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TEMPLE, Texas—In the middle of the desert in Nevada, with no one but his horses to keep him company, Ezra Cooley had a lot of time to think and pray.

In the early stages of a round-the-world horseback ride he began in 2006, his thoughts led him to make his trip count for something other than personal accomplishment, so he vowed to use the trip to raise $1 million for Children’s Miracle Network.

Passing through Bell and Falls counties recently, Cooley took a break on Airville Road near Zabcikville to talk about his trip and let his two horses, Big Red and Striker, graze.

“The whole thing got started when my dad and I were riding around the woods, and we got to talking about it just kind of crazy talk, not being serious,” he said. “But then I got to thinking about it, and it was on my mind and on my heart and I said you know, ’I’m going to do it. I’m going to ride around the world.”’

Cooley, a 28-year-old rodeo cowboy from Chico, Calif., wore a slicker against daylong drizzle as he spoke. He said he sold everything, including his house, cars and construction company, to prepare for the estimated 27,000-mile trip.

“Eight months later I saddled up and left,” he said. “I started out two years ago the fifth of April 2006 out of Chico and rode all the way over to Manhattan, then from Manhattan, I road over here to Texas,” he said.

“I got out to the desert in Nevada and did a lot of praying and thinking,” he said. “There ain’t really nobody to talk to out there, and I just decided I was going to ride for a charity.”

He said his faith helped give him direction and solidify his resolve to help children.

“After going to the hospitals and seeing the kids I knew it was what the good Lord wanted me to do,” he said. Lesli Cearley, director, Children’s Miracle Network in Scott & White’s Office of Development, praised Cooley for his dedication to children.

“It is remarkable to think that in our fast paced, high-tech society, a man has put his life on hold for the benefit of our most vulnerable patients,” she said. “Ezra’s commitment to saving and improving the lives of children is inspiring.”

Traveling alone through the wilderness as well as in rural areas, Cooley has seen his share of adventures and hardship.

“I’ve been across the Sierras in 20 feet of snow, seen sandstorms, fell off a cliff in the Rockies, been followed by a grizzly bear,” he said, listing adventures as if they were items on a grocery list.

But he speaks slowly and passionately when he talks of his motivation for his journey.

“The biggest thing is I get to go to the hospital and see them kids and know we’re helping them out,” he said. “When you see them, you’re willing to rip your arm off and do anything if you thought you could help them.

“All the challenges I’ve been through don’t even come close to what them little kids go through in the hospitals,” he says, as Big Red and Striker munch quietly on roadside grass.

Big Red, a quarterhorse, has been with Cooley from the start of his trip, about 8,000 miles ago, he said. He also had Jhob, a 26-year-old Arabian horse at the start of his journey.

When he got to Wyoming, though, Cooley and Big Red roped Striker, then a wild horse, and he took it. Things got difficult handling three horses, though, and Cooley decided to retire Jhob.

“I got to the other side of Nebraska and ran into this family with some grandkids and I gave him to a little girl,” he said.

Normally his pack horse, on this day Cooley rode Striker to give Big Red a break from a minor injury.

“I haven’t ridden him in months,” he said of Striker, who earlier in the day was apparently feeling his wild horse roots. “He was a little ’western’ this morning,” Cooley said.

Cooley said all proceeds from the trip go to Children’s Miracle Network.

He finances the trip by stopping to work when he needs money. He has worked at ranches, stockyards and trains horses. “You work and make a few thousand dollars to keep you going down the trail,” he said. “I have to buy shoes (for the horses) and grain and pay my cell phone bill.”