Story and photography by Ritchie Rozzelle

Let’s sit for a minute and contemplate fate. Heavy stuff, I know. But just think about how much of your life is determined by factors out of your control. Things like your parents’ genes, your high school’s math department, or your spouse’s idiosyncrasies can determine whether you’ll go bald, go to college or go utterly insane. Sometimes fate can decide bigger things, like the course of your entire life. Consider this story:

So, there are two dudes. One is born to a well-known family with a history of leadership and money. Real winners. A lot is expected from him, and from an early age he’s pushed to be better, faster and stronger, until one day … he falls. Then there’s the other guy. He’s born into poverty and life on the edge. He has little on which to build a future, and he’s not really pushed. Eventually he resorts to cutting corners to get by, taking bigger and bolder chances, until one day … he’s caught. Both are written off and forgotten, and both wind up in Virginia’s penitentiary system.

This seems like a sad but familiar story, except in this version the well-born dude is a horse, a thoroughbred named Covert Action. The grandson of racing legend, Secretariat, Covert was a winner in his own right. He was a three-time winner with a promising career, but after a fall left him lame, he was placed in the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation — the largest rescue program of its kind in the nation. Today he lives at the TRF’s newest facility, in the James River Work Center in State Farm, VA.

Covert Action is completely dependent on Tamio Holmes, the other guy in the aforementioned story. Tamio is serving nine years at the James River Correctional Center on a drug distribution charge, and was recently accepted into this brand new TRF program. Fate (and some poor decision making on Mr. Holmes’ part) conspired to put these two together in a prison, but that might end up for the best. The James River TRF puts Tamio, and five other model inmates, in on non-violent charges, through a six-month program that teaches them the basics of horse care.

“It’s a cool program,” Tamio admits with a smile as he leads Covert Action out of the Work Center’s Barn 4 and into a ring for his morning exercise. The daily responsibilities not only get the inmates outside and productive, they impart valuable skills and a sense of accomplishment. “Everyday we come in. I usually get the feed together. Somebody else gets the water together. We open the back doors and lead the horses out into the fields. They stay out for awhile, then we bring them back to eat. After that we groom them, brush them, comb their manes and their tails, pick their hooves – make sure we got all the rocks and everything out of them. Then some days I take Covert out to the ring and try to teach him to follow and stop on command. Right now I’m trying to teach him how to bow.”

Tamio gives Covert Action a command to bow, and sure enough the horse bends his proud head down between his front legs. “He’s the star of the barn,” Tamio says as he gives Covert a treat. His pride is obvious. It’s the kind of satisfaction that you can only get from learning to work with horses.

“I’m learning, too,” says Jesse Barker, the corrections guard assigned to the TRF program. “Everything I know, I learned here. I’ve never had a horse, touched a horse or had anything to do with them before this. And what I learn I pass on by helping the inmates with their class work and education. They have a curriculum that includes horse anatomy, barn maintenance and basic horse care — the things that people dealing with horses should know.”

None of this would be possible if not for Heather Mitchell, a program coordinator at James River. Heather challenged herself to find a way to rehabilitate inmates and educate inmates. When she heard about the TRF, and its success in partnering with seven other prisons to provide vocational education while rehabilitating horses, she knew this was her chance. It took her over a year to get the clearance, funds and supplies to start, but now as the first class of inmates is posed to graduate the program, she feels rewarded.

“It’s great to see the guys working with the horses,” she says. “Here, just months in, we can already tell that these horses have an impact on the men. One of the goals of this TRF is to give the inmates the foundation to start a job in the horse community once they’re released. I think that’s happening.”

While we know Heather was the driving force behind this program, she says Southern States and her sales rep, Laura Stopper, deserve a lot of credit. “Southern States donated halters and lead ropes, buckets, brushes, grooming totes, hoof picks, all kinds of things. And of course we feed Southern States Legends Maturity to all the horses.”

Inmate John Hammond expresses his appreciation, as well. “This is turning into a very successful program. We’re especially thankful to Southern States for donating the tools we use. We’re proud of this program, and happy that folks had the trust and belief in us to start it.”

Now, back to fate. We’re all handed a lot in life, and not all of it is good. But when a man and a horse can cross paths and each rehabilitate the other, you’ve got to believe there’s something powerful at work. The mystery of it all isn’t lost on Tamio Holmes. As he cleans Covert Action’s stall he turns and says, “Who would have thought we’d end up around horses all day?”

Thanks to the Farmville, Richmond (W. Broad St. location) and Midlothian Southern States Stores for donating to the James River Work Center TRF.