At an early age, Kim Meeder learned how it felt to be knocked down by a sudden, powerful blow, which left her feeling crushed and helpless.

She subsequently learned valuable lessons about the amazing abilities of horses, which she has shared with millions of people, through her books, speaking engagements and clinics at her ranch.

Meeder's most recent book, "Bridge Called Hope," tells dramatic stories of horses rescued from abusive situations, which are then put to work transforming the broken hearts of abused and disabled young people at her ranch. Meeder is an enormously gifted writer and storyteller, with an outstanding ability to relate details of interactions between her four-legged and two-legged friends.

An accomplished athlete and fitness trainer who qualified twice for Olympic trials, Meeder and her husband, Troy, a landscape contractor, launched their youth ranch in 1995 in Central Oregon.

After the Meeders rescued two abused horses from a nearby ranch, some young people from a youth group would stop by their home to help out. A 16-year-old albino girl was particularly dedicated to working on their 9-acre property.

"Jessica looked like the picture of sorrow," Kim Meeder recalled in a phone interview. "Her family was going through a divorce. She was selectively mute. She could speak, but she was so broken up inside, she just chose to not use words."

When Meeder went inside her house, during a miserable, driving sleet storm, Jessica insisted on staying outside with a horse - which had recently nearly starved to death.

"They were head to head, heads really close together," Meeder recalled. "Jessica was just talking to this starving horse. Years of words came spilling out. Each one of them understood each other. It was like watching two halves of a bridge coming together. That was the moment I decided to build a ranch for kids and horses."

The ranch - built on the site of an unsightly volcanic cinder pit with a magnificent view of the Cascade Mountains - hosts about 5,000 young people each year, who are treated to riding sessions free of charge. Every year the Meeders hold two clinics, in May and June, to show other horse owners how they can start a similar operation. As a result of these clinics, more than 100 similar ministries have been founded, including four in Illinois.

Meeder, who began her writing career submitting columns to a local newspaper, signed a book deal with Multnomah Books, after the brother of a Multnomah employee attended one of her local speaking engagements. She later gained national attention as a public speaker while publicizing her first book, "Hope Rising."

As one listens to Meeder speak during her interview, in the most cheerful, upbeat voice, it is difficult to imagine the depth of grief she experienced as a child.

When she was 9 years old, Meeder lost both her parents as a result of a murder and suicide.

On the day of her parents' funeral, she rode a horse at her cousin's house. While riding, she experienced a sense of hope - that God was real and would help her overcome her pain.

"It was really on the back of a little horse that I heard the voice of God clearly," Meeder recalled. "God used that horse to help me hear him."

After she and her two older sisters moved in with her grandparents, her grandmother bought them each a horse, hoping the horses could help lift them from their fog of despair.

As Kim Meeder arrived at her school bus stop each day after school, she ran to her house, changed clothes and sprinted to the barn.

"I could not get to my horse fast enough," she recalled. "I knew that was the best place to cry. It was in her presence I came to know who God really was, his love and his kindness."

Meeder would ride her mustang through an oak forest, imagining that she was outracing all the problems that were haunting her.

"That little mustang, man could that horse go," she recalled. "I would duck and dodge and run, for as much time as I could bear, until everything trying to destroy my life was lost."

The child discovered that her horse loved her in a unique way.

"They're amazing creatures," Meeder said. "Horses keep every secret you share. They never laugh at you. They never judge you. They just accept you as you are."

hfreeman@herald-review.com|421-6985

About the book

TITLE: "Bridge Called Hope"

TYPE: Paperback, 246 pages

ISBN: 1-59052-655-4

PUBLISHER: Multnomah Publishers

LIST PRICE: $13.99

ON THE NET: 'The Ranch of Rescued Dreams': www.crystalpeaksyouthranch.org/.