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The Road Back: Josh Bryan Embraces a Second Chance to Find His Purpose

Stable Recovery is a rehabilitation program in Lexington, Kentucky that provides a safe living environment and a peer-driven, therapeutic community for men in the early stages of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Along with going to 12-step meetings and support groups, residents attend the School of Horsemanship at Taylor Made Farm to learn a new vocation in the Thoroughbred industry. The School of Horsemanship is a project that was created by Taylor Made two years ago and has since seen over 100 men go through the program. Many of those graduates have gone on to pursue a career in an equine-related field. Spy Coast Farm, Brook Ledge, Hallway Feeds, Will Walden Racing, Rood & Riddle, WinStar Farm and Godolphin have recently partnered with Stable Recovery as the program looks to expand its reach throughout Lexington.

In this month's installment of TDN's series, 'The Road Back,' we introduce you to Josh Bryan, the former program coordinator for the School of Horsemanship who now serves as assistant to Frank Taylor, the Director of New Business Development at Taylor Made Farm.

If you've ever been to a sale and had a chance to speak with Josh Bryan, you already know that he is a breath of fresh air. During those busy days when most everyone has their nose buried in a catalogue, barely having the time to look up and give a quick nod as you pass each other between barns, Bryan's easy smile as he looks you in the eye and asks about how you've been is a welcomed reprieve from the normal routine.

The sales are Bryan's happy place. He loves the energy, the wheeling and dealing, celebrating when a client's horse goes for a good amount of money. He has a passion for the horses, yes, but what he really enjoys is meeting new people, making someone's day better and carrying out his life's mission of helping others however he can.

Josh Bryan has had a hard life.

He was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a rare congenital defect that affects the development of the ear, nose, soft palate, lip and mandible usually on one side of the body. He had his first corrective surgery when he was just seven weeks old and now, at the age of 31, the count is up to 14.

Growing up in Frankfort, Kentucky, Bryan was constantly going in and out of doctors' offices. His parents didn't want him to get hurt so he rarely got to play sports. He never partied until college, when his life took the worst of turns.

During his freshman year at Western Kentucky University, Bryan's father passed away from leukemia. Two years later, his mother was battling health issues that turned out to be a fatal brain aneurysm.

The Taylor Made crew at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale | courtesy Josh Bryan

With both his parents suddenly taken from him, Bryan turned to alcohol to numb the loss.

“I didn't really feel like I had much to live for after that, which looking back now is total nonsense,” Bryan recalled. “It was a lot of depression and really no sense of purpose. I felt like life really wasn't really worth living anymore.”

Eventually addiction overcame any motivation he had to finish college and he flunked out. He returned home, hoping to get a job with the family business.

Bryan is second cousins to the Taylor brothers. Like almost everyone in the Taylor family, Bryan had spent a few summers as a teenager doing yearling prep. He worked off and on at Taylor Made after his return to Central Kentucky, but his addiction kept him from holding down a consistent job.

One day as he was driving down East Hickman road on the way to the farm, his car broke down. It was cold, and rainy, and he finally hit rock bottom.

“I felt like my life was coming to an end,” Bryan said. “It was either go on like I was until something tragic happened and I lost my life or make a decision to get some help. I kind of cried out to the universe that I had to get out of here. I had this sense of hope that there was more of a purpose for me than continuing on this dark path that was going to lead to me dying or going to jail or killing someone else.”

With the help of Frank Taylor, Bryan got into the Shepherd's House, a residential drug addiction treatment center, in August of 2020. He soon landed a job at Rood and Riddle and worked there as a surgery technician for eight months.

One day he got a call from Taylor, who had an idea to start a project that would teach men going through recovery from addiction a new vocation in the Thoroughbred industry. He wanted Bryan to be the program coordinator.

Together, Taylor and Bryan built the School of Horsemanship and eventually, with the help of Christian Countzler, they launched Stable Recovery, which allows all the participants in the School of Horsemanship to live in one place and go through meetings and support groups together during their time in the program.

