OASIS, Idaho — Horses are a link to our human civilization, and how we arrived in the modern world.
There's a ranch in Elmore County, on the high prairie, that calls itself the Dream River Ranch. It has created an international equestrian co-housing community practicing cooperative and sustainable living on eighty acres. Meaning, it's a place where has lovers can live, board their horses and enjoy mother nature's beauty.
But space is limited because of Elmore County permits.
Willa Rose and her husband Joseph are eleven years into this small but growing horse community. "Equestrians are building a community for equestrians to develop a nice facility to keep horses on the property at a reasonable rate, live in an infrastructure compound, common area, and live with the surroundings as our playground."
I asked Willa, that some people might raise their eyebrows and say what the heck are they doing out there? Something she says she's heard before.
"Oh yeah, we're not a love commune, although we have a lot of love in our hearts."
For Lindsey Lewis and her husband, a Desert Storm veteran, it truly is therapeutic to come out to Dream River Ranch.
"I'm out here because I love this place," says Lewis. "I was a hospice nurse and went through a lot of grief and so for me, it's a way to kind of let some of that grief go and put love into an animal and not a person this time."
The equestrian course can be challenging, but the ranch has a couple of horse trainers who will help you learn how to ride and understand how horses think.
Willa Rose puts it this way, "If we can change one child's idea of how to live in the world. I feel like we're doing our job."
To learn more about the theaputic horse back riding at the Dream River ranch, just check their website for more information.
