Ranch Services Special Needs Adults

HOUSTON - Follow a sliver of Texas blacktop, past an armadillo breathing easy in brush and you'll come upon a friendly little spread called the Down Home Ranch straddling the rural edge of the Williamson County line.

From inside one of thirty structures on the place you'll hear singing each and every morning from twenty odd hands.

"This is the day that the Lord has made..."

The ranchers, each challenged with an intellectual disability, possess an uncommon willingness to care for horses, cattle and each other.

"Not a haven from a heartless world, but a working farm and ranch," explains Down Home Ranch Founder Jerry Horton.

Horton together with his wife Judy threw caution to the wind twenty years ago and created for their daughter Kelly a community they couldn't find anywhere else.

"This is the easiest job in the world to do poorly and it's the hardest job in the world to do well," says Jerry.

Horton says young adults with disabilities like Down Syndrome and Autism deeply crave the qualities of vigorous living - dignity, purpose and companionship.

"We have to take care of the animals to get a paycheck," says Andrew, a rancher who grew up in the Houston suburb of Katy.

At the communal dining hall Kara, a rancher from Bryan-College Station explained why she never wants to leave this special community.

"We love, laugh and cry together".

Judy Horton says a staff about twenty of live alongside the ranchers and share their lives.
"
God can love them through us, every single one."

Turns out Judy and Jerry's daughter has thrived on the ranch.

"He asked me to marry him on his birthday and I said yes," beams the now 24-year-old
Kelly of her recent engagement to a fellow rancher.

"It's a great thing, I love him," she adds with a smile.

So that noone ever gets lost in the crowd the Hortons have limited the number of full-time residents at Down Home Ranch to twenty.

"We could have a sign up there that says, lives changed here!" says Jerry.