As the program coordinator, Bryan taught members of the School of Horsemanship everything they needed to know about the daily care of the horses at Taylor Made.

“These people have never touched a horse and they're kind of timid at first, but once you are with them for a week or two, you see that light bulb come on and you see the passion that I had when I first started,” he described. “It's very heartwarming to me.”

Bryan and Frank Taylor | Sara Gordon

Like many graduates of the School of Horsemanship have already attested, Bryan said he knows there is something about horses that has a positive impact on people going through recovery.

“I think horses have a really good sense of your feelings emotionally,” he explained. “If you go into a horse's stall nervous, they're going to be rambunctious. If you go into that stall angry, they're going to mess with you and make it worse. I remember some days before my recovery I'd go into the barn hungover with a bad attitude and they'd just eat me alive, bucking and trying to run me over. If you go in there with the right mindset and a clear head, they'll love you to death. If you're having a bad day and you go into a horse's stall and give it a big old hug, it just makes all the difference.”

Horses don't notice that Bryan may look a little bit different than the other humans that care for them. This fact helped Bryan as he was first navigating a leadership role at the School of Horsemanship.

“They don't care about if you went to jail or what you look like or where you came from,” he said. “For a long time I wasn't comfortable in my own skin and it took a lot of people and prayer and therapy for me to be okay with it. Sometimes I still don't see myself as a leader, but I've gotten more comfortable with it.”

While Bryan thrived in his role at the School of Horsemanship, recently he was ready for a change as he hoped to grow his knowledge of the sales side of the business. He stepped down as program coordinator, handing the reins over to Joshua Franks (profiled here), and began working directly under Frank Taylor, who also recently took on a new position as the Director of New Business Development at Taylor Made.

Taylor and Bryan work together almost every day, traveling to farms to look at horses and talk with clients. Bryan's eventual goal is to be a Thoroughbred advisor at Taylor Made and maybe, one day, a bloodstock agent all on his own.

As a kid who lost both his parents by the age of 20, Bryan had needed someone to fill a mentorship role in his life and Taylor stepped in to do just that. Now, as Bryan furthers his career in the Thoroughbred industry, he hopes to do right by his family–both the ones who are with him today and those who will always be in his heart.

“I've gotten to the point where I feel my parents spiritually and I'm trying to make them proud even though they're not here physically,” he said. “Frank has kind of been like a father figure ever since my parents passed away. He took me under his wing even when I was out there doing that craziness. He's been a tremendous rock in my life, no doubt.”

“Josh is basically one of my kids,” added Taylor. “We've always worked well together. It's kind of like we're best friends and I think I'm a mentor or father figure to him. I'm very proud of him. Once he quit drinking and got his life in order and spiritually strong, he's on a path to do great things. Big things.”

Because Taylor has fought through his own battle with alcoholism, he and Bryan share more than just a blood relation.

“I guess it's what they call trauma bonding,” Bryan explained. “A lot of not-so-good things have happened in our lives that have brought us together. It's kind of a thing where you have to live it to understand it. I think everybody could learn from what we like to call the Big Book, which is the Alcoholics Anonymous book. They teach you about all these life skills not only on how to help yourself but how to help others. It's really about treating people how you want to be treated and about being compassionate.”

Just last month, Bryan practiced what he preaches when he and Taylor took a trip to Jamaica through a partnership with The Mustard Seed, a foundation that works to help people in need–particularly those who suffer from mental and physical disorders in third-world countries. Among the many projects they took on during their time there, Bryan and Taylor helped renovate a house for the program and added in a new second floor.

“I eventually want to do more for people,” said Bryan. “You've got to have money to help, unfortunately, but that's why I love Frank. He does a lot for a lot of people and that's what I eventually want to do. I do what I can for now.”

All this coming from someone who was handed more than his fair share of hardship and loss, and yet Bryan doesn't really look at it that way.

“I think one thing I've really learned is that just because sometimes you might get dealt a bad hand, the world doesn't owe you anything,” he said. “You get to make the decision on whether you're going to find the strength within, whether you're going to let it harm you or if you're going to overcome it. In recovery we tell people all the time that you have to have the gift of desperation. In the end it's your choice. You can have all this support but at the end of the day it's your decision to change your life for the better.”

