Reasons To Be Cheerful · 22 hours ago

The Montana Ranch Where Autistic People Are Wranglers and Guides

On 230 acres of Montana wilderness, autistic adults wrangle horses, guide trail rides, name chickens after puns, and lead guests through country that asks nothing of them except presence. Erik's Ranch & Retreats was born from a mother's quiet reckoning with the future - what would happen to her son Erik when she was no longer there to advocate for him - and grew into something larger than protection: a place where belonging is built into the architecture itself, from dimmer switches to dirt-floored arenas. After a decade with the organization, wrangler Jacob Thoresen reflects on the distance he has traveled: "If you would have met me 10 years ago, I would have been, like, I couldn't be able to do anything independent and be trusted to actually get the work done." What Erik's Ranch quietly demonstrates is that the problem was never with the people - it was with workplaces designed too narrowly to recognize what they had to offer. The ranch's unofficial motto says it plainly: sheets, towels, and lives changed daily.