“We are humble and grateful to receive the Faith and Community in Action Award,” said CEO of Stable Recovery Christian Countzler. “We wake up every day and try to make a difference. Our mission is challenging but worthwhile, and it is heartening to be recognized by the governor and the state for all the hard work we do.”

More information about Stable Recovery and their mission can be found at their website.

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The funding is part of a multi-state settlement with a number of pharmaceutical companies for their roles in facilitating the opioid epidemic.

“We are incredibly appreciative of the Commission's decision to trust us with this funding for our program,” said Frank Taylor of Taylor Made Farm, who is currently serving as interim CEO of Stable Recovery. “As we continue to tighten our program and focus on helping people to recover in the most effective way possible–while also providing the industry with quality horsemen–we can use all the help we can get, and this is certainly a lot of help.”

The mission and growth of Stable Recovery has been covered extensively in the TDN here and here.

“We are really excited for what this funding will allow us to do for our participants,” said Christian Countzler, Stable Recovery's Director of Addiction Recovery. “This will allow us to reach more people who desperately need help and to offer them the opportunity to do something special by learning a trade that is so meaningful in this part of the country.”

Added Dan Pride, COO of Godolphin USA and Chairman of the Board at Stable Recovery: “What a blessing for Stable Recovery and for those individuals entering recovery who will have the opportunity to benefit from this additional funding. We also hope this will allow us to continue to make inroads in the industry as people notice that, not only does Stable Recovery do good for our program participants, but we provide the industry with some high quality, responsible horsemen too.”

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Stable Recovery, which Taylor started with the group's current Director of Addiction Recovery Christian Countzler, is at once halfway house and vocational rehab, providing a 12-step program, meaningful employment, and a new workforce source for the Thoroughbred industry.

But with a waiting list longer than he can count, Frank Taylor can't help but wonder, `what if it could be even more?'

Right now, Stable Recovery and its partner, the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship, can rehabilitate 32 people at a time in a 90-day program where men live in one of two houses, do daily therapy and AA, and work at a horse farm. The program was profiled in Chris McGrath's They've Taught Me to be Human Again in the TDN in August. One home for 20 men is in the city of Lexington; another, on Taylor Made's property. The program is financed from fundraisers and private donations, around 50% of which have come from the Taylor family; Frank and his brothers Mark, Duncan and Ben. The ticket is about $600,000 per year.

And while Taylor used to imagine the program spreading to other parts of the country, he said he now realizes the opportunities and growth potential in Lexington before moving on to other cities, due to the sheer number of horse farms and the efficiency of having the program in one place.

A few years ago, Taylor, himself a recovering alcoholic, visited the DV8 Kitchen in Lexington, which operates a restaurant providing employment to men and women in the early stages of substance abuse recovery. Taylor said he was inspired by the atmosphere, quality of food and the obvious satisfaction of the employees.

He was inspired to start the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship in the same model, but didn't act on it, he said, until his son came to him and told him he was an alcoholic.

“It shocked me,” said Taylor of his son's news. “I'm an alcoholic, too, and I drank way too much, but I was functioning. I didn't lose my wife or my family or our business, but I was definitely drinking too much. I had said I would quit drinking a thousand times, and then never did. But when that happened, I actually said I'm quitting and I just quit.”

They say that the best way to stay sober is to help other people stay sober, and Taylor decided he'd do that through TMSH. But it's a big leap of faith to invite a house full of addicts onto your farm, and into your business and your lives.

“There was naturally a lot of concern,” said Taylor. “You're bringing in people with criminal backgrounds, people with addiction. What if a horse gets hurt? What if a person gets hurt? What if somebody ODs? All of these things were big concerns.”

Taylor acknowledged all of those issues to his brothers, but countered with another set of what-ifs.

“I said, `What if we save somebody's life or reunite somebody's family or save somebody's son?' He asked them to let him try a three-month pilot program. He said if something went wrong, they'd just drop the whole idea.

“Three years later,” he says, “nothing has gone wrong. We're three years down the road and now they're more comfortable with it. I think the industry knows about it now. And every day somebody's coming up and telling me, `Hey, I've got a son, I've got a brother, I've got this person and that person that needs help,' and we're able to actually help them.”

Rock bottom isn't just an expression, he said. The reality is that addicts need to reach a point of absolute zero to get the most out of the program.

