Horse Power
January 27, 2010
By Liz Onufer

Victor couple plans cross-country pack trip to raise funds for people with emotional needs.

LEFT: Jeannette and Richard McGrath exercise their two horses and two mules in a field near their Victor home on Jan. 25. The couple are preparing to leave for a cross-country horse pack trip to raise funds for a ranch that will help individuals with emotional issues. CITIZEN PHOTO / BRADLY J. BONER

Richard McGrath sat in his dorm room unsure if he was going to be able to ever leave it. The fear, remorse, and depression were confronted by a knock at the door and an old cowboy.

Richard had been driving the pick up truck. His two friends were in the bed of the truck when the accident happened. The truck rolled down the hillside. Both passengers were thrown. Jeannette, Richard’s future wife, suffered injuries. The other woman was crushed and paralyzed when the truck rolled over her.

Richard could not face the tragedy and sought solace in his dorm room. The old cowboy standing in his doorway was one of Richard’s instructors.

“Sometimes there’s nothin’ better for the inside of a man than the back of a horse,” the instructor borrowed from Winston Churchill. The words resonated with Richard and soon became reality.

Richard left his room that day and found himself on the back of his horse. “Bowe” had been his project all semester, turning him from a dude horse into a cutting horse. Now it was Bowe’s turn to teach Richard a few things.

Life in his early twenties did not get much easier: illness, poverty, and emotional baggage plagued Richard, Jeannette, and their fledgling marriage. They found themselves year after year in the same place, until Richard decided it was time to stop doing the same old things and do something different.

The young couple knew “that something” had to involve horses. During their time spent working on guest ranches, Richard and Jeannette witnessed the power of a horse and an open trail. Guests were out of their comfort zone in a ranch setting. A trail ride was often a terrifying experience; people are uncomfortable on the horses and in the wilderness.

As wranglers, Jeannette and Richard comforted, protected, and guided these clients. Building a trust and dependence, many guests opened up to the young couple during their stay, sharing difficult and emotional experiences they packed with them to the ranch. It was a simple bond with a big animal, a scary experience, and surviving it taught these guests about much more than a day on the ranch.

“Horses speak to your soul,” Richard testifies. He reflects on the prey and predator position to explain the close symbiotic relationship humans have with horses. “All other relationships are predator and predator. A cat, a dog, a bird, they are all predators, and so are we. But with a horse, he is the prey and we are the predators.”

Based on this powerful relationship, Hearts Up Ranch will be the fruition of the McGrath’s personal struggles and passion for horses. Originally, the couple had written the business plan for a guest ranch, but after all their hardships and receiving so much help from others, Richard and Jeannette decided they must pay it forward. Just as Richard had a horse to help his healing in college, Hearts Up Ranch will utilize the ranch experience to support adults and children in emotional healing. “I had Bowe, but I had to find my own way,” Richard recalls. “The ranch will be there to help guide people down the trail.”

The couple’s experiences complement one another to provide this healing experience. Jeannette has a strong horse background, including work at a therapeutic riding stable, while Richard has experience with at risk and adjudicated youth and a load of psychology coursework. Richard admits that his animal behavior courses taught him much more about working with people than any of his psychology courses.

For the McGrath’s, this contemporary use of the horse for healing will soon combine with its traditional usetransportation. On March 4, 2010, Jeanette’s 29th   birthday, the couple will set out from Point Reyes, CA to ride coast to coast. The route will be the American Discovery Trail, stretching 5,057 miles from California to Delaware. The ride has multiple missions: fulfilling a childhood dream of riding cross country, inspiring others to follow their dreams, and raising money for Hearts Up Ranch.

The financial goal is to raise $30 million to open Hearts Up Ranch. The location of the ranch is yet to be decided; the McGraths are looking in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. They hope the publicity, media coverage and the people they meet through this ride will garner donations and support for their nonprofit ranch.

Simple logistics have been planned and prepped over the last year. The rations have been dehydrated, the friends are arranged to mail supplies, and the maps have been studied. As far as fi tness, the McGraths, the three horses, and one mule know one will be the weakest link.

Winter weather and full time jobs have prevented them from physically training both themselves and their team as much as they would have liked. The ride will start slow, about seven miles a day for a five day stretch followed by two to three rest days. Once conditioned, the couple will be riding approximately twenty miles per day for seven to ten day stretches.

They have no goal date to reach the end of the trail. Too many unknowns prevent them from setting a date. But both smile and say they could stretch it out to finish exactly one year from the start date, Jeannette’s thirtieth birthday.

The McGraths will be updating their website, www.heartsupranch.com, with photos and blogs as often as possible from the trail. The web site also includes an interactive map of America that pinpoints the team’s GPS location.