A Hillsboro ranch that normally welcomes only program families will throw its gates open to the entire public on Nov. 7, when GaitWay hosts its Wild West Fest from 2 to 6 p.m. at Grit and Grace Ranch. Organizers are bringing in a mechanical bull, a hand-painted hat bar, food trucks, a silent auction, live music and a mobile escape room, with every dollar raised going toward feeding and caring for the nonprofit's 12-horse herd.
GaitWay uses horses and horsemanship to teach life skills like confidence, communication, healthy relationship building and emotional regulation to teen girls and women across Jefferson County, according to KSDK. Executive Director Heather Compton has been careful to draw a line around what the program is not. Per the station's report, Compton said GaitWay is not a horse therapy program but instead uses horses to teach transferable life skills that participants can carry into everyday life.
That distinction matters for how the organization came to exist. GaitWay grew out of a working student horsemanship program at Grit & Grace Ranch and was formally established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit by founder Jackie Greer and Compton, according to VoyageSTL. Greer originally launched the ranch in Imperial in 2019 before acquiring the 115-acre Hillsboro property that now houses an indoor arena, outdoor arena, round training pen, tack room, trails and hay fields, VoyageSTL reports. The Hillsboro site itself was established in April 2019 at 5327 Liberty School Road, according to the Leader, and it operates primarily as a private instructional facility that opens to the general public only once a year for Wild West Fest.
A Festival Built Around One Herd's Survival
The festival's centerpiece fundraising draw is simple math: GaitWay spends about $40,000 a year caring for its 12 horses, and per Compton, the Wild West Fest proceeds fund the herd for the entire year, the station notes. That figure tracks with national benchmarks — the American Association of Equine Practitioners estimates basic annual care for a single healthy horse at $2,500 to $3,600, according to Howell Western Wear, with routine costs covering hay, grain, farrier work, vaccinations and gear upkeep.
Among the festival's attractions is a hat bar where guests can choose and customize a hat to take home, with the hats hand-painted by participants in GaitWay's adult Dream Catcher program, per the station's report. Hat sales raise money for horse care alongside the day's other fundraising elements, which include a silent auction and shopping. A band will play throughout the event, and the ranch will also offer horse photo opportunities for attendees.
Escape Room Brings a St. Louis Puzzle Company to the Ranch
St. Louis-based Adventures of Intrigue, which operates a 9,200-square-foot story-driven puzzle space on South Jefferson Avenue, is bringing its mobile escape room, titled “I Am the Sheriff,” to the fest, per Explore St. Louis. The experience can accommodate 100 players split across four teams and will run from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 7, according to the station. GaitWay plans to post a full activity agenda with times on its Facebook page, where tickets are also available.
Wild West Fest is family-friendly and open to all ages, the station reports, making it one of the few days outsiders can walk the grounds that otherwise serve program participants and their families. GaitWay's teen program, called Dream Maker, has folded community service into its curriculum since 2019, with participants baking and hand-delivering treats to police and fire departments in Hillsboro and De Soto, according to the Leader.
County Dollars Back the Program's Expansion
Public funding has followed GaitWay's growth. The Jefferson County Mental Health Fund awarded the nonprofit $75,000 for the 2026–2027 grant cycle to support Dream Maker, which pairs teen girls ages 13 to 18 with eight hours a week of ranch operations work alongside horsemanship and mentorship, according to the Jefferson County Mental Health Fund. Dream Catcher is a free, horse-centered program.
In 2025 alone, GaitWay's youth and adult programs served more than 100 girls and women across the 115-acre facility, per VoyageSTL. That reach lands amid a broader regional backdrop: crisis calls to Missouri's 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline have risen every year since the line launched in July 2022, according to the Missouri Maternal Health Action Network, a trend cited as part of why public grantmaking boards back preventative community programs aimed at youth. Independent research lends some scientific weight to GaitWay's approach outside a clinical setting — a 2024 study published in Medical Health & Well-Being found that participants aged 8 to 18 showed statistically significant improvements in calmness, assertiveness, empathy and emotional focus after natural horsemanship groundwork, with early adolescents aged 11 to 14 showing particularly marked gains in planning and empathy, according to ResearchGate.
