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Welcome to another edition of Skywatch TV.
One of the most amazing things about being part of Skywatch TV is watching what happens
at Whispering Pony's Ranch.
It seems every time we turn around, buildings have suddenly appeared as if from thin air.
Welcome to Skywatch TV.
I'm Derek Gilbert, joining me.
Several of the principles involved with making things happen at Skywatch TV, aside from you
who have graciously contributed, and we'll talk about that.
The CEO of Skywatch TV, Tom Horn.
Good to be here.
The pony whisperer and the author of the biography, which is, I dare you to get through
the first chapter without Kleenex, no fences, need a horn, and Joe Artis Horn, the wild
man of the Ozarks who keeps us focused non-task around here.
Things have been developing so quickly at Whispering Pony's Ranch.
If we go a couple of weeks without stopping by, it almost is like we need a different
map to find our way around the property.
True enough.
Yep.
Tom, what are some of the new developments we can tell viewers about since the last time
we gave them a look at what was happening at Whispering Pony's?
Yeah, and so I want to especially send a shout out and a thank you to the people that, they
heard me, Steve Quayle, and the Hagman and Hagman program, Anita was on with us.
And it was really an idea that our good friend Steve Quayle had, he said, because he's been
to the ranch, he sees the vision and the dream.
He himself fell in love with one of our flashy little miniature horses, right?
Yeah, it's called Cowboy.
Yeah, it's named Cowboy.
And some people have sponsored Cowboy since then.
I think he calls him Fabio, right?
And this horse seems to know that he's all that in the Diet Coke too, right?
But he's a proud little horse.
He's a proud little horse and beautiful championship bloodlines.
He's part of our studs on the farm making more therapy horses, right?
But yeah, Steve had this idea, he said, hey man, come on Hagman and Hagman.
He said, I want to try to help you get people to sponsor a therapy pony so that it'll go
for the care of that horse and animal and the people that are employed there.
We have horse whispers working for the ranch now in addition to the chief one here.
And also because we have buildings that we are on a schedule actually to have finished
building before spring of 2017.
With the Lord Terry, and we'll talk about this during the show, we're going to start
running the Royal Family Kids Camps.
And we've had the national director, the founder, they've been to the ranch, they really believe
in what we're doing and the vision, and we can talk about the Royal Family and why we're
doing this.
But anyway, people responded to that, and they helped us raise the money by sponsoring
a pony at Whispering Ponies Ranch.
And if people want to know more about that, they can go to the website skywatchtv.com
right at the top.
The sponsor a pony, and they can read what that's all about.
And so now the main primary building is under construction now.
Excavating's all been done, the stem walls have all been poured.
We bought all of the framing material for the exterior part of the building, the roofing
and all that is sitting there right now, and we've got a construction crew over there right
now today actually standing the building up and building that.
Now of course we've got to raise the money to do the inside of it, but it's one of the
last major buildings that we have to build that's going to provide lodging for the kids
and their trustees when they come with them during the Royal Family Camp.
So yeah, we're aggressively moving forward.
We've dug one of the ponds there that the kids will be able to use for fishing in, and
it's filling up full of water, right?
Yeah.
We're working on it aggressively.
Joe, you were responsible, you and Nita both, for developing programs for the Royal Family
Kids Camp at Camp Davidson in Oregon.
What is involved with this process?
What sort of standards do you have to meet in order to be able to participate in this
program for Royal Family?
Well Royal Family Kids, because they're working with troubled children and they often receive
assistance through government subsidiaries and things like this.
Their expectation for the types of camps that they're allowed to use is pretty high.
So in the early 2000s when we were custodians of one of the largest premier retreat youth
centers in Central Oregon, one of the jobs that I was tasked with was getting this 35
acres that we had with all types.
We had lake activities, canoeing, high ropes challenge courses, outdoor schools, low ropes
challenge courses.
If people have been to Branson, they've seen these huge zip lines that people pay to get
to ride down.
We had a 60 foot zip line that I was responsible to.
60 foot high.
60 foot high, and then of course it was more than a football field in length, quite a wild
ride.
But more than just a lot of fun, these were tools to help build trust, communication,
getting children into an environment where they're distracted from where they were, wards
of the state, children that have been abused in unimaginable ways on every level, getting
them out of those situations and into an atmosphere where they can basically have fun for a week,
and all of it being themed in, learn to communicate, learn to trust, open up again, and Jesus has
a plan for your life despite what the world has tried to make you feel or you're no good.