“The last three years in recovery have probably been the best three years of my life,” he continued. “I found that sense of purpose that I know a lot of people struggle with. I had lost that connection with God after my parents passed away and I think that has grown stronger every year. I think that was something I was lacking for a while–that trust that everything is going to work out the way it's supposed to. Now I just take my hands off it and trust that no matter what happens, it's going to work out. And it has.”

To learn more, or to donate to Stable Recovery, visit https://stablerecovery.net/ .

The post The Road Back: Josh Bryan Embraces a Second Chance to Find His Purpose appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The Road Back: Joshua Franks, A Story Of Horses, Hope And Healing

In this month's installment of TDN's series, 'The Road Back,' we introduce you to graduate Joshua Franks, now program coordinator for the School of Horsemanship.

When Joshua Franks speaks about horses and the impact they've had on his life, the passion reverberates through every spoken word.

But it was only a year and a half ago that Franks first laid a hand on a horse, a moment he remembers vividly.

“It was at Keeneland, in Barn 10, and the horse was Big Lake [American Pharoah]. It was like I touched a ghost. Walking up to that horse, it was just magical.”

It marked a turning point in Franks's life. A page was opening to the start of a new chapter, one driven by faith, purpose and passion, that would pave over a past marred by drug addiction and incarceration.

Taylor Made Stallion Complex sign | Sarah Andrew

“I was born in California, but my mom and dad separated at a young age and then my mom moved back to Kentucky, so I grew up in Boone County. I lived with a single mom and two younger brothers. We lived in poverty,” said Franks. “In my household, I didn't grow up with goals. My mom didn't know how to love, there wasn't a lot of love in the home, so growing up, I felt lost and alone. I got addicted to drugs at a young age and from there it spiraled out of control.”

His issues with drug use eventually led him to prison, where he served a 10-year sentence. After he was released in 2020, he entered Recovery Works, a comprehensive inpatient addiction treatment center in Georgetown, Ky. It was there that he heard about Stable Recovery and its partner, the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship.

At this point, according to Franks, God stepped in. Because though he'd fallen down a path that many don't come back from, the light that kept him going was a hope that one day he would end up working within the Thoroughbred industry in some capacity. And the inspiration behind that? It was none other than the queen herself, Zenyatta (Street Cry).

“I believe she kind of changed the whole direction of my life. I used to watch Zenyatta race and she was electric. She touched me in a way that I can't even describe. She would bring tears to my eyes. Every hair on my arm would stand up when I watched her, and when she lost her last race, it just captured my heart,” said Franks. “I always wondered how to get here, how to get to Lexington to work with horses, but I never had that outlet. I think God knew in the depths of my heart what I truly loved. He met me where I was.”

Franks came to Taylor Made to enter Stable Recovery and partake in the School of Horsemanship program in July of 2022, soaking up everything he could in the barn and on the farm, before graduating and heading out to join fellow School of Horsemanship graduate Will Walden at the track. He worked as the foreman of the young trainer's stable, a time highlighted by a first stakes victory for the Walden team when Kate's Kingdom (Animal Kingdom) took the 2022 My Charmer Stakes at Turfway Park.

Joshua Franks | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm

Though Franks did struggle with a two-day relapse while on the road, he returned to Taylor Made last December to continue to work on himself, his sobriety and his career as a horseman.

“I think God took my pain, with addiction and all of that, and gave me something that would really touch my heart. It's really special,” said Franks.

Things have come full circle for the 37-year-old, who now works full-time as the program coordinator for the School of Horsemanship.

“The biggest thing about this program is that we're trying to help people stay sober. It isn't necessarily about trying to change the horse industry, you know that comes with it along the way, but first and foremost we want to save lives,” said Franks. “The best advice I'd give people is to seek God and trust God. That's something I've done every day. I hit my knees, day and night, and throughout the day. He's developed something that's astronomical for a guy like me.”

