About five years ago, John and Angela Spillis started the Rugged Cross Youth Ranch and Rescue.
Their first rescue… a horse named “Sugar.”
When the Spillises took her in, she was malnourished, partially blind and had a broken spirit. Now, at the age of 14 years, she’s no longer used for riding, but her spirit is renewed thanks to the children that come to visit her, many who know the meaning of “broken.”
The ranch is in Lithia and its mission is to provide a safe haven for physically, spiritually and emotionally broken children. It works with local foster homes, orphanages and military families.
“I have a heart for foster kids and orphans," Angela Spillis said. "My grandmother was an orphan. Her mama died when she was 2 in Tarpon Springs, and then my dad was also an orphan. He was a foster child. He was adopted at 2.”
Rugged Cross Youth Ranch and Rescue has become a place of healing and love and a return of trust, and that support and guidance comes from humans and others.
“We do that through love and through patience, through trust, and the animals are key in trust," John Spillis said. "We rescue horses that have been abandoned. We rehabilitate them and then we use them in the process of teaching these kids how to trust."
People of deep faith, John and Angela hope to someday foster children and build a residence for them on the ranch.
“It’s my honor, so, it really…the kids are really the heroes,” Angela Spillis said tearfully. “To watch the children bounce back…they’re the heroes.”