Trail ride offers look at historic JB Johanson Ranch, helps family crisis center
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
BURNET — Trailer riders can explore a historic Burnet County ranch Sept. 14 while also supporting an organization that offers a safe haven for families in crisis.
The “Saddle Up for Safer Families” trail ride will be held at the JB Johanson Ranch, located west of Burnet on Texas 29. The event, which includes two trail rides, a chuck-wagon lunch and a silent auction, benefits the Highland Lakes Family Crisis Center.
The center, located in Marble Falls, provides an emergency shelter and rape crisis center for victims of domestic abuse. It also offers a 24-hour crisis hot line.
“The Highland Lakes Crisis Center is such an important program,” said Pat Moore, an organizer of the trail ride and a crisis center board member. “It helps so many people who are in need of help. It’s been doing that for 30 years.”
The center provides emergency food, clothing and transportation as well as shelter. Officials said when a victim flees her or his residence, the person typically only has time to grab a few things. The center can offer victims clothes and even some furnishings when they eventually begin to re-establish themselves in their own home.
There’s also group and individual counseling and other services.
The center holds a golf tournament as well as runs a thrift store for support. But when Moore and Glenna Bell Orman became involved, the two thought it would be a good idea to hold a fundraiser to attract people who didn’t golf or shop in the thrift store.
“We wanted to give the crisis center an opportunity to reach out to a different part of the population,” Moore said. “We thought we’d reach out to the agricultural and Western pleasure side of the community.”
The trail ride will give participants a chance to enjoy the historic ranch. Moore said riders will get to see a ranch they otherwise might never experience.
“There’s a tremendous amount of history on that ranch,” she said.
The event features two rides: a two-hour morning ride and a three-hour afternoon ride. Both rides are covered in the $50 registration fee.
Participants can enjoy lunch at the chuck wagon.
Riders must bring proof of a negative Coggins test for their horse in order to participate.
For more information or to register, call Moore at (830) 598-1587 or Orman at (830) 265-7085.
Go to www.hlfcc.org for more information on the crisis center.
daniel@thepicayune.com