Our History
Abundant Life Ranch was founded in 2010 by Doug and Betsy Cockrell who had a heart to share the things that had changed their own lives with children throughout the Central Valley. Abundant Life Ranch began as a summer camp program for young girls; they held two camps their first year where the girls crashed in the Cockrell Family’s living room after hot days full of horses, crafts, games, and devotions. As the camps continued to fill year after year, Doug and Betsy decided it was time to expand their program to impact more lives.
Today, Abundant Life Ranch reaches over 600 visits of children and adults each year through our three different programs. We serve children ages 5 and up from all different backgrounds. Many of these children are brought to the Ranch by a parent, teacher, guardian, Big Brother/Big Sister, youth leader, mentor, therapist, or court-appointed advocate. The adults participating in our program all come from group homes and are all recovering from trauma.
Our Programs
All of our programs are focused on the theme of relational health and their foundational pillars of Communication, Trust, and Respect. The biggest staple to the Ranch has been our weekly 90-minute-sessions program for children ages 5 to 18. Participants come on Thursday evenings where they all meet each of our horses and hear their individual stories, learn about the design and inner-workings of the horse, learn horse-care basics, and ride a horse specifically chosen to meet their needs. Each participant also performs a ranch chore, teaching kids about the work that goes into ranch life and allowing them the chance to give back. These sessions occur weekly from March through November and are available on a donation-only basis. Future plans include a covered arena to allow our programs to run year-round.
Our newest program, which has also become our biggest focus, are our day group programs working with adult and children trauma recovery. We have taken the foundation built with the old summer camp program and 90-minute sessions and adapted them to work most oftenly with women and children recovering from trauma, usually on a bi-weekly basis. Participants are given the opportunity to complete a consecutive six-session program where we continuously build on the pillars of Communication, Trust, and Respect as they complete a specific curriculum. At each of these sessions ALR provides ranch chores, horse time, snacks, lunch, bible study, and worship.
Abundant Life Ranch also offers day events for groups on occasion. These are a one-time extended session, mini camp that takes place over the course of a single day. Pre-existing groups come to the Ranch for games, crafts, meals, devotions, and riding. These events are great bonding experiences for community groups, youth groups, therapy centers, and as a reward system for students. ALR has moved away from these single day groups as we continue to develop our curriculum and opt for continuing a participant’s education with a 6-week program. In addition to these programs, Abundant Life Ranch hosts various events to bring the community out to the property. These events include family movie nights, the annual Fundraiser Dinner & Auction, service days, and team building days.
As we watch our participants continue through our programs, we watch them gain confidence and become empowered as they learn life skills, especially in learning how to try new things on their own. Attitudes often shift from fear to “I can do this!” with a continued curiosity and determination to tackle new challenges and persisting struggles. As we focus on building the skills of Communication, Trust, and Respect, we also see an increase in self-awareness, comfort in a safe environment, assertiveness, and a practical understanding and application of healthy boundaries. As these skills are built, we also see reduced aggression and agitation, which leads to increased cooperation and behavioral control. Time at the Ranch also strengthens and deepens the relationships existing between the participant and whoever brought them to the Ranch. As this progresses, a freedom is given in that relationship to then encourage, challenge, and learn relational health as they work through difficult situations.
As our program continues to grow, it becomes increasingly evident that we couldn’t do it without our team. Abundant Life Ranch has two employees and is otherwise volunteer-run. Our helpers come from a variety of backgrounds, walks of life, and skill sets. Volunteers are able to serve in a variety of ways, from music to cooking to horses to crafts. All volunteers go through an orientation process and a notarized background check. Participants and helpers alike grow together and are given space to learn about relational health through horses and through time interacting with people from all walks of life.
Our Ministry
Abundant Life Ranch is a 501c3 non-profit organization with operating expenses typical to any working ranch, and we appreciate any and all donations that are made, and funding is used to keep all components of the ranch up and running. For example, our programs are made available at a minimal cost to participants. 90-minute sessions are offered on a donation-only basis, and these sessions make up a majority of our visits. Group events are paid for by the visiting group when possible, or through the generosity of a sonor from the community. We also couldn’t do this outreach without our four-legged team. We have 8 horses on our property who need feed, vet visits, farrier visits (hoof care), fly spray, tack, grooming supplies, and constant upkeep. Although we are frugal and thrifty in all we do, we still need funds for ink, paper, mailing out newsletters and save-the-dates, ranch maintenance and upkeep, paying our employees, paying our taxes, and providing for the physical needs of our outreach.
Recently we were able to buy some acreage to give our program its own property to continue its growth. We need funding to develop this new, larger piece of property to facilitate a program that provides children and adults with applicable life and career skills. Our upcoming needs as the Ranch and program continues to expand are building a covered arena to keep our participants, horses, and team cool in the summer and dry in the winter, which is becoming a necessity for the health of our participants and helpers. This would increase our impact as it would allow us to continue our program year-round; currently we are dependent on weather and natural daylight. As Abundant Life Ranch continues to grow, it becomes increasingly harder to run our programs out of our family home. Because of this we are looking to create an office space that will allow us to create a work-life balance and regain our family home as just that: a home. Building a kitchen and eating area will also help with this, as most of what is served is still being prepared in our small house kitchen.
There are many ways in which you can get involved with Abundant Life Ranch. First, and most importantly, with prayer. We truly believe in the power of prayer and are deeply grateful for those of you who join us in praying for our programs and the lives they impact. As we continue to grow, so does our need for volunteers. Our helpers come from a variety of backgrounds, seasons of life, and interests. We are looking for people who can cook, work with children, help with grounds-keeping and maintenance, can jump in on projects, are musically talented, good at crafts, or comfortable with horses. We also invite any child who is interested in horses to come for a visit. If you know a child who could benefit from our programs, please contact us and let us set you up a session! Finally, monetary and in-kind donations are always welcome. Checks can be made to Abundant Life Ranch and mailed to our address. Our website also offers an online payment option. All gifts of any size are greatly appreciated! Thank you!
