Photo credit Katie Brown
Mark Garner had been on a couple of trail rides as a kid, but he never had a lot of actual, meaningful contact with horses until he arrived at the Central Maryland Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Sykesville. He soon realized that horses could change his life.
“I had already been incarcerated for a couple of years and it was my understanding that when you go to county from state facilities you were able to make some money,” he said. The officer who brought him to CMCF told him that there was a horse farm on the facility. The officer told him that inmates work seven days a week at the farm.
“That’s what I need,” he told the officer. “I know what it means to work hard,” he says “and I was eager to do so. Anything to keep me occupied and make my transition as soon as possible.” CMCF is a minimum-security institution, and inmates stay at the facility an average of 18 months. The facility offers several educational programs to prepare inmates for a successful transition from incarceration.
The horse farm is one of the Second Chances operations the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) runs at several farms in the United States. It was here that Garner found peace, along with the realization that he could change the trajectory of his life.
Profound Life Changes
“Going into that program, I had a very strong resentment for women,” Garner explains, “because my mother abandoned me when I was younger. So, I never thought I would be able to learn anything from women. I had a lot of mistrust in women.” And then he met Sarah Stein, the vocational instructor at the farm. “Little did I know,” Garner says, “how well Sarah led that program, and how awesome a mentor she is.”
Working with the horses, being at the farm, learning about ways to make a better life, Garner began to see life differently. “I’m a recovering addict and alcoholic for more than four years now,” he says. “Everybody has a past; everybody struggles, and their struggles are different to a certain degree. The horses, the combination of all that was life-changing for me.”
In the work-release program, Stein and Garner had been talking about a pilot program for Laurel Raceway in Maryland, which would bring Second Chances graduates to Laurel to apply for jobs. “One of the field trips Second Chances arranged to Laurel Raceway,” he says “I noticed that they gave their backstretch workers places to live and a job. A gentleman there came from the Second Chances program.” He thought about the shape his own future might take. “I considered my circumstances and said, ‘this could be what I need right here.’”
A Different Path
As it turned out, the pilot program at Laurel Raceway didn’t materialize right away and Garner took a job with J.J. McDonnell and Co., a seafood processing company in Elkridge, MD. “I finally got the job offer at Laurel Raceway,” he says. He spoke to his supervisor and explained that he was considering the offer. “The director of the processing room and a supervisor pulled me into a conference room and told me they understood.” He said they laid out a training regimen and showed him how his pay would increase as he met each training milestone. “But you don’t understand,” he told them. “I don’t even have a place to live.”
Garner paused. “They went as far as one of the employees there took me in,” he said. “He didn’t know me from Adam. I was on work release. But they took me in and helped me with the transition.” He says that life is pretty good right now. He even has a new car. “Life is just blossoming!”
And it continues to blossom—a result of Garner’s hard work and dedication. In September he was named the company’s September Employee of the Month, lauded for his leadership and teamwork and the way he exemplifies the company’s values. All of this, he says, grew out of his experiences in the Second Chances program.
A Change of Heart
He’s not working with horses, but horses are rarely far from his thoughts. “Over the summer I was cutting grass on weekends at a farm,” he says. The farm had a bunch of horses, and he did what his heart told him to do. “I went and groomed the horses after cutting the grass.” It turns out Garner’s experience with horses was profound. “I really can’t describe any other time in my life when I was just complete and at peace with the universe and myself than when I’m touching a horse. It’s just amazing,” he says.
He says that getting to this place took a lot of work, and he had to give up a lot of notions about women and himself. “I’ve tried rehab. I’ve tried 12-step programs. I’ve tried so many different avenues, but nothing came close to helping me change my ways of thinking than Second Chances. Nothing worked for me ever in my life until I went to that program.”
He’s now a machine supervisor and is building his life around his job and the opportunities that are now available to him. “I know I have a choice every day. I don’t have to be resentful and hold onto the pain.” He reflects on all the ways his experience with the horses changed him. “People asked me what changed. I tell them it was equine therapy. But it’s much more than that. I was really inspired by that program.” He credits Stein for her mentorship and leadership, and Second Chances for bringing such a talented and insightful person onto the farm to work with the inmates in the program.
It’s all proof of the power that each individual has. “Faith is not about finding meaning in the world,” according to writer Terry Tempest Williams. “There may be no such thing—faith is the belief in our capacity to create meaningful lives.” Indeed.