You're the discarded child that nobody, is this making sense?
And so what we did was we worked with the ACA, which is the American Camping Association
back in the early 2000s, the criteria that we had to meet in order for us to be certified
through the ACA was quite stringent.
Everything from the way we stored chemicals to safety protocols, safety data sheets on
where chemicals were stored, where vehicles were stored, where were the keys to each vehicle,
where were they locked during the day, how many counselors to children, what are the
facilities like, do they meet certain regulations, where are the showers located in concern
to where the cafeteria is, a lot of stuff like that.
The ropes that we used, we had a 60 foot rock wall that I also was certified to oversee.
It was amazing to see these kids feel like they're reaching, they're being challenged
and they'll go further than they think they can with the encouragement of counselors and
things like this.
Huge, brand new swimming pool while we were there.
We had a lot of improvements to the campground and the facilities.
I was one of two in Central Oregon that was American Red Cross, LITs at the time still
certified to do like lakefront, water rescue, rec tech certified to build and operate ropes
course and a lot of this stuff.
And I look back and I often wondered, you know Lord, that was a really interesting chapter
and we sure did a lot there for a decade, but it's in the past.
What a neat experience and I've taken so much from that as I've moved even into television
and stuff that there's lessons I learned from that that apply now.
But it's still this kind of, this venue I'll never see the likes of again, but the Lord
had a different plan.
And he would use therapy animals and he would bring this whole kind of coalition of efforts
from various people that contributed there back, totally different state now.
But one of the groups that we worked with was Royal Family.
So I'm tickled to death, I can't believe I get to work with Skywatch, but also kind
of reintroduce some of the experience I had at that campground working very closely with
groups like Royal Family to see these kids that need rehabilitation so much, be able
to come and experience the joys of camping, music next to the fire pit.
We planned it into sketches and skits and live dramatizations and something that needs
to be added to what Joe is saying here, all at no cost for the Royal Family kids camps
will be the camp that is setting a whole new different kind of standard in the nation.
That's why the national leaders were here.
They were here.
I was going to ask you about that because I know that they were here just a couple of
weeks ago and had the opportunity to tour the facility, tour Skywatch TV.
We met with them.
They got to enjoy one of the wonderful lunches that Christie, our wonderful cook prepares
for us each day.
But what were their assessments?
First of all, let's back up a step because I come from a denomination that is not associated
or affiliated with a Royal Family.
So I don't know what Royal Family is and I imagine some of our viewers don't either.
What is Royal Family and what do they do?
Well, Royal Family is a specialized camping program, it was actually started.
The founder is a man named Wayne Tish.
He was here last week.
You can go on YouTube and what's the name of it that's called?
I was hoping you'd bring this up.
I just watched, they have a movie called Camp.
Just Camp, not the camp, just camp, C-A-M-P and you'll know, there's two or three movies
called Camp.
You'll know the one that we're referring to when you see the silhouette, the backside
of a man and a little boy looking over a pond.
But I watched it and I've been meaning to tell you guys, I watched it over the weekend
with my kids and you know me, I don't cry a lot.
I cried at least five times during this movie and I think for me it was very close because
if a person wants to know what is Royal Family, they're talking about this group, go to Netflix,
go anywhere, go to Amazon, order the DVD but it's a movie called Camp and if you want
to see, it's heartbreaking but it's wonderful at the same time this young boy is being violently
abused at home and the movie opens up right away and you're just, if you have any experience
with children or if you're a parent, you just can't imagine how someone could treat a child
like this.
Right away he gets into this scenario where he's at a camp and the founder was explaining
that that movie was largely based on all true events and when you get to the very end
of the film, you even see the people now that were characterized in the film, you know,
as the credits are rolling, they're actually talking about, yeah I remember when I met
so and so and that really happened and what not.
Well and some of these kids who were in foster care that had been abused, they were taken
away from their parents, now they're in this situation, they come into the Royal Family.
Later you see them grown up.
I was in this place, my life was at a crossroads, I could have went either way, I could have
wound up in drugs or in repeating the same kind of terrible stuff that sometimes happened,
I could have been in prison but today I work for a Royal Family Kids Camp helping other
children escape but it's the only program of its kind and the Royal Family Kids Camps
now are reaching 7% of all children, all children that are in foster care.