Franks spends day in and day out with the men in the program that spans 90 days, teaching recovering individuals' life skills and employable skills through working with the horses on the farm, participating in support groups and attending 12-step meetings.

“When they come in, I try to lead them in recovery first and then into horses. I tell them all the time, 'This job will always be here.' When it comes down to it, I want them to stay sober and develop a good foundation,” said Franks.

One of the most crucial aspects of the program is instituting structure, something that a lot of the participants have never had in their lives. During the program they go to work daily, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., while also keeping up with a schedule throughout the week that includes Monday Motivation classes, School of Horsemanship meetings on Wednesdays, Community meetings on Thursdays and in-house meetings, called 'Off to the Races,' on Saturdays.

“A lot of us didn't grow up with that stuff, we didn't grow up with structure, so it's a really intense 90 days. This program is like no other. [CEO] Christian [Countzler] is very stern, he expects things to go a certain way, which I appreciate. I've been other places where as bad as it is, there's drugs filling these places, there's no accountability, while here, Christian demands that. All the outside issues, we don't have to deal with those. We're here to recover and to help each other recover,” said Franks. “It goes hand-in-hand with how detailed the horse industry is. From the way the blankets are folded, to bandages, to medical charts, to bringing your horses in in the morning and checking to make sure they're well, with no cuts or swelling. It all comes down to structure and accountability.”

As much as the program places an emphasis on the individual's well-being and progress in their journey to sobriety, it also helps them build comradery and a recovery network amongst their peers and the staff.

Joshua Franks | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm

“What I try to do in my barn is to gain momentum behind guys, find out what they're good at and team build around them, getting them pointed in the right direction. Getting them to work together, lean on each other, that's important. Sometimes throughout the day I might stop the barn, get them all together and rally them. I think momentum is key with recovery,” said Franks. “When they get out of treatment, most of them haven't seen the doctor, or maybe they have court stuff going on, so we try to get all of that taken care of in those 90 days. That way, when they gain full-time employment, they already have that foundation set.

“They come in here broken, they need to feel good about themselves, so I try to place them in good positions to help build themselves up.”

Franks, who is just days away from celebrating his one-year anniversary of sobriety on Dec. 24, admits that if he'd told his younger self that this is where he'd be at this point in his life, he would have never believed it. But when he looks back on the places he's been, a valley of lows and lower, Franks knows he has found renewed purpose and a true home in the presence of horses.

“I heard Will Walden say this and it's so true: the horse doesn't ask where I'm from or what I've done, they accept me as who I am. They are the heroes. They are the therapeutic value in this thing for guys like me,” he said. “What I've noticed is that most of your broken souls don't have any family support, just like myself when I came into this. My mother is deceased, my father is deceased, I never really had family growing up, that was nonexistent, so the horses became my friends. It was tough for me sitting here when they would have family days and I would have no one show or call, but the horses, they're the ones that were there for me.”

If you come out to Taylor Made and look around, you'll likely see someone working on the farm that is in recovery. But it's not until you've seen a man working with a horse, standing there with a glimmer of hope in his eye, that you understand the true impact of the program developed by Frank Taylor and Countzler.

A shining testament to that, Franks gives the utmost credit to the program, Taylor Made and the Thoroughbred industry as a whole for where he is today.

“Nobody could put this together but God. He takes our pain and he develops it into something magnificent,” he said. “I will say this. Though I loved her dearly, my mom and I weren't close and she didn't know how to express her love. But the only thing I knew about my mom was that her favorite animal was a horse. I'm not sure if that was passed on to me, but I do believe she looks over me every day on this farm.

“Everyone has been so supportive of Stable Recovery. This is a non-profit organization and to know that there are people around the world that care about us enough to help get us back on our feet and heading in the right direction, it's special. I'm very grateful.”

The post The Road Back: Joshua Franks, A Story Of Horses, Hope And Healing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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KEEP Awards Seattle Slew Grants to Support Equine Education in Kentucky

The Kentucky Equine Education Project Foundation has awarded $30,000 to Kentucky equine non-profit organizations though its Seattle Slew Grant Program. With this latest grant round, the KEEP Foundation has provided more than $42,000 in grants to equine organizations across the state in 2023.

