GOSPORT, Ind. – Fate must be at work for two Indiana women using horses to provide joy, therapy and life skills instruction to children and adults.

Crossroads Ranch in Gosport was co-founded about five years ago by Tamra Ranard and Cynthia Sanders, whose mission is helping people discover and develop their hidden potential through meaningful experiences with horses.

There are nine horses on the 20 acres at the ranch offering single, multiple day and half-day life skills sessions, along with riding lessons.

Ranard said many parents bring their children to improve in areas such as communication, responsibility, leadership, attention span, empathy, confidence and self-esteem. Companies looking to increase production enroll workers in need of help with being part of a team, problem solving and other things key to their success like decision making.

Ranard said the challenges given to clients include getting horses to do as verbally instructed without touching them.

She said self-improvement in many areas comes from success and the work involved in getting horses to obey. 

“If you can get a horse to move out of the corner that makes you feel really strong and really powerful and that’s where the confidence will come,” she said.

She said just the size of the horses assists children with issues such as short attention spans. “Kids get really focused when they’re with a 1,200-pound animal,” she said.

Ranard said two of the children brought to the ranch after trying to commit suicide are now counselors during youth camps. Some of the military veterans working with the horses have cried happy tears from getting a horse to accomplish its task.

Ranard had horses off and on since childhood, but a number of years passed without one when she felt the need for a change, and in 2018, quit her longstanding technology job.

She was still unemployed when someone, knowing her love for horses, told her about an open executive director’s position with a not-for-profit equine assisted learning facility working strictly with children that have disabilities.

Ranard said she applied for the job and, despite having no prior experience, was hired. She then met Sanders, who worked there as director of operations.

Ranard went back to her old higher paying technology job two years later but still had a desire to use horses to teach. This time, she and Sanders wanted to be involved with all people in their horse assisted instruction.

So, they purchased the land containing an old farmhouse and barn, and then bought the horses while obtaining their accreditation and licensing needed to begin accepting their own clients.

“We just wanted to share our love for horses and what they can teach,” she said.

They started slowly by offering strictly week-long summer camps for youth and women’s retreats. The ranch has since expanded their offerings enough for Sanders to be employed full-time at the facility.

Ranard has kept her full-time job but works at the ranch during evenings and weekends.

“We call ourselves a life skills development company. That’s really what we’re about,” she said.

The ranch is adding a new program for couples in strong or struggling relationships during the second weekend of October. The couples will come to the ranch during the day and stay at a local Air BNB for the night.

“Wherever you are is where you are. We’ll work on things like communication, empathy and seeing things from other people’s point of view,” she said.

Ranard said even children who are “bouncing off the walls” learn how to stay calm from their contact with the horses. She said horses spook easily, which provides incentive for children working with the animals to practice self-control.

No more than five children are allowed in each camp to provide a more personal experience. They sleep in a cabin that has a bed for each child, and a youth counselor.

Ranard said the most rewarding thing about the ranch for her is making a difference in the children.

“I want to be part of their story. That’s what makes it worth it to me,” she said.

For more information, go to crossroads-ranch.com,