So it is an amazing ministry, it continues to grow and our part in all of this is that
we're creating a campgrounds in Missouri.
The people that are sponsoring a pony, they are helping us build this and we're going
to tell you something a little bit later that we want to do for them.
Right now when they sponsor a pony, we're sending them Nita's book No Fences because
this tells the story of how we got to this point and then Nita's also, when they sponsor
a pony, I don't know if you can get that on the screen, but when they sponsor a pony,
she also sends them a hoof signed copy of the horse that they have sponsored, that they
have adopted.
Now this is an actual hoof printed, it's not a photocopy, it is, the horse goes boom
and there it is.
Yeah, the horse has to sign the picture that's going to them.
So that's what we're sending them right now but there's some other things we're going
to do for them later.
So what they need to know is, the Royal Family camps normally it's expensive, it costs something
like maybe $500 per kid to go to these camps.
So even a small camp, they're looking at a budget of $20,000 or $30,000.
What our viewers and supporters are helping us do, even when they watch a program and
they go into our online store, let's say that by Dr. Heiser's book, there is a percentage
of everything that is going into building, whispering, ponies, rents, underwriting this
cost and it is our intention, Neeta and I put our entire retirement savings back into
this ministry and other people are helping us do this and we need more people to help
us do it, but what we're doing is, we're making these camps available at no cost whatsoever.
That means more kids can come because now they're not under the burden of having to
raise this budget and the national Royal Family Kids camps came here, Wayne Tash, who's in
the movie you were talking about, Chris Carmichael, who's the national director, spent three
days with us and they're hoping that Whispering Ponies Ranch is going to become a model that
can be repeated across the nation with other people who may have the means, who may have
land and even the therapy horses and part of the breeding program, they want these
horses gifted into these other camps, so we're multiplying these efforts.
Think about this number guys, 7% of all kids in Foster, that may not sound like a large
number if you're looking at the whole scale of the ones that need to be reached, but 7%,
but here's what's even more important, Chris Carmichael thinks that because of their partnership
with Whispering Ponies Ranch and other efforts that they've been building, that they're going
to soon hit 10% of all children in all foster care programs, guys.
And the movie camp, if you haven't seen it, the little boy that I mentioned, the point
is he finds Jesus at this camp and what would have otherwise certainly meant a life of probably
ending up in prison or dead or whatever, just totally ruined in destitute, finds Jesus
in hope.
And it's no other program fulfills this commission in the Bible.
If you want to know what is pure religion, we do all these things.
We go through all these different rituals, all these different ways of serving God.
But if you want to know what the Bible says, what pure religion is, it says this, it is
ministering to orphans and widows.
That's the call.
Pure religion and undefiled.
So people can participate in this.
Not everybody can do what we do, not everybody can work for Whispering Ponies Ranch, but
by supporting this effort, they're making it possible.
And they themselves are reaching those children with the gospel.
I have to tell you that when we first came down here a year and a half ago and Tom was
talking to Sharon and me about joining Skywatch TV, for me as a broadcaster for many years,
being able to use those abilities to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ was a blessing.
But when Joe took us on a tour of what would become Whispering Ponies Ranch with nothing
but the main, the arena built.
And showed us, you know, this is where the zip lines will go.
And here's the trails that dads already started to cut with the bulldozer.
That sealed the deal.
We'll tell you how you can sponsor a pony.
And we'll talk about the role that they play when Skywatch TV continues right after this.
You have the power to reach a child who's been broken, scarred, a victim of abuse, a
broken home, possibly drugs or violence, a child who's retreated into a shell, scarred
by adults who've stolen their innocence.
But where adults have failed, God can use the creatures that He's placed here among
us to break through, to restore trust and begin the healing.
And your gift can provide the key to that healing through the horses of Whispering Ponies Ranch.
Your gift of $1,000 for the therapy horses at Whispering Ponies Ranch can provide food
and care for a pony and help with the operating and construction costs of a retreat for these
children.
A retreat offered at no cost to them.
Log on to SkywatchTV.com and click the link in the top menu bar that says, Sponsor a Pony
to see the horses that are waiting for you.