“The more broken they are, the better,” said Taylor. “In AA they talk about the gift of desperation, where they get so down, so out, a lot of people homeless, or in jail. You get so much pain in your life that you're willing to do something else. The way you qualify to get in the program is to have a real desire to do anything we tell you to do to get sober.”

But of course, the need is greater than the capacity, which has led Taylor to dream. In a perfect world, he said he could see one new center opening per year on a different Kentucky Thoroughbred farm.

The days are rigidly structured, leaving little time for idol thought. They're up at 5 a.m., at a morning meditation and reading by 6 a.m., and are off to work at Taylor Made or another employment by 6:50, where they will work until 4 p.m. They maintain that schedule for five days a week.

Partners in the project now include Rood & Riddle and Spy Coast Farm, with Darley and WinStar ready to come on board. In terms of his employment goals for the men, Taylor has high aspirations.

People outside of the industry are starting to hire the graduates. “We've sent several people to Clark Equipment, and they pay very well,” he said. “We're not just trying to turn these guys into a bunch of grooms. There might be some of them where that's where they need to be, but there are a lot of these people who are highly talented who could do a lot of things. And we want to see them be upwardly mobile, not just stopping at a groom spot or a barn foreman spot. One of the things I'm very proud of is that in three years, we have developed three Taylor Made managers.”

the Stable Recovery team at Taylor Made | Stable Recovery

The program, he said, has changed their lives. “They all have their own houses, they have their own truck, they have insurance, they're making good wages, and they're a key, vital part of our operation. And having them in our management staff, they're empathetic, they understand these people's situation and they're better at mentoring them.”

Stable Recovery has hired a grant writer to look for funding, and is holding the John Hall Golf Scramble fundraising event on October 9, but needs to step up the funding if it's going to expand its reach. Taylor says he's hopeful the Thoroughbred industry will realize the benefits of helping. Those benefits include not only helping those in need and developing a much-needed new work force, but perhaps also a bit of positive PR at a time when the industry desperately needs it.

For a sport reeling from a year in which it has stumbled from tragedy to tragedy, it seems as if supporting and embracing an inspiring program with Thoroughbred racehorses an integral part of the solution would be a positive for which we're desperate right now.

Despite recent events, said Taylor, “There are a lot of good things going on, and this is one of them. We're helping a lot of people. And the thing about Stable Recovery is that we've got the secret sauce. When you throw the horse in the equation of somebody working the 12 steps, it's like a whole different level. I can see it every day. These guys spend an hour with a horse and it's like you couldn't have hired the best therapist in the world to work with them and do any better.”

To sign up for or sponsor an item in the John Hall Memorial Golf Scramble, click here. To make a donation to Stable Recovery, click here. To learn more, visit www.stablerecovery.net

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“We wanted to put together an event during Keeneland's spring meet that would allow us to honor the sport and have fun, all for a good cause,” said Christian Countzler, President and CEO of Stable Recovery. “This money supports our program and supports substance abuse recovery but it also goes right back into the industry in the form of well-trained, careful and sober horsemen. It was also a way for us to honor Frank Taylor in front of his peers. Stable Recovery would not exist without his love and support, and we wanted to let him know how much

we appreciate him.”

Several current and former participants in the program shared powerful testimonies about how their experience with the School of Horsemanship at Taylor Made Farm and Stable Recovery had provided a solid foundation for their recovery.

Table sponsors at the event included Brook Ledge Horse Transport, Fasig-Tipton, the law firm Jackson Kelly PLLC, Spy Coast Farm, Taylor Made Farm, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital and WinStar Farm.

Auction items were donated by Frank and Kim Taylor, Coolmore, WinStar Farm, Lane's End Farm, Taylor Made Farm, Godolphin, Jim Lowry, Tommy Yunt, Freddie Maggard, Jay Ingle, Ann-Phillips Mayfield, LiveWELL Training, Elliott Logan, Wei Nang, John and Sherry Servis, Geoff Dunn, Pat Day and Hank

Whitman.

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“I got to a place that I'm not proud of. I was at the end of my rope. I was broken,” Walden said.

But his time at Wendy's, as humbling as it may have been, was an important step. He needed a job because a job was part of the process, one that he hoped would lead him away from years of substance abuse to a career as a Thoroughbred trainer.

