo queen, and has won countless English and western horse show championships against sighted competitors, above and beyond making her dream a reality: developing a fixer-upper horse property into a custom teaching and training facility, where husband/head trainer Ralph makes time among his other lessons to coach her daily.
The couple volunteers their time giving motivational presentations to nonprofit organizations including North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, Camelot Therapeutic Horsemanship, Equine Assisted Growth And Learning Association, Arizona Council of the Blind, Arizona Kidney Foundation, Donor Network of Arizona, and FBC staff and administrators. An annual Christmas tradition, Moonreach Ranch foregoes personal gifts from clients in favor of contributions to Arizona Humane Society. They have orchestrated six different horses being donated to Scottsdale Sertoma for resale, netting the charity thousands of dollars to benefit the hearing impaired.
Ralph and Sam also offer free educational clinics laced with overtones of optimism to the public. Sam imparts her expertise in gratis demonstrations, Riding With Finesse: So Easy, Even A Blind Woman Can Do It, performing upper level movements with her beloved rescued Arabian Pixel. And Ralph gives his own complimentary demonstrations, Tickle Your Imagination, in which he illustrates the advanced partnership possible to achieve with a horse, riding his adopted Mustang Bucky bareback and bridleless.
They have welcomed guests from across the country to their home – anyone needing a touch of toughness and a glimmer of hope – to behold living proof of the Moonreach Ranch credo: Dare to dream in color, but turn your dreams into goals and make them come true. If you do your best and believe in yourself, you can lasso the moon!
Sam aspires to share the Moonreach Ranch magic on an even grander scale via her screenplay, Lasso The Moon! “It’s my life story, but it’s not about me. It’s about everyone touched by it and the potential within them to lasso their own moon.”
You are rich when you feel you have enough yourself that you are able to give to others. Moonreach Ranch may be mortgaged to the hilt, but Ralph and Sam feel rich in all they have to give to others in a very personal way. Inspiration is priceless!
Attitude is everything at Moonreach Ranch – for horses, too. Ralph applies natural horsemanship principles to develop young and problem horses into willing, supple, responsive equine athletes that their owners can trust even riding bridleless or blindfolded. Using finesse, not force, he engenders animals to want to do what is being asked, noting, “A horse that is eager to please will give you the moon!”
Witness the unbridled blind trust between horse and rider at Moonreach Ranch in an impressive video montage, with a link to the Moonreach Ranch website for further information: http://www.youtube.com/user/MoonreachRanch. Or search YouTube for “Death defying dressage by America’s only blind rodeo queen!”
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