Wild Ones Youth Ranch is a non-profit horse ranch for kids from all situations in life to experience mustangs. There are around 30 horses and over 2,000 kids on site annually. There are children and youth from ages 3-18 taking lessons and getting riding time. For staff, it's a 24-hour work week that involves cleaning stalls to mentoring children and everything in between.
Amelia Peterson graduated from LBCC in 2013 with a certificate in Horse Management and has been putting it to good use.
Peterson said, in regards to her education,"The biggest bonus has been all the health-care information. I go to that a lot."
She is the Program Director at the ranch. Teaching lessons and training horses are all part of her job description. She has worked there since it's onset and has been going there since 2003.
"It taught me a lot of patience and humility," said Peterson.
Peterson started riding when she was 13, because a friend at school dared her to do it. She was nervous around horses at the time and only went for a riding lesson because she was told she wouldn't have the courage to. Shortly after, she got her first horse and the fear was history.
Outside the arena she likes reading and sewing. She loves cooking and baking, but she doesn't bake cookies because she has very high expectations and feels like it's too much pressure.
"She wants to see the kids and the horses succeed together as a team," Joshua Gershom, an adult volunteer said, "She wants to make sure it's done right, and not just get it done so the kid feels like they can do it even if they really can't."
Peterson owns two Mustangs, Daisy and Ringo, as well as a quarter horse she is currently training. Wild Ones Youth Ranch is home to many mustangs, most of which Peterson has worked with in some way, shape, or form.
On working with mustangs, Peterson says, "They are a challenge, but that makes it all the more rewarding, and when they trust they trust all the way."
Her job encompasses many things that change with the season. In the spring and fall she teaches lessons most of the day and works horses in any spare time. In the winter she does farm maintenance and horse training in the morning and instructs the older kids in the afternoon.
"Summer is kids from dawn till dusk," Peterson says of the peak busy season.
She has been to Utah and Las Vegas to intern with Jim Hicks, a clinician of dressage skills for the western horseman.
"She wants the best from horses and kids. She cares," said Laura Else, Instructing Wrangler and Peterson's long time friend.
At a Glance:
Who: Amelia Peterson
Birthday: July 13
Age: 24
Married: Phillip Peterson, Sept. 5, 2014
High School: Junction City High School
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