The KEEP Foundation's Seattle Slew grants are available to Kentucky non-profits providing equine-related educational programs, events and initiatives. The Seattle Slew Grant Program is part of the Foundation's efforts to support education and promote the importance of the equine industry to Kentucky's economy and culture.

Recipients of the Seattle Slew Grant awards are: Amplify Horse Racing, HorseSensing, Justin's Place, Life Adventure Center, Kentucky Equine Management Internship and Stable Recovery.

Grants of up to $5,000 are available, and new submissions are reviewed quarterly. For more information or to apply for a grant, click here.

The post KEEP Awards Seattle Slew Grants to Support Equine Education in Kentucky appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The Road Back: Once Homeless, Mike Lowery Found Purpose at Taylor Made

Stable Recovery is a rehabilitation program in Lexington, Kentucky that provides a safe living environment and a peer-driven, therapeutic community for men in the early stages of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Along with going to 12-step meetings and support groups, residents attend the School of Horsemanship at Taylor Made Farm to learn a new vocation in the Thoroughbred industry. The School of Horsemanship is a project that was created by Frank Taylor two years ago and has since seen over a 100 men go through the program. Many of those graduates have gone on to pursue a career in an equine-related field. Spy Coast Farm, Rood & Riddle, WinStar Farm and Godolphin have recently partnered with Stable Recovery as the program looks to expand its reach throughout Lexington.

The TDN is launching a new series, 'The Road Back,' where once a month we will profile a graduate of the School of Horsemanship and Stable Recovery programs. First up is Mike Lowery, a divisional manager at Taylor Made Farm.

“My first day at Taylor Made, I was scared to death,” Mike Lowery admits with a grin. He's sitting on the back porch of the Stable Recovery house at Taylor Made during his lunch break. Behind him, grazing mares dot an autumn-hued pasture.

“I had never touched a horse or been to Keeneland until two and a half years ago when I started the School of Horsemanship,” he recounted. “A horse is a really large animal and you want me to be up close and personal with it? I was terrified. But there was one mare that day and I don't know what it was about her. I was going through some things in my early sobriety and it was something about the way that she looked at me. It was weird. I can't explain it. It was like she was telling me that everything was going to be alright and I just fell in love with the horse at that point.”

One home of the Stable Recovery program is in downtown Lexington and the other is at Taylor Made Farm | Katie Petrunyak

Lowery, age 33, has hardly gone a day without being around horses since. Now the divisional broodmare manager at Taylor Made, he is responsible for overseeing 200 horses–managing their daily care, foaling mares every spring and preparing them for the breeding shed, and teaching foals their first lessons on the ground.

“It's a big responsibility, but I'm pretty honored and blessed to have this position,” he said.

A few weeks ago, Nov. 4 marked three years of sobriety for Lowery. Living and working on the farm and leading over a dozen employees, he is worlds away from the hopeless place he had once found himself.

His story before he stepped foot on the path to where he is now?

“It's dark,” he warns, but gives a small smile as he settles back into his chair. He's told this story before.

“Really it started young. When I was 14 I started dabbling in alcohol and marijuana and then it progressively got worse from there. I grew up with a single mother, so I always felt a little different. It got really bad when I was about 21, but it didn't hit home until I was sleeping in the park a few years later in my hometown at Woodland Park. I had an 'aha' moment where I saw myself and I didn't like the way that I looked or the way I felt with the pain and misery that comes along with drug addiction.”

Lowery had tried to reclaim his life many times in the years leading up to when he finally hit rock bottom. He had been to 13 different treatment facilities for short stays, but fell back into addiction as soon as he got out. He always had reservations in the back of his mind that the treatment wouldn't work, that recovery “was kind of BS.” He didn't want to take time out of his life by committing to sitting around a circle at a recovery center for months on end.

