One stable at Keeneland focuses on addiction recovery while offering instruction on the basics of horsemanship

Will Walden and Tyler Maxwell of Ready Made Racing at Keeneland
on April 2. (Photo by Silas Walker, Lexington Herald-Leader)

Jacalyn Carfagno, a contributing writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader, tells a story about a group of men training horses at Ready Made Racing, a stable where all of the staff are in addiction recovery. 

The idea came to fruition last summer when Will Walden, a fourth-generation horseman and the son of Elliott Walden, president and CEO of WinStar Farm, went to Frank Taylor, vice president of sales at his family's Taylor Made Farm and pitched the idea, Carfagno reports. 

Taylor, also in recovery,  proceeded to buy 10 yearlings, found a group of investors and convinced his brothers to try a pilot project they called the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship to train people in recovery from substance use addiction the basics of horsemanship, she writes. 

Taylor told Carfagno that the horse industry is rife with addiction and "It's a lot safer to hire the ones that are in treatment."  

A year later, she writes that 20 have graduated from the 90-day program, 11 still work for Taylor Made, and others have gone on to other farms or industries. 

At the core of Ready Made Stables are Walden, Michael Lowry and Tyler Maxwell, who had gotten to know each other in the Shepherd's House recovery program. Carfagno reports that these three men took the 10 yearlings to Florida to train over the winter, even after a friend told Taylor that he was "a complete idiot" for trusting "three addicted guys that are in recovery" with that responsibility. 

Walden agreed it was a leap of faith, telling her, “You wouldn’t trust any one of us with five dollars to go to the store just a year ago, let alone hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of horses.” 

"But the three supported and encouraged each other, stayed sober and came back with race-ready two-year-olds," she writes. And by the time the Ready Made team arrived at Keeneland the third week of March,  she writes that Walden, 31, had been sober for 16 months, the longest period since he finished high school. 

On Wednesday, April 20, Sergeant Countzler, a two-year-old Bolt D'Oro colt and one of the 10 yearlings purchased for the program, came in third in his first race.

Walden told Carfagno that it was fitting that the horse is named for Christian Countzler, who helped him, Lowry and Maxwell climb out of addiction through his work at Shepherd's House. "I don't think we'd be here without that guy," he said. 

Lowry told Carfagno that caring for the horses entrusted to them is more than just a job.

"They do something to you, they bring peace, they really do, they bring peace," he said. 

Taylor shares even more about the mission and benefits of this program in a video with Blood Horse Magazine.