The Fall Festival Carnival offers food, fun rides, a petting zoo, and exciting games. There was an artist carving wooden statues with a chainsaw. Carter blood care and the Hunt regional mobile mammography coach were out for the community as well. But there’s one opportunity that stands out from the rest.
The Broken Wheel Ranch Project is offering horse rides to the public at the carnival to raise money for their cause: helping veterans. What you may not have known is that Broken Wheel Ranch is a theraputic riding center for veterans.
Paul Broussard, Melanie Mincey, and Bradley Ingram of Broken Wheel Ranch Project offer a young boy a horse ride at the Fall Festival carnival
Based out of Bonham Texas, they work with veterans who have PTSD by offering trail rides and camp outs. The veterans and their family members are able to work with, bond, and help raise the horses for free. Most of them, after completing the program end up staying in Bonham and have their own ranch and horses. Veteran, Paul Broussard, said the best part was the “fellowship and relationships. It’s not just equine therapy riding…it’s a family.”
Civilians are able to visit and can “ride horses all day for only $25”, while at many other ranches civilians have to pay “$2oo for 30 minutes.” said Bradley Ingram, a volunteer with Broken Wheel Ranch.
The program director, Melanie Mincey explained that Broken Wheel Ranch is “totally volunteers” and that they have multiple veterans working to help out the public horse rides this weekend at the carnival. If you’d like to get involved or visit the Broken Wheel Ranch Project find them at the carnival or find them on facebook.
Here’s some more pictures from the carnival!
