What is that light that we see? It’s the light of a new day, a new horizon. Today we’ll learn about a remarkable equestrian facility which is bringing new light into the lives of children and adults with disabilities.

Joy Miller is co-founder of New Horizon Ranch, located near Rantoul in Franklin County. New Horizon Ranch is a therapeutic horseback riding center. It offers various kinds of equine-assisted activities and learning, psychotherapy, and summer day camp programs to individuals of all ages with physical, cognitive, social, emotional and learning disabilities.

Joy grew up in rural California. As a high schooler, she was selected for the National FFA Band which meant she came to perform at the National FFA Convention which was held in Kansas City at the time. While in Kansas City, she learned about Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe and ultimately came there as a student.

Her faith and Christian service are important to Joy. “I thought I would be going into international missions someday, so I majored in international agribusiness so I could help developing countries,” Joy said.

While at Mid-America Nazarene, she met and married Brian Miller who had grown up in Olathe. They bought a rural property in Franklin County.

“It was revealed to us that our mission wasn’t overseas, it was right here,” Joy said. Brian worked at College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe. They moved to the farm and it seemed natural to get horses. In 2000, they attended Equifest, the equine exhibition held in Wichita at the time. There they saw a demonstration of therapeutic vaulting with handicapped children, and it intrigued them.

“We felt called to work with horses and had a heart to help people,” Joy said. “We have a passion to help the underserved.” They learned about the benefits of therapeutic riding for children with disabilities.

The year 2004 was a tumultuous time. “We had our first child that year, but shortly after that, my 16-year-old brother was killed in a car accident,” Joy said. The tragedy hit hard and their equine dreams were put on hold.

“Eighteen months later, our pastor gave a sermon with the message that, if God gives you a dream, then He’s big enough to make it happen,” Joy said. “Brian and I looked at each other and said, `It’s time,’” she said. They went to work to realize their equestrian dream of service.

Brian and Joy became Certified Riding Instructors through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International and Certified Equine Specialists through the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association. In 2006, they founded their own therapeutic riding non-profit organization on their ranch.

What to call this new enterprise? “We believe that each day with a horse is a new opportunity for the child,” Joy said. “It’s a clean slate like the start of a new day, like new light on the horizon,” she said. “And we’d been through a dark time ourselves (since my brother’s death) so it was a new horizon for us too.” Joy and Brian named their operation New Horizon Ranch.

In 2007, New Horizon Ranch started offering therapeutic riding classes for children and adults with disabilities. “Let’s use these magnificent, majestic animals and see how many lives can be helped,” Joy said.

The first class began with seven children. In 2015, nearly 200 people were directly served by New Horizon Ranch. Today the ranch offers a broad spectrum of therapeutic riding and educational activities in their rural setting near the town of Rantoul, population 242 people. Now, that’s rural.

For more information, see www.newhorizonranch.org.

What is that light that we see? Is it the light of a distant horizon? Or maybe, it’s the light in the eyes of a child with special needs who has successfully ridden a horse. We salute Joy and Brian Miller and all those involved with New Horizon Ranch for making a difference in the lives of children through horseback riding.

And there’s more. Belt buckles are now being used to further enrich the lives of these children. We’ll learn about that next week.

This time of year is a good time to remember traditions that remind us of generations who came before us. One of the best culture keepers in this region was an Ellis County historian named Lawrence Weigel. He visited my classes each year in the early 90s to share tales about Volga German customs involving Christ Kind, Belznickel, and New Year wϋnsching (winching) traditions with high school freshmen. Nodding heads confirmed that some youngsters’ families still practiced these Old World activities.

At the same time, puzzled faces and blank looks revealed that others were clueless about such customs. My own Volga German family didn’t pass on these stories so I was thrilled to learn them. Every January 1, I think of Mr. Weigel’s anecdotes about families calling on one another on the New Year to share wishes for health, long life, good luck, peace and health, and eternal happiness after death.

As only a beloved grandfather figure can, our lecturer described a festive day of visiting, feasting, and a bit of tippling. Part of this practice involved parents teaching youngsters to recite a wish that ran something like this passage I found online, “ Ich wϋnsche euch ein glϋckseliges Neues Jahr. Langes Leben. Gesϋndheit. Fried und Einigkeit. Und nach dem Tod, ewig Glϋckseligkeit.” As families traveled door-to-door or farm-to-farm, children lucky to be the first visitor or a beloved relative earned a coin for their efforts along with a handful of nuts or sweets. I’ve listened to more than one elder tell stories of reciting this rhyme to collect spending money. Recalling such memories always brought a sparkle to their eyes and a lilt to their voices.

