Reva Williams inspires others on trail ride to Houston ahead of rodeo

HOUSTON – Another sign that the Houston Rodeo is near: trail riders making their way to town.

Dozens of groups are trotting into Houston this week.

We are hearing the inspiring story of one of those riders.

It's a woman with a mission.

Click here for a map of the trail rides in Texas

Animals became her life's work when one horse changed her daughter's life, and now she is changing the lives of others.

Saddling up for the Houston Rodeo's trail ride tradition has been a favorite pastime for Reva Williams and her family.

"Thirty-six years, I love it it's just like a kid getting ready for Christmas. I get so excited," she said.

PHOTOS: Animals at Reva Williams' petting zoo

For Williams it also means rounding up more animals than the usual for the ride.

"I have a therapeutic petting zoo and I use my animals displayed around the wagon in cages," Williams said.

Her animals are not only popular on the ride, but to the patients she brings them to, like one of her rabbits that she put on a leash and gave to young girl who couldn't walk without her walker.

"I gave the rabbit to her and said walk. The lady who is with her said she can't walk. She said I'm going to walk the rabbit. She pushed the walker to the sidewalk and walked to the rabbit for the first time," Williams said.

Her interest in therapeutic petting zoos began at home with her own daughter, who at 10 months old had encephalitis, doctors said she would never walk or talk, but they were wrong and riding lessons changed her fate.

"After four lessons, she got off the horse. I said come on Kim, let's walk and she walked. I was shopping for a horse like I was shopping for a car," Williams said.

She has horses and goats and chickens and bunnies ... a ferret, a chinchilla and more. She even had a potbelly pig until Harvey.

"My animals got almost washed away. The water got so high, I lost a lot of them," she said.

Harvey couldn't stop Reva, though, she's been on a mission ever since that horse changed her daughter's life.

Her daughter, now 52, lives at Richmond State School.

Reva raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the school to build their own therapeutic riding center.

It's the inspiration behind sharing her animals on and off the trial ride.

"I was so happy that I want to give back. I was so happy for what the Lord had done for me," Williams said.

You can see Williams and in her wagon with her animals on Saturday during the trail riders parade in downtown.