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Horses on a Kentucky farm are helping men build sober lives, gain work and reunite families (apnews.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/38506198

Frank Taylor’s idea for the Stable Recovery program was born six years ago out of a need for help on his family’s 1,100-acre farm that has foaled and raised some of racing’s biggest stars in the heart of Kentucky horse country.

The area is also home to America’s bourbon industry and racing has long been associated with alcohol.

“If a horse won, I drank a lot,” Taylor said. “If a horse lost, I drank a lot.”

The basic framework for the program at Taylor Made Farm came from a restaurant he frequents whose owner operates it as a second-chance employment opportunity for people in recovery. Taylor thought something similar would work on his farm, given the physical labor involved in caring for horses and the peaceful atmosphere.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Context matters, friend.

Stable Recovery helps the men get a job in the industry after 90 days when they graduate from its School of Horsemanship. Participants don’t have to work in the industry but the majority want to.

So it's 90 days before the job is offered, not a year, my bad. Also you forgot to include the sentence above the one you quoted:

It doesn’t charge its participants until they start earning money once they begin working on the farm.

At that point, they pay $100 a week for food, housing, clothing and transportation. They earn $10 an hour the first 90 days, then get a raise to $15 to $17 an hour.

But still there's some ambiguity here because it says the job is offered after 90 days, so do they pay $10/hr for the first 90 days they're in the program, or only for the first 90 days after the job offer? Again I think it's safe to assume no job = no pay, so it sounds like they work for free for 90 days, then work for $10/hr for 90 days, then it's $15-17 from there. Which, fair enough, is considerably less of a grift than I originally thought.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Context matters, friend.

Agreed. So the context here, is that I already posted this above in our conversation, including the part you claim I left out. (I did leave it out the second time I quoted it because - well, I had already quoted it, and here I was quoting it again, adding to yours that's now three times we've seen the same information that has you confounded but seems clear to me.)

I take "the first 90 days" to mean the first 90 days they're there working, not the "first days after they graduate from the School of Horsemanship". And I've never been to a school where we didn't have to do work, so yeah they pay them from the FIRST DAY they do work.

FWIW I'm guessing there's a period of time where they just walk around, go to meetings, and talk to each other that probably lasts a week-ish. They don't get paid for that because they're not working, yeah? BUT- they're also not paying for anything either, and still getting the housing, food, clothes, etc.

I just think this accusation that they're just looking for free labor and propping up an addiction recovery program with horses (which, btw is an actual thing anyway - they're in a lot of places) is bizarre. It's bad faith on it's face and it's disparaging for no rational reason.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

You're right, I missed it the first time, my bad.

I take “the first 90 days” to mean the first 90 days they’re there working

That does seem to be one reading of the information available, yes. My point, though, was that it's ambiguous, so it can also be read as they work for free for the first 90 days of the program, then get offered a job where they work for $10/hr for 90 days, then get raised to a decent wage.

Re:bad faith/disparaging - yeah maybe. I've been through/around several recovery programs myself, and they always give me a scummy vibe so maybe I'm just looking for nits to pick. But 90 days free labor (if that's what's going on) is a lot less obviously-scummy than the year I initially thought it was, so. Though again with no mention of counselors or anything this still doesn't seem like much of a 'recovery program', but rather more of a 'get away from the triggers that caused you to drink' program. shrug Either way it does seem to be giving people a second chance and if there's nothing scummy going on then that's unambiguously a good thing.