labor crisis | Horse Racing Free Tips

Taylor Made Pilot Program a Meaningful Answer to Labor Crisis?

One year ago, Taylor Made Farm launched the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship-a program created to work with people recovering from substance abuse and teach them a new vocation in the Thoroughbred business. The pilot year was such a grand success that plans are now in the works for how the program can grow from here.

The School of Horsemanship was designed by the farm's Vice President Frank Taylor, who now oversees the project along with the program's coordinator Josh Bryan.

“Frank started this because he wanted to help people and there is also a labor shortage in the horse industry, so we thought those kind of went hand in hand,” Bryan explained. “It's really about giving people a second opportunity at life. What we've figured out is that people who are battling alcohol and drug addiction have a great work ethic and they're grateful for the opportunities that they're given. They're very humble, determined and disciplined.”

Bryan said Taylor first got the idea for the project from DV8 Kitchen, a local restaurant in Lexington that created a highly-successful vocational training program for those in the early stages of substance abuse recovery.

The School of Horsemanship, which is paid for by the Kentucky Career Center, was initially created in partnership with the Shepherd's House, a transitional residential drug addiction treatment center in Lexington. During the three-month program, participants return to the Shepherd's House every evening after their work on the farm. In addition to food and housing, they also receive counseling services at the Shepherd's House.

Upon graduation of the program, participants can start a full-time position at Taylor Made or seek work elsewhere if they so choose.

“We've had 20 people go through so far,” Bryan said. “We have nine guys who stayed on at the farm and then we have other guys who have ventured out to other places still working with horses. We've had a few who didn't graduate just because they didn't like it, which is fine. It's not for everybody and you have to have a passion for it, but I've found that people in recovery really like it out here because you can get away from the outside world and horses can be very therapeutic for the soul and the mind. Most people have come to really like it once they get over their timidness of the horse.”

As the program coordinator, Bryan is tasked with instructing all of the trainees–most of whom have never touched a horse before they stepped onto the farm.

“It's a good environment for them to stay relaxed because we usually have them working with maiden and barren mares,” he said. “I'm teaching from the ground up, from picking feet to showing a horse and everything in between. It's about getting them into the routine of working on a farm because it's a lot of hard work. It's very tiring and demanding, and they also have things they've got to do at their sober living house. I'm always making sure everybody's in a good place mentally and physically where they can handle the house and the farm.”

Bryan, who first started working at Taylor Made when he was 18, said he too has battled alcoholism and once lived at the Shepherd's House himself, but he has been clean for almost two years. One year ago Frank Taylor called him to share his idea for the School of Horsemanship and ask if he would be interested in helping get the program off its feet.

“I was a little nervous, but it's been great so far,” Bryan said. “I like that I have the opportunity to help other people who are in the same situation I was once in. It keeps me going on the right path and shows me that from where I started to where I am now, I've come a long way. I'm able to help someone else that is struggling when they can see that I came from that situation and know that you can get over it and you can have a life without drugs and alcohol.”

As the program now looks to expand, Bryan said they have been networking with other local treatment facilities and rehabilitation programs to bring in more participants.

One of many successful School of Horsemanship graduation ceremonies | photo courtesy Taylor Made

“We want it to get big enough to where we can start sending groups of guys to other farms and I'll go out and check on them,” he explained. “We've talked to other big farms and they're on board. We really want to have our own housing out here for everybody, but that's way in the future. Our short-term goal right now is to still work with the Shepherd's House, but also start to branch out a little more.”

While the School of Horsemanship is a definite 'win' for Taylor Made, the program has been a life-changing opportunity for many of its participants.

After completing the three-month program, several participants were asked the following questions: How would you describe yourself and your situation when you were at your worst? How has recovery changed your plans and hopes for the future? What do you feel Taylor Made has done for your recovery? The following is a small excerpt of their written responses.

Will Walden:

“To surmise the week leading up to the Shepherd's House I'll say this: [the words] hopeless and defeated don't begin to explain the state of mind and body that I was in. My daily life was a collage of overdoses…All I wanted to do at that point was overdose and not wake up.

Recovery has actually given me the ability to even consider hope for the future. For the longest time, a drug-induced groundhog day was the only future that seemed possible. Due to this new way of life, which consists of a program of action and an irreplaceable relationship with God, plans and hopes for a future are a series of endless possibilities.

This opportunity with Taylor Made has given me a purpose, which is all I've ever wanted in this life. I am eternally grateful.”

Tyler Maxwell:

“I separated myself from my family, my friends, and most importantly myself. I didn't care about you, I didn't care about me, I didn't care about anything. I was content with wasting my life away.

My recovery has given me a new-found love for not only my life, but the lives of others. It has opened my eyes to a new world filled with joy and peace. I went from being content with living the way I was living to earning an opportunity to pursue a career that I live in the hopes that I can pave the way for others just like me to follow.

