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For the past 10 months Jeannette and Richard McGrath have been making their way across the country on horseback. That journey brought them to El Dorado Wednesday afternoon.
They are making the trek to bring awareness to and raise money for Hearts Up Ranch, a non-profit foundation they founded to help people through traumas they face in their lives.
Jeannette and Richard began their trip March 4 at Point Reyes National Seashore in California. From there, they have followed the American Discovery Trail through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and now into Kansas. In all, the trip will take them a little over 5,000 miles.
Their travels have brought several adventures their way and led them to meet a variety of people.
“It’s been great; it’s been bad; overall it’s been an amazing trip,” Richard said.
One thing he has enjoyed is experiencing life changes in the people they meet.
He said it was God working through them to touch others.
“We’ve seen people just start crying at what we’re doing,” he said. “It gives people hope.”
Their trip hasn’t been without its adventures either.
Seven days into the trip Richard and two of their horses fell off of a cliff. Richard dislocated his jaw, which he had to set, so they could continue on their way.
“We had a few trials but that was the scariest,” he said.
The hardest landscape they had to travel through so far has been the desert.
They would ride about 20 miles a day just to get from one water source to another.
“It really has been a faith journey,” Jeannette said. “We’ve been blown away with ways we’ve been protected.”
That was especially true in the desert when they were most vulnerable and they had a daily struggle to find water.
Jeannette recalled one night in particular when they kind of knew where a small stock pond of water was located. They had been up early that day riding and rode late to get to water. They even had to get down on their hands and knees to pick grass for the horses so they would have food the next morning since there would not be any grass where they stopped.
She said it was about 10 p.m. and dark when they were still trying to find water by flashlight.
“It had been a very hot, very still day,” she recalled.
For the past 10 months Jeannette and Richard McGrath have been making their way across the country on horseback. That journey brought them to El Dorado Wednesday afternoon.
They are making the trek to bring awareness to and raise money for Hearts Up Ranch, a non-profit foundation they founded to help people through traumas they face in their lives.
Jeannette and Richard began their trip March 4 at Point Reyes National Seashore in California. From there, they have followed the American Discovery Trail through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and now into Kansas. In all, the trip will take them a little over 5,000 miles.
Their travels have brought several adventures their way and led them to meet a variety of people.
“It’s been great; it’s been bad; overall it’s been an amazing trip,” Richard said.
One thing he has enjoyed is experiencing life changes in the people they meet.
He said it was God working through them to touch others.
“We’ve seen people just start crying at what we’re doing,” he said. “It gives people hope.”
Their trip hasn’t been without its adventures either.
Seven days into the trip Richard and two of their horses fell off of a cliff. Richard dislocated his jaw, which he had to set, so they could continue on their way.
“We had a few trials but that was the scariest,” he said.
The hardest landscape they had to travel through so far has been the desert.
They would ride about 20 miles a day just to get from one water source to another.
“It really has been a faith journey,” Jeannette said. “We’ve been blown away with ways we’ve been protected.”
That was especially true in the desert when they were most vulnerable and they had a daily struggle to find water.
Jeannette recalled one night in particular when they kind of knew where a small stock pond of water was located. They had been up early that day riding and rode late to get to water. They even had to get down on their hands and knees to pick grass for the horses so they would have food the next morning since there would not be any grass where they stopped.
She said it was about 10 p.m. and dark when they were still trying to find water by flashlight.
“It had been a very hot, very still day,” she recalled.
“In frustration, Richard was like ‘God you’ve got to help us here, we’re not going to find water.’”
She said there was one breeze that blew and Richard heard the Cottonwood trees blowing in that breeze and followed that to the water.
From there, they made it into the Rockies.
“We went through the Rockies at the peak of Aspen foliage,” Jeannette said.
They crossed five passes in the Rockies.
“Every one we went over snowed in right behind us,” she said.
From the Sierra to the Rockies they had to camp each night, often riding a week in between towns. At those towns, usually someone would take them in and let them take a shower and give them a hot meal.
Jeannette said they spent seven to eight months camping. But from the east side of the Rockies on they have not had to camp once, rather staying with families along the way, meeting the next family by word of mouth of the last usually.
“We’ve been very appreciative of people going out of their way,” she said.
They will be staying in El Dorado, where they are staying with Allison Locke and her family for three days.
They even got to see some family members from Pennsylvania who came to El Dorado to visit them while they were here. This is the first time they have seen anyone they know since they began the trip.
They ride for six to eight days and let their horses rest three days. They began the trip with four horses and was given a fifth horse along the way.
“We’ve been adopted into families and made life-long friends,” Richard said. “It’s been an amazing trip.”
They are now looking forward to seeing how their fundraising spreads across Kansas.
Their pace has slowed some because now they are talking to more people about what they are doing. They now average 15 miles a day.
They expect to be riding five more months, continuing on through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. They also would like to ride their horses through Washington, D.C., although they would have to be invited by the president to do that.
They have been taking the most direct route they can, mainly riding in the grassy ditches along the roads in Kansas.
To help people keep track of their progress they have a daily blog on their Web site and they also have a GPS tracker that uses Google maps to update their location every 10 minutes.
One thing they are looking for is someone to help them with marketing because the girl who was doing it for them just got deployed to Afghanistan.
“This has been a very educational journey in many respects,” Jeannette said.
She said they have learned a lot about America and different cultures along the way.
They also have learned a lot about horses, even though they learned about horses in college.
To ride across the country on horseback had been a dream of Jeannette’s since she was a child. Richard combined that with their need to raise money and awareness for the ranch and they decided to do the ride as a fundraiser.
“The scenery we’re going through and the time away from our jobs we thought would be our favorite part,” Jeannette said. “This is just as hard of work as our job. What’s kept us going and encouraged us is the people we’ve met.”
They also enjoy sharing the story of Hearts Up Ranch.
Hearts Up Ranch began about two to three years ago. It uses horses and outdoor adventures to help people overcome and learn to deal with traumas in their lives.
Richard said a lot of people just try to stop the symptoms of trauma, but they have to get to the cause of it to be able to deal with it and cope if comes back.
The ranch is currently located in Wyoming, but their goal is to buy property in Montana and set it up there. This trip is to raise money to help do that.
Their goal in Kansas is to get 4,000 people to donate $50 each. That would raise enough for them to buy a lodge for the organization.
Richard said they got the idea for the ranch from their other experiences.
“I have worked on a lot of guest ranches and when you take people out of their comfort zone you become someone they can trust,” he said. “They start opening up and spilling their guts to you.”
“It’s not as intimidating as an office setting,” Jeannette added.
Richard said one experience that really impacted him was when he was out riding with a lady on a guest ranch and she started telling him about how she was raped several years before. She had been seeing a therapist for 10 years and had yet to tell her therapist about it.
“Our goal is to really help people work through their emotional baggage,” Jeannette said, “and return home and lead normal lives.”
Richard added that they want to give people the tools to work through their problems if they come back.
To learn more about Hearts Up Ranch or to make a donation, visit heartsupranch.com.
