5 years at Blackburn taught service, trust
Randall Sorrell was locked up at the Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, Ky., for nearly five years. It was his lucky break! While serving time for “making a bad choice while in Kentucky on vacation,” he started to make good choices as a participant in the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s (TRF) Second Chances Program, which celebrates its 15th anniversary today. While working with retired racehorse Thoroughbreds, Sorrell says he learned many things, including building trust between man and horse, giving and receiving. “I also learned about the effectiveness of partnership. If you look at the relationship between a human and a horse, […]
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After big life loss, she gives all to save her t’bred
Wisp thin but strong, 19-year-old Alyssa Hammond toughened up early in life. Just 11-years-old when she lost her father Scott to brain cancer, the young Texas girl turned to horses to shore up her defenses. As she pressed on with her education, and other obligations, grief that could rush at her with dizzying force, could also be out run with the help of a red dun Quarter Horse named Will; the first of three she would treasure and love. On him she flew over fields and ditches as she embraced the Eventing discipline. And at school where she excelled in […]
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Owner from his past searches, saves old racer
Eight years had passed since Jay Romig stepped into the same race barn as his white Thoroughbred who had once run his heart out for him at Penn National. But time disappeared when Victorious Recall, now a 17-year-old careworn gelding, and Romig, 65, saw each other again a few months back, meeting as old friends after years apart. “I never thought I’d see him again,” Romig says. “I thought he must be dead.” But as soon as Romig entered the temporary barn, where Victorious Recall had been taken in by some kindhearted women, renewed vigor seemed to pump up the […]