I will forever be grateful to Taylor Made. I owe a big part of me being sober for over a year to the farm and the Taylor family. That farm has God all over it and thankfully, I spent eight months of my early sobriety witnessing it on a daily basis. Through hard work and having a sense of accomplishment, at the end of the day Taylor Made paved the way into the man I am today. Those horses and the family environment led me to finding who I truly was. I'll never forget Frank Taylor telling me that Winston Churchill once said, 'There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.' Taylor Made will forever hold a place in my heart.”

Mike Lowery:

“Being homeless at Woodland Park last September until early November, I went through things that I never imagined I would ever go through. I came to the reality that if I kept living the way I was living, I would not be living very long.

Recovery has given me the chance to clear my mind and realize that anything is possible if I set my mind to it. For many years my drug addiction kept me from being the worker that I am today. I am blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the first class of the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship. Not gonna lie, I was really nervous about working with such a large and powerful animal. About two months into the program, I realized how much passion I had for not only these beautiful Thoroughbreds but the horse industry as well.

There is something so spiritual and peaceful about seeing the sunrise while bringing a horse up to the barn. I feel like a good day of hard work is great for people in recovery. For me personally, it gives me a sense of accomplishment. At the end of the day when the barn is all blown out, the stalls are all clean and the horses are looking the best they can look, I can say with pride that I did that.”

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KTFMC Meeting: Labor Crisis in the Thoroughbred Industry

LEXINGTON, KY-The ongoing labor crisis in the Thoroughbred industry was the focal point of discussion at the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club's monthly meeting, which was held on Tuesday and brought in a large audience for a discussion on the talk.

A panel of five industry participants and educators was on hand to give their perspective on the history of the issue and how the situation has worsened over time. They also spoke on projects currently in the works that have potential to bring in skilled labor and shared their thoughts on the best methods for effectively recruiting a new generation of workers.

“We had a board meeting and discussed what would be relevant for this meeting and this is a topic that pertains to every farm right now,” KTFMC President Courtney Schneider said. “You hope that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but it's an issue that needs to be addressed and we need to be educated about what we can do to bring in new people and keep them in the industry.”

“Our goal for the club is to refocus on issues that are important for farm managers–be it health and disease, operational issues or the bigger challenge of labor,” KTFMC Treasurer Gerry Duffy said. “It's an issue affecting every farm and everyone you talk to. Some people are in a desperate situation. Not only are you changing how you do things due to the absence of help, but it's putting an extra burden on the people you do have. It's not sustainable and we need to really get in front of the issue to try and solve it.”

Fasig-Tipton

Chris Baker was the first member of the panel to speak. The Chief Operating Officer of Three Chimneys Farm briefed the audience on the state of the issue when he first joined the industry through an entry-level position as a groom in 1986.

“It was a different time with 50,000 foals on the ground, the market was strong and input and labor costs were relatively low,” he said. “But even at that time, when labor was more abundant than it is today, I can still remember lamenting about finding the next group of people coming up to do this. The problem of identifying, recruiting and retaining a workforce isn't a new one, but it was less of an issue then.”

According to Baker, the connection with the horse–or lack thereof–is a main cause for today's limited employee pool and poor job retention.

“Finding help seemed easier [in 1986] and I think some of that was because we were less removed from an agrarian society. When you look now at the composition of the workforce, with a lot of Latinos, many of the people who have immigrated here are less removed from or are coming from an agrarian society. I think that's a big part of it–the connection with the horse. Without that, it can be hard to make sense of what you have to do and the sacrifices that need to be made in order to have a career in this industry.”

Baker emphasized that in order to recruit a strong, skilled workforce, finding the right person to fit the job is crucial.

“If you're going to come to work in the Thoroughbred industry, you probably have a different realistic financial ceiling than if you were going into medicine or finance,” he explained. “So why do you come to the horse business? It all comes back to the horse. I think if we can put the horse first in all we do, make people aware and make that focus on the horse as part of your recruiting, you're going to get the kind of people you want who are doing it for the right reasons.”

He continued, “We need to focus on a fair wage, a good work environment where people and horses are treated with respect, because that's part of making people feel like they're a part of something special, and then we need to train, develop and encourage so there is infrastructure in place for people to grow.”

Frank Taylor, Vice President of Taylor Made Farm, also shared his experiences as an employer. Taylor Made has several programs that Taylor said have been key to keeping their operation fully staffed.

This year, Taylor Made has started a pilot program called the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship. Created in partnership with Shepherd's House, a transitional residential drug addiction treatment center in Lexington, the program set a goal to bring in five trainees every 90 days. The workers spend their days on the farm and then return to the Shepherd's House every evening, where in addition to food and housing, they are also provided with counseling services.

“We have one barn set up where they are all working together and we also have a director there, someone who is good at teaching,” Taylor said. “I think it could be huge in the future. It's such a win for everybody. Obviously it's a win for society, it's a win for the horse business and a win for Taylor Made, and if we can give these people second-chance employment and help them get on their feet, I think we can do a lot of great stuff.”

