It’s a familiar scene at horse farms across Central Kentucky. As the sun rises, workers clean out stalls, groom horses, and walk them. But at one Lexington horse farm, taking care of the horses goes much deeper than a daily chore.
For some people, it’s life-changing.
Spy Coast Farm spans 800 acres on both sides of Newtown Pike, between Fasig-Tipton and the Kentucky Horse Park on Iron Works Pike.
Lisa Lourie, a former ICU nurse from Long Island, New York, established the farm in 2009. Lourie started breeding performance horses like show jumpers in New York.
Her daughter competed in horse jumping, and Lourie noticed something missing from the sport. “I taught myself about pedigrees, and I realized there was a hole in the system in the U.S. in terms of breeding. We didn't have a formalized method of breeding warmbloods here. That had always been something that the Europeans did, and so we were going over there buying horses for a lot of money, bringing them back, and then basically disposing of them here.”
Lourie founded Spy Coast Farm on Long Island in 2003, and six years later expanded her horse farm breeding operation to Lexington.
Today, Spy Coast Farm encompasses a wide range of equine services including rehabilitation, quarantine, and an education center. An important part of Lourie’s mission includes mentoring young women and bringing non-traditional workers to Spy Coast Farm, like former inmates from Blackburn Correctional Complex, a minimum-security prison in Lexington.
Last year, Spy Coast Farm began helping women in recovery from addiction. Taylor Made Farm in Jesamine County runs a recovery program called Stable Recovery. It gives men in addiction a long-term residential program that includes a Horsemanship School and the skills to work in the horse industry after they graduate.
Last year, Stable Recovery began including women. The women’s Horsemanship School is held at Spy Coast Farm.
Kelly Payton, the Coordinator for the Women’s Program, says horses are a key part of rebuilding the lives of women battling addiction.
“These horses have an impact on us, both emotionally and physically, when we're working with them, and the women having the experiences here in the barn, they can really benefit from that. It can be as far as you know, building their physicality and their working ethic, but also learning to be emotionally aware and working on behavior management skills because if you come at a mare and you're angry and you're upset from the day before and you're having a bad day, that mare is going to receive that, and sometimes she's going to give it right back to you. So, you have to be very emotionally aware when you're around these horses, and it teaches you to be very cognizant of like how you're going through your day today. You can't just go through the motions.”
That resonates with Abbie Kent, who says she’s been in and out of recovery places for 25 years. “You know, the only thing, the reason I'm still alive, I think, is because I've had jail stints and rehab stints. But this is a totally different one. You know, I'm taking a lot from this place. I've been in and out of the 12-step programs a lot. I just relapsed after multiple years.”
Abbie uses a hose and brush to clean her favorite horse named Yellowstone. She says working around a horse has changed her life. Maybe even saved it.
“I can walk a horse out and talk to them, and they talk back. I don't care what anybody says. I can have long conversations with them. Just the walking process and just being out in nature has been super therapeutic for me to be able to, you know, really think about what I'm doing, think about my life, and what I have always wanted to do, what I've needed to do and what I've chosen to do.” In the same barn, Anne Goerne, who grew up riding horses, says it’s been 25 years since she’s spent time around them.
“Horses really run and feed off energy, so it's like if you're nervous, they're gonna be nervous. They give me a lot of balance, give me a lot of peace. You can talk to a horse. You can go out in the field and sit with a horse, and it'll just kind of regulate your breathing, you’re thinking. When I walk these horses, I don't think about anything else but what I'm doing.”
Lyndis Olson remembers growing up and competing in Hunter Jumper and dressage. Lyndis says she’s tried to get sober since last year. After relapsing from 30-day recovery programs, Lyndis found Stable Recovery and the School of Horsemanship at Spy Coast Farm.
“This has definitely saved my life. There's still a lot that I need to work on. In three months that I've been here, I don't believe that I could walk out today and be completely fine. And that is why I'm incredibly fortunate that I have more time to be able to focus on myself, and grateful that I have more time to be able to spend here at Spy Coast and Stable Recovery.”
The women’s journey to recovery and rebuilding of lives is woven into the mission of Spy Coast Farm. Owner Lisa Lourie has hired former inmates from Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, and people recovering from addiction. She recalls meeting a former veterinarian who was battling addiction.
“I said, "I've got two female veterinarians on staff. We want to get this woman back to her profession. Let's build her back up.” And so, she did come, and when she came, she was truly beaten down, and three weeks later, I went into rehabilitation and fitness, which is where we had placed her. And I introduced myself to this lovely woman, and she said, yeah, Lisa, it's me. And I did not even recognize it-the transformation, just in the way she carried herself, everything was like so dramatic. I was like, "Real? Wow!”
Lisa says they are patiently growing the women’s program. They’re starting with a few women, and learning along the way with them.
“It does bring you great joy, and it is just as important, quite frankly, for me and my staff as it is for that person. You know, everyone wins.”
Spy Coast Farm is in the people business, as much as it’s in the horse business.
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