STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Pull on your cowboy boots and top your head with your fanciest Stetson hat for the Swiftsure Ranch Cowboy Ball.

This year’s ball is particularly fitting, says Executive Director Kristy Heitzman, as it’s the Year of the Horse according to the Chinese calendar.

“Last year was the year of the Snake so it was like shedding the old while the Year of the Horse means charging forward,” she said.

This year’s fundraiser for the ranch, which provides equine therapy for adults and children, will be held Thursday, June 25, at the ranch. It’s located at 114 Calypso Lane, a couple miles south of Bellevue on Highway 75.

The star-studded event kicks off at 4:30 p.m.  followed by dinner, auction and a paddle up. The Kilgore Boys, an emerging band from Hailey known for their small-town country and Southern rock anthems, will cap the evening with live music.

Tickets are available at https://swiftsureranch.org/.

The ranch’s thousand-pound therapists Swiftsure ranch has served a hundred children and adults free of charge in past years. It’s been growing the number of people it serves. Just this year it added youngsters involved in an Idaho Base Camp/Far + Wise program, and it launched a pilot program for middle school girls that involved learning such things as leadership skills.

Last week Swiftsure took a load of horses to Camp Rainbow Gold near Fairfield where children who have been challenged with cancer got to spend time in the saddle.

Swiftsure recently started another new program--Power Parenting--for parents of children with physical challenges. It is partnering with the Wood River YMCA on its Summer Bridge summer school program this year. And it works with Boise veterans.

“Horses change lives,” said Heitzman.