While the project is still in the beginning stages, Taylor said he envisions future expansion.

“When you give these people a second chance and they are fully recovered, they become an example for everybody else,” he said. “For people dealing with addiction, one of the things that keeps them going is helping other people. So our hope is that we grow this and help a lot of people, who in turn help a lot of other people. We want to take this, get it perfected and show it to other farms. This has a lot of potential and we could envision 50 to 60 people a year graduating from this program and going out into the industry.”

Taylor said that his farm has also been a part of the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers program for four years.

“This program has been a godsend,” he said. “The thing about these guys is they're coming in and they're grateful and they love what they're doing. They can do two times as much work as the average person, maybe three.”

The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) Foundation and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Workforce Center has joined forces to launch the Equine Workforce Initiative in an effort to address the shortage of equine workers on a state level. Laurie Mays, another member of the panel, serves as the initiative's Equine Talent Pipeline Project Manager.

“We are in year three of this initiative,” she said. “We bring employers together and give them a safe space to discuss their struggles in terms of workforce development. We look at things like what skills go along with specific positions and how many people an employer might need in these positions.”

One problem her team has encountered, Mays said, is that accurate research on employment in the equine industry is difficult to pinpoint quantitatively due to the broad scope of data the state agency has to offer on employment in agriculture as a whole.

“One of the things we're doing is trying to get hard data for the needs of the industry,” Mays said. “This information and data can feed into our state's statistical agency so we can have a better idea of what our true needs are. This gives us a better way to talk to training programs when we can show them the actual number of positions we need to fill.”

The program at Blackburn Correctional Complex currently has seven graduates working in the industry. | EquiSport Photos

The Equine Workforce Initiative is in the process of developing several other programs that could prove to be valuable resources for employers. In partnership with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and the Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, Mays and her team are working to create meaningful connections between inmates who have undergone training on the farm and potential employers so that graduates of the program have a job as soon as the time comes.

“As of yesterday, we've placed seven people in Lexington at farms and vet clinics and it's going very well,” May reported. “We've heard great feedback from the employers who have hired them. We're going to look at doing an educational tour for employers to meet the instructors and the gentlemen, see the facility and learn more about what they learn.”

Savannah Robin serves as the internship coordinator for the University of Kentucky's Equine Program. She joined the panel to speak on the growing population of higher-education graduates seeking a career in the equine industry.

Robin shared that seven institutions in Kentucky offer an equine program. At the University of Kentucky, 300 students are in the program at any given time and on average, 89% come from out of state.Each student is required to complete an internship in order to obtain their degree at UK, and Robin said that on average, 21% of these internships focus on horse and farm management. However, only 9% of the UK Equine Program's alumni base currently works in that same field.

“We need to figure out how to tap into that 21% and help retain them within an industry than can provide them with leadership experiences,” Robin said.

Katie LaMonica, the Charities Manager for Godolphin, closed out the panel by reminding the audience about the upcoming Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards.

“We are heading into the sixth year of the TIEA Awards,” she said. “If we're looking for ways to reward and recognize our staff, this is a great way to do it. This year, all seven award categories have a sponsor. Our nominations are now open and we also have a new award. The Support Service Award is for your maintenance crew, gate grew, night watch team, farriers-people who don't necessarily work on the end of the shank, but they keep you going.”

The audience present at the meeting consisted of a diverse group of both well-established and up-and-coming industry participants, with UK Equine students and Kentucky Equine Management Internship (KEMI) members on hand. During the 'Q and A' session at the end of the meeting, much discussion was brought forth on the topic of work-life balance and the incoming generation's emphasis on the subject.

“Millennials and Gen Zers get beat up sometimes in terms of their work ethic, but the values of their generation won't disappoint you in what they can bring to the workforce,” Robin said. “These students need different things. They need different things than what I needed when I graduated. They're looking at work-life balance early on so that they don't burn out and can go on a long time within a career and be sustainable within that career.”

Baker and Taylor agreed that better working conditions and increased job flexibility are areas they could see evolving in the future, but said that participation in the Thoroughbred industry would always require hard work and sacrifice.

Baker said, “Do we need to adapt and provide opportunities to broaden the people that come to this business for a career? Yes. But on some level, I think the people that do the best, go the furthest and accomplish the most are those that embrace the lifestyle and the sacrifices that come with it in their personal life.”

“It is a lifestyle and it's not a job,” Taylor echoed. “If you're getting in the horse business and you want to be successful, it has to be a lifestyle. If you're going to get in this business, you better love it and be dedicated to it.”

“It's a matter of figuring out a way to make our industry available to the incoming generation who, quite rightly, doesn't want to work seven days a week,” Duffy said in conclusion. “We have competition from other industries who are paying more and making variable work times and conditions available to people, but behind that there's some great work going on here and some great initiatives. We have to keep the conversation going. We're here to get a discussion going and not necessarily present the answers, but just to get the industry talking and collaborating. As an industry, we need to come together and try to solve our issues together.”

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