Editor’s Note:  The new Barn and Show Arena (see photo below) are among this year’s new facilities to be dedicated on April 29.  Their completion marks a key step in our progress toward realizing the dream of Big Springs Ranch founder Oma Bell Perry, who envisioned a community where the young and young at heart could live and grow together – a place of healing, learning and quiet country living.  

This magnificent complex will provide shelter to the Ranch’s four-legged residents and a new place for the children to develop special friendships.  Funding was provided anonymously by a woman who has as big of a heart for children as she does for animals.

.By Angela Moreno-Tijerina

I talk to him when I’m lonesome like, and I’m sure he understands. When he looks at me so attentively, and gently licks my hands. Then he rubs his nose on my tailored clothes, but I never say naught thereat.  For the good Lord knows I can buy more clothes, but never a friend like that.    - W. Dayton Wedgefarth

To work at either the Hill Country Youth Ranch in Ingram, or its sister campus, the Big Springs Ranch for Children near Leakey, there is a given that one must possess a great deal of love for children.  To provide support for the Ranches – whether through making donations for operations or construction projects or by volunteering time to help – requires a shared commitment to the core beliefs of the program.  And, to bring one’s own individual talents into the organization, to offer them and blend them so that they enhance the vision already established, requires both love and commitment.

Last year, a dear friend of the Ranch proposed a plan  –  to build a barn and arena for the children to ride horses and raise animals for 4-H and FFA projects.  Not only would she fund the complex, but she would design and have a hands-on part in the construction of what would become the “finest barn and arena in five counties,” according to many who have seen the 26,400 square-foot arena and 12,750 square-foot barn.

Raised on a ranch, she learned at a very young age about the special relationship a child can have with animals – and about their healing qualities.  “I remember every year when the mama goats or cows would have their offspring, there were always a few who would be left behind.  Either their mothers would die while giving birth or for some reason they didn’t want anything to do with the babies.  As a result, my parents would bring the babies to me and we would bottle-feed them until they were old enough to eat on their own.  They were orphaned or abandoned, and they were too young to care for themselves, so I helped them.  They became my babies, and I fed them and played with them until they got strong enough to fend for themselves. 

“Once, when I was about 7, I was in the front yard playing with my babies, at that time several little goats and a bunny, and I fell asleep.  When I woke up from my nap, one of the baby goats had laid its head on my back, curled up next to me and fallen asleep as well.  I lay there as long as I could because I didn’t want to wake or disturb it.  I will always remember that little goat and the warmth of its head on my back.”

The little girl grew up and now lives on a 600-acre ranch, with lots of animals – 2 dogs, 46 Spanish/Boer goats, 3 calves, 15 cows, 7 longhorn steers, a bull, various horses, and a donkey.  Not at all surprisingly, she still takes care of her babies – no matter how old they get.  Each of them she knows by name, and they all get a “treat” on their birthdays, from an extra handful of feed or hay to chicken strips from Sonic. 

It was this love for animals, combined with her admiration for the healing work of the Youth Ranch and its sister campus near Leakey, that brought her to the decision to build the barn and arena.  “What is a ranch without a barn?” she asks.  “These children need the opportunity to have animals of their own, as pets, and as friends.  The animals are just as therapeutic as humans, and there are so many things that children (and adults) can learn from animals that they may have trouble learning from humans, especially if humans have hurt them in the past.  Animals provide unconditional love and respect.  They each have unique personalities and can teach so much about strength, trust, loyalty and companionship.  An animal asks for so little and offers so much in return.”

She continues, “This will open such a new world for the children, in so many ways.  I didn’t like to hear that the children had to wait for the horses to be brought out from the Ingram campus to ride.  Sometimes, by the time the horses could be transported, it was dark outside or the weather had turned ugly.  Now, the horses have a place to be kept, and with the covered and well-lit arena, the children can ride at any time, under any weather conditions.  This will be a place that the children can care for the animals, and it can also be used for educational purposes.  4-H and FFA programs can now be included with the classes they already have at the Charter School.  I can’t help but think that this will be a place for the children to learn about respect for the animals, and in turn, learn respect for themselves and others.”

The children, staff and Board are all excited about this new addition to life on the Frio, and are extremely grateful for our friend’s generous vision.  According to HCYR Board President John Bakke,  “The barn and arena are very welcome additions to the Big Springs Ranch campus.  The 10-stall horse barn, with open areas for keeping and raising other types of animals, will facilitate and maximize our ranching environment and add so many opportunities for the children.  This is a magnificent gift.  It will become the core of our life-enrichment programs at the Big Springs Campus.”

“This has been a part of the development dream since the beginning,” Gary Priour echoes.  “Oma Bell wanted the children to have animals and raise them, and to learn the traditions of a working ranch – just the way she did growing up on this land.”

Our generous donor agrees, “The children will now be able to explore even more of the Ranch by horseback, riding to areas that aren’t accessible by car.  Miss Perry would have liked that.  I think she’d be very happy, and proud of the barn.  After all, she was a ranch girl herself.”