About Us
Healing Hearts Horse Ranch's mission is to mentor and love hurting children and their families. We strive to provide a safe and positive place for them to experience the hope, healing and encouragement of Jesus Christ using the love of horses.
Founded in 2014 by Anita Mycke, HHHR is a faith-based, nonprofit ministry. We believe in God and the saving grace of His son, Jesus Christ. We are blessed to serve children and families of all backgrounds, regardless of religious beliefs.
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"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Psalms 147:3
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This Psalm is the ranch's verse.
We are all broken and in need of God's grace.
Meet Anita
Anita, founder of Healing Hearts Horse Ranch, moved to the Perham area from Billings, Montana. Over the years, Anita has worn many hats: youth leader at Crosspoint Church, owner and operator of an in-home daycare, sales associate at The Pines Gift Shop, Perham City Councilwoman and administrative assistant at St. Paul's Lutheran School.
Anita’s love for horses began when she was young. Church friends and cousins had horses that Anita could occasionally ride. In April 2013, her love for horses grew when she was gifted horse lessons at Hawley Horse Ranch for Mother's Day. After, Anita purchased her first horse, Texas Rose.
Texas Rose was boarded at Bob and Laurie Sazama’s ranch. Bob and Laurie invested time in Anita as mentors, creating a great equine learning experience, allowing her the opportunity to learn alongside them.
Continuing to spend time with her horse and seeing how her family responded to them, Anita started dreaming.
Bringing a Dream to Life
In September 2014, Anita visited Stable Days Youth Ranch in East Grand Forks to observe how a youth ranch is run. She came back fired up and ready to take a leap of faith and see where God would lead this dream. During this initial research stage, she placed an event on Facebook, talked to some family and friends and asked a good friend to create flyers for an information meeting about a possible ministry here in the Perham area.
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In the summer of 2015, Anita had the opportunity to attend the Similar Ministries Clinic at Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch where she took in many workshops and met similar people who shared the same dream.
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In February of 2016, Healing Hearts Horse Ranch became more of a reality: the nonprofit status became real.
Anita, her five children, two foster children, board members and volunteer team work well together to keep the dream alive and growing.
"If you can dream it, you can do it."
- Walt Disney
We found a home! Almost 12 acres was purchased two miles south of Perham and kindly leased to HHHR.
A cross, (donated and built by Francis Seifert), is installed on the hilltop overlooking the ranch.
With help from volunteers, a round pen and horse shelter was constructed on the ranch property.
Praise be, we have water! Work on the well and Richie Water System was completed before fall.
Welcome home! What a blessing to have our first horses moved to the ranch!
Thanks to generous donations, trees were planted and a flagpole installed in time for Memorial Day.
A new rescue horse, Alladin, joins us. He needs a little training before working with kids, but we're glad to have him!
Donations in memory or honor of someone get a special place on our memory wall near the horse pen.
Legacy
We believe in writing our own legacy and honoring that of those we loved.
Many parts of the ranch have an important story of legacy behind them.
The Ranch
In order to run a ranch, Anita required land. Her uncle believed in her dream and purchased 11 acres south of Perham and leases it to HHHR for $12 per year.
Melba T's
Melba T is Anita's grandmother and her legacy runs strong among the ranch. The apple orchard, with trees donated locally, is named in her honor.
Flag Pole
The flag pole at the entrance of the ranch was put up with funds in memory of Anita's cousin, a marine who was killed outside of his service.