Now sober, that goal is about to become a reality. Walden has 10 horses and is ready to begin his training career at the upcoming Keeneland spring meet.

He is the 31-year-old son of Elliott Walden, the former trainer who is the President and CEO of WinStar Farm. The younger Walden grew up around the barn, was always interested in horses and his father is a leading figure in the industry. He grew up watching his father win races like the GI Haskell with Menifee (Harlan), the GI Belmont S. with Victory Gallop (Cryptoclearance) and the GI Super Derby with Ecton Park (Forty Niner). He said if he wasn't in school he was around the barn. When his father left training in 2005 to go to work at WinStar, he put his equipment in storage, believing that some day his then teenage son would put them to good use.

“I remember when my dad first handed me shank. It was when I was 8 or 9-years-old,” Walden said. “I wanted a pair of Jordans. I couldn't afford them and he wasn't going to pay for them. So, he handed me a shank and had me hot walk to earn the money to buy them. I always had a connection with the horse. When I wasn't in school, every Saturday and Sunday, I was at the barn.”

Considering his upbringing and his family connection, Walden's path into the training profession should have been a smooth one. But nothing is smooth when you are an addict. Around the time he turned 18, the drugs took control of Walden's life. It was no longer a matter of becoming a trainer but figuring out a way to stay alive.

“It's pretty much been a 12-year run,” Walden said. “Started going to treatment centers and jail. I was pretty much an equal opportunity drug user. It wasn't anything specific. It was mainly heroin and crack cocaine and alcohol. Those were my things. It took me to a place where I about lost my life several times. I kept waking up in hospitals or jail cells or with a defibrillators on my chest or Narcan in my nose.”

It's not that he didn't try to get better. It's just that nothing worked. That was until he met Christian Countzler, who worked at Shepherds House, a drug treatment program in Lexington. He convinced Walden to give the facility a try.

“He kind of saved my life,” Walden said. “He was running a treatment facility in Lexington and was a sergeant in the military. He did two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I knew his passion and his heart was in it. There was no agenda with him. He just wanted to help people.”

Walden entered Shepherds House in November, 2020. It was at a time that he had hit bottom and was, he said, finally ready to make some changes in his life.

“When I got there, it was at a point where I was going to wake up or I wasn't,” he said. “I called Christian and asked him to take me to detox. I was in such a bad place that a willingness to change had been produced. I have been clean ever since I went into Shepherds House.”

Those going in for treatment at Shepherds House usually stay from 12 to 18 months, but Walden did so well that he was let out early. His 10-month stay ended in September. Next up was the job at Wendy's.

Showing that he was sober and could hold down a job, Walden was ready to start training and his father was there to lend his support.

“He's always been supportive,” Walden said. “He just wanted the personal issues that I had to be in the rear view before this jump was made. Something that he's always told me was 'it's never been your professional life that's been in question. It's been your personal life.' Once those two got on the same page, he didn't see why I couldn't have a successful career doing this.”

In rehab, he made two close friends, Tyler Maxwell and Michael Lowrey. Walden said their support was an important factor in his recovery and he wanted to stay close to them. So, he convinced them, upon their release, to sign up for the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship. The school, created by Taylor Made's Frank Taylor, was created to teach horsemanship skills to people recovering from substance issues and provide them with the skills needed to get a job on the racetrack.

“I'm off at Wendy's or wherever I am at and I get texts during the day from Tyler and Michael,” Walden said. “There were all these questions, like how do I get this foal to walk into the paddock? It had been two years since I had been on the track but I recognized that spark. They had the passion.”

So Walden hired the two as part of his training team.

He expects his first starter will be the 2-year-old Sergeant Countzler (Bolt d'Oro), who was named for Christian Countzler. The colt was bought at Keeneland September for $45,000. It's a modest price, but was part of an overall strategy. Walden wants to focus on young horses who are eligible for maiden races that are restricted to horses that sold for less than a certain price.

“These horses run for $90,000 in Kentucky and for $85,000 in New York,” he said. “If you win or run second in one of those races the odds are you've covered the purchase price or gotten pretty close. Everything after that is profit.”

He will not have any horses for WinStar.

“I haven't earned something like that,” Walden said.

Ten horses isn't going to guarantee success, especially when many of them were inexpensive yearling buys. For Walden, it could be tough at first, but he's not complaining. It beats the life he had been living.

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