“My family is from Lexington and it wasn't that they didn't love me, but they just couldn't see me in the condition that I was in,” he explained. “They kind of cut ties. My mom had me at a young age so I can't imagine what it felt like for her to see her oldest son in that condition. Nobody wanted to see me like that. I thought I was just affecting myself, but I was really affecting the people around me who loved me. My children, my mother. Other people suffered as well.”

When Lowery finally checked into a year-long treatment program, the scale read 147 pounds, which is 100 pounds less than his current healthy weight.

He was living at the Shepherd's House, a transitional residential drug addiction treatment center in Lexington, when he first heard about the School of Horsemanship.

“I heard that this guy Frank Taylor had this crazy idea of taking alcoholics and drug addicts and putting them into the work force because there is shortage of employees in the equine industry,” Lowery recalled.

Lowery was a member of the very first group to join the School of Horsemanship in 2021. He and his classmates were dubious at first, but as they gained new skills like picking feet, showing a horse and cleaning a stall, they found themselves looking forward to what they might learn the next day.

“We were pretty lost at the beginning, but a few guys took us under their wing and showed us the ropes,” Lowery said. “Nobody could really believe that it was working. I still can't believe it sometimes, but it is.”

The Stable Recovery team at Taylor Made | courtesy Stable Recovery

After three months, Lowery graduated from the program and joined Taylor Made as a full-time groom.

Another member of his graduating class was Will Walden, who came up with the idea of starting something similar to the School of Horsemanship on the racetrack. Frank Taylor supplied Walden's venture with its first group of yearlings and Lowery joined Walden and one other classmate in Ocala to help break the babies. Their three-man team–with Walden as trainer, Lowery as groom and Tyler Maxwell as exercise rider–launched their stable at Keeneland last spring and had their first winner at Churchill Downs on May 13.

The barn took off from there and Lowery traveled with Walden from Churchill Downs to Turfway Park to Ellis Park. It was especially at Ellis, three hours away from home, that he realized he didn't want to be working so far from his family. Lowery had several job opportunities back in Lexington, but he ultimately found his way back to Taylor Made. He returned to the farm as a barn foreman and soon stepped up to his current position as a divisional manager.

“I could go work at a factory or do construction or whatever, but it would be the same thing every day,” he explained. “Here, with the number of horses that Taylor Made has, it's always something new every day. I love that and it drives me. It keeps me going because as soon as I think that I know something, I get humbled really quick.”

On any given day, Lowery manages several people in the School of Horsemanship program. It's one of his favorite parts of his job.

“I don't forget where I came from,” he said. “I'm just like those guys. I'm in recovery as well. The only difference is that I've put in a little more time.”

There is something about the horse, he says, that has a significant impact on people going through recovery.

“The way I look at it, we have domesticated them so they depend on us for everything–feed, water, their feet,” he explained. “I really think it gives people in recovery a purpose. Especially in early recovery, if you don't have a purpose then really what are you doing?”

Lowery and his family live on the farm and his two children ages two and four have developed a fondness for their four-legged neighbors. To be able to provide his family with a home in an tranquil environment like the rolling acres of Taylor Made is an opportunity that he never really thought was possible.

“It's special,” he said. “I grew up without a father, so that was something that I never wanted to put my children through but because of the drug addiction I ended up doing that to them. Now I can provide a beautiful home for them and they love the horses here. It means a lot to me.”

Stable Recovery, and its partner the School of Horsemanship, is looking to expand throughout Lexington. Rood & Riddle, Spy Coast Farm, Godolphin and WinStar Farm have already joined the project and there is a current wait list plenty long enough for more partners to join.

Lowery said he knows it might be a big ask for employers, but he can personally attest to the impact it could make.

“Not everybody that comes through here is going to make it or is going to stay sober, so you do have that,” he admits. “But for the most part, the percentage of success is high. You're getting good quality employees that can pass a drug test and will show up every day for work. To me that's all you can ask for. And you're helping people. My life is completely different than what it looked like a few years ago. Back then I wouldn't have known anybody crazy enough to hire guys like me, knowing my previous history. They gave me an opportunity when really nobody else would have, so for that I'm forever grateful.”

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