A second chance is taking shape in Laurel, a mile from the Central Maryland Correctional Facility, where several former racehorses now live at Second Chances Horse Farm.
As Maryland marks a successful Preakness 151 weekend, the farm is giving incarcerated men hands-on experience and responsibility with horses as they prepare for re-entry.
The program is open to men who are close to release and meet certain requirements.
“The men who come into this program, they have to be prereleased. So they have to have a certain amount of time left on their sentence to be to be able to participate. They also have to meet, qualifications to be able to come out here and work with the horses,” Chelsey Truesdell, the Program Coordinator of Second Chances Horse Farm, told 7News.
The program operates in partnership with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a non-profit that provides aftercare for retired race horses.
The men spend seven days a week at the farm learning how to care for the horses. That includes Carlos Harvey, who is serving a 20-year sentence for assault.
“As soon as we get here, we start on the feed, we start getting their feed and their medicine together, and then that we take care of their feed and their medicine, we go around and clean up their run-ins and the passes, and then we work on them as far as grooming, and then some of the horses we might take out for exercising,” Harvey told 7News.
Truesdell said the men get classroom and field experience.
“They do a lot of theory, ranging from horse behavior all the way up to caring for injuries and grooming and tacking and everything that you may need to know moving forward when they’re released from the program,” Truesdell added.
That includes a visit to Laurel Park, where Preakness 151 was held.
“The in-class it teach you a lot about some of the stuff that you might not know about the horses…it gives you that physical aspect of, you know, working with the horses and getting a rapport or better relationship with the horse,” Truesdell added.
The goal is to prevent repeat offenders. Organizers say incarcerated people who complete the program are nearly 85 percent less likely to commit another crime.
With six months left on his sentence, Harvey said he hopes to use his certificate to continue caring for horses.
“I grew a lot, like it gave me a more sense of responsibility, you know, it gave me more of a work effort,” Harvey said. “The program gives you a lot of therapeutic because you taking care of the horse, but the horse is helping you out too, because you learn how to have sympathy and empathy for something besides yourself, and it also teaches you that you know everybody deserves a second chance.”
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