When you sponsor one of the horses at Whispering Ponies Ranch, you'll receive a horse signed
frameable picture of your sponsored horse.
A personalized autographed copy of Nita Horn's memoir, No Fences, you'll also become a member
of the Founders Club.
Your $1,000 a year support automatically registers you for our annual conference.
You'll receive an invitation to the Founders Banquet during the conference at no cost to
you, where you'll see and hear exactly how your donations are being used in ministry
throughout the year.
And starting in 2017, you'll be invited to a Founders Retreat at Whispering Ponies Ranch
with a private meet and greet with the staffs of SkywatchTV and Whispering Ponies Ranch,
a devotional from Tom and Nita Horn.
And you'll sit in on a recording of an episode of SkywatchTV.
To sponsor a pony, log on to SkywatchTV.com and click the link that's a sponsor a pony
or call toll free, 844-750-4985.
And thank you for Whispering Ponies Ranch and SkywatchTV.
Welcome back to SkywatchTV.
I'm Derek Gilbert and we're talking with Tom Horn, Nita Horn, Joe Horn about Whispering
Ponies Ranch and one of the most enjoyable aspects of relocating from Illinois to come
here and be a part of SkywatchTV and part of Whispering Ponies Ranch, the support for
the ranch.
That's what I view my job every day is coming here and I'm doing everything I can to direct
attention to the means that we have to finance what you all are doing at the ranch.
But my mother, who is an animal lover from way back, raised on a farm in North Dakota
around animals, ponies, sheep, cows.
Not all of her experiences with the cows and sheep were enjoyable.
And she's got some story to tell you about geese that will curl your hair.
We'll have to ask her.
Yeah.
I brought her out to visit because her, you know, bringing her here was not by her choice,
but when she saw the ponies, she was sold.
And she is so proud that she was able to talk the director of the retirement community where
she lives nearby into bringing the ponies out on a regular basis.
Now the ponies are cute, Nita, and they are adorable, so well-behaved.
But what is the role that they play in Whispering Ponies Ranch with these children?
Well, these children, you know, some of them, and this is going to be hard to talk, and
I'm going to choke up, but like Joe was referring to these young kids on this program, there
are lots of kids that are not even in the foster area that have things that they deal
with at home.
But these kids, when they come and visit the ranch and they see these little animals, they're
so unassuming, there's nothing within the agenda of this animal that is going to intentionally
harm this little kid.
These kids can scratch on these ponies and they don't have any fear that this animal
has a motive for receiving that.
It's just a pure contact and connection where these kids can start beginning to learn all
about trust, and amazingly, these little horses also are giving trust, because horses are
born scared of everything, and so when they reciprocate the scratchings that's saying
to the kid, well, I trust you too.
And it really, really helps these little ones to understand that trust is mutual, and it
has to start somewhere, and sometimes that touch with these animals, it's so powerful.
These little horses have amazing power to communicate trust, and he and I were talking
the other night about some of the other ways that we could use these animals.
Joe has talked about doing a pack walk with the dogs, but he was talking about doing that
with the ponies, and I hadn't even explored that idea, put a little backpack on a pony
and go for a walk.
To me, that was one of the best ideas I've heard, because I've been trying to figure
out other creative ways to use these animals, because you can't always put a pony on a
cart and give it to a kid and say, go have fun, because these animals are pulling and
they do need directions, so you have to make sure that you are experienced enough.
So that's one aspect that you can use these animals, but you have an adult there that's
also, again, there's that bond between the animal and their trustee and the child.
I mean, it's just unlimited.
So the child sees that the animal is giving trust to the child, but they also see that
the animal is trusting the adult, the trustee, so that kind of opens the door then for the
child too.
Yes, yes.
Now you can go on Google and just type in therapy animals, and there are huge websites
that go through all of the psychological benefits of using therapy animals in a way that other
humans, well, most of those children have been betrayed by humans.
And then the human said, I love you, I think you're attractive, I think you're pretty,
I think whatever, and then they used that to misuse that child, and so there's a disconnect
in the child's mind.
What the people that come to Whispering Ponies Ranch and other places where they use therapy
animals, what they're doing is they're using the animal who the child instinctively trusts.
They know that if this little pony is giving them pony kisses, it's not because they want
to rape or molest or hurt them, right?