According to Mr. Weigel, this occasion was also a day for young men old enough to marry to court available local maidens. If I recollect correctly, he explained the Romeos announced their arrival with a shotgun blast to the sky. I’m not sure how romantic that was, but young women possessing several color-coded ribbons eagerly awaited noisy suitors. I can imagine girls biting lips and pinching cheeks to increase their rosy tint on an already cold morning. I’m guessing a certain amount of shy smiling and foot shuffling took place as well since adults and younger siblings stood nearby to supervise the show. Girls would pin their good will tokens on callers’ lapels, saving a particular color for a special fellow. I’d love to hear one of these stories firsthand.

Storekeepers certainly would’ve encouraged this custom since so many families produced much of their only holiday food rather than buying it. Despite their customers’ self-sufficient natures, demand for ammo and fripperies at the local mercantile would’ve increased merchant bank deposits during days leading up to this holiday.

This time of year on social media, I see folks sending one another this New Year greeting. I hope area families continue to share customs that crossed the sea and traveled overland with their ancestors. These are little traditions, yet they remind us of brave forebearers who left the familiar to offer descendants a better life. Many of us can honestly say this centuries old good luck wish has worked out well.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.

Many of us grew up with traditions we follow at holiday time. Time and location of family meals, when and how to open gifts, special activities such as caroling or church services, are some of the makings of holiday traditions.

In America, there are many different holiday traditions, as our “melting pot” culture has brought many nationalities and traditions together.

Feasting is a typical holiday tradition of every nation, and my family’s holiday food traditions are reflective of our melting pot of cultures, too. The Christmas eve buffet in my family includes Swedish potato sausage and ost kaka, a Swedish cheesecake dessert, borrowed from our Swedish neighbors in the Smoky Hill River valley between Salina and Lindsborg. My grandmother’s English heritage is reflected in the oyster stuffing, and my German aunt contributed dark brown bread and her delicious German potato salad made with dill pickles, green olives and tuna.

Why do we eat certain special foods at holiday time?

Roger Adams, a Kansas State University rare books librarian, has studied the history of traditional holiday foods, including the figgy pudding requested in “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” the drink referred to in “Here We Come A-Wassailing,” the sugarplums that danced in children’s heads in “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and the once-beloved but now much-maligned fruitcake- the “Rodney Dangerfield of the food world” that gets no respect.

Adams said the reason for the fruitcake’s devaluation in public opinion is because of the quality and type of ingredients that are used. Today’s recipe is nearly unrecognizable from the fruitcake of the past, said Adams, who can point to recipes found in cookbooks dating back to 1487 that are part of K-State Libraries’ Morse Department of Special Collections.

Fruitcake traces its origins to ancient Rome, where it included pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, and raisins in a barley mash. By the Middle Ages in Europe, additional dried fruits were added, as well as honey and spices.

The original fruitcake was thoroughly saturated with alcohol such as brandy or rum, which acts as a preservative to keep the ingredients from spoiling or getting rancid over time. Adams said this focus on preservation is consistent with most traditional Christmas foods, which came from the need in older times to preserve foods through the winter.

This trend is also seen in jam cookies and sugarplums – the latter of which were considered an ideal treat for children because they did not contain alcohol, unlike many other traditional Christmas foods. This is likely why they were connected to children in the 1823 poem, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

Mincemeat pie also was a preservation-focused holiday treat. Adams clarifies that the original pies did contain meat, as well as suet and dried fruits – especially raisins, which he said are a “must” in every mince pie.

The traditional puddings of England, including the figgy pudding we continue to sing about, were much different from the puddings that are popular in the U.S. today. The traditional puddings were more cakelike and often included raisins or other dried fruits – hence the figs in figgy pudding. These puddings were soaked in plenty of alcohol, usually rum. Families would gather during Advent and light the pudding cakes on fire to create a celebratory flaming dessert, like flambé.

Wassail, a warm Christmas punch, is a once-popular Christmas drink. Because of its warm serving temperature and its inclusion of alcohol, which warms the body, it was not uncommon in the U.S. as late as the 19th century to find people traveling around, visiting relatives and drinking wassail to stay warm.

Christmas is a good time to talk with older family members about the traditional holiday foods they ate when they were children. Dust off an old family or community cookbook and explore what past generations ate at Christmas. That will make holiday culinary traditions even more meaningful as family members continue to share them today.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.