And so it's an instrument, a tool created by God that can now be used to bring that
child back to a place of trust again so that they learn that not all adults, not most adults,
are this way.
So they learn.
Now you mentioned your mother though, the arena is a training ground.
In fact, we recently had a confab of 60 other therapy horse ranches from around the nation
that came to Whispering Ponies Ranch, and it was a whole week of training to learn from
one another and connecting and interacting with each other.
But one of the things, you can only do so much with a therapy horse.
You've identified their gait.
You've broken them of any bad habits they have, whether maybe they want a nip or something.
They want to groom the child, which you can't let them do, right?
You've done all that, but then you've got to take them out of the environment.
So they will literally a couple times per month will load the horses up, and now they're
going to your mom's place.
And the people love it.
It's a ministry to them too, it's inspirational for them.
But for our side, there's a real practical point here.
We're getting the horse in an environment they don't know.
They're going to hear noise.
They see walkers, they see wheelchairs, they hear something buzzing.
Pretty soon they're all desensitized because, you know what?
If I'm with my trainer, I know everything is okay.
It's a biblical metaphor, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art
with me.
And they're learning from us what we learn from God, that no matter where I go, if you
are with me, I know you're in control, right?
Now, we just have a few minutes left, so let's talk about the special opportunity you want
to offer to people who are willing to sponsor ponies at Whisperin Ponies Ranch.
So when they sponsor a pony, what we're doing, we're asking them to make a $1,000 donation.
That sponsors a horse for a whole year.
It takes care of their farrier needs, their feed, the training, the care, everything else.
And then there's a small part of that that's also going into building the facilities that
we need to build.
Now, most of the big projects are either being built right now or already are finished.
The big, huge training arena.
The RV park for maps volunteers is practically done, the septic systems, all the infrastructure
is in there.
The big building that's going to be the lodge that'll provide VIP lodging that's already
built, it's already dedicated to that purpose.
The building that Steve Quayle's adopt a pony in Hagmans, and I want to give a shout
out to them too and say thank you.
The money that that raised now has put in the concrete work, the foundation, all the
material for the exterior part of that building.
And now we need to raise the funds for the inside of that building, which will actually
provide the lodging where the Royal Family Kids and their sponsors and stuff will stay.
There'll be a kitchen inside there, there'll be a public bathroom, there's going to be
a really large dining hall, there's a basketball hoop on one end of the building, but the inside
of that building, we need to raise the money for now.
Now, so if a person will sponsor a pony, we're going to send them Nita's book, a hoof
signed copy of the pony that they themselves frameable, that they themselves adopt.
But, also starting in 2017, our conference that we just came back from, their registration
will be automatically paid for by us into the conference.
There's going to be a banquet at the conference that is only for those who have sponsored
a pony, or later we're going to call this the Founders Club.
So if they're calling themselves a pony sponsor or Founders Club, it's all one part of the
same arrangement.
They're going to be able to come to the banquet where they're going to have me, Nita, Joe
Artists, we're going to get up and give a presentation that shows exactly how their
investment was used in the building of the camp, and then one final thing.
It's starting in 2017 for the Founders Club slash Sponsor of Pony members, we're going
to invite them to come to a private retreat on the grounds of Whispering Ponies Ranch.
So they'll take the complete tour, they'll see the way the facility is used, and then
they'll probably be a devotional that will be offered by us, they're going to have a
meet and greet with the Skywatch television WPR staff, and then we're going to invite
them to come and sit and watch the live filming of a Skywatch television program.
So what am I saying?
I'm saying that by them supporting this, they're becoming part of our extended family, and
they are a part of what we are doing, and we want to invite them to be part of that,
and we want the accountability, we want them to see that if they sponsored a pony, if they
made a donation, some people could do a lot more.
I know that there are people that have large amounts of money, and they're wondering, what
could I do?
What could I support that I believe in because I don't need all this revenue, right?
This is something they could pray about and think about too.
But basically that's what we intend to do, to make them a part of the ongoing ministry
of Skywatch television and Whispering Ponies Ranch and allow them to see it for themselves.
You can find out more at the website SkywatchTV.com, look in the top menu bar where it reads,
Sponsor a Pony.
We thank you for watching.
Tom Horn, Nita Horn, Joe Horn, I'm Derek Gilbert.
This is Skywatch TV.
