Kelsey Kober

GARDINER, NY-A 30-year-old gelding you surely never heard of who never did anything that special on the racetrack is scheduled to be put down Friday at his home, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation farm at the Wallkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York. It happens. They all get old and, for Renaissance Bob, it is his time. This is not pressing news. Far from it. But it will be a sad, bittersweet day for me. I saved Renaissance Bob's life, plucking him out of a kill pen on Nov. 23, 1998...

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) farm at the Wallkill Correctional Facility recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. The perennial partnership sealed in 1983 paved the way for off-track Thoroughbreds as therapeutic learning partners for all people but most notably for men and women who have suffered PTSD, have substance abuse issues, anger management problems and many other issues that might land a person in prison. Pasture sound-only Thoroughbreds find sanctuary and a critically important career in the TRF's renowned program. Older horses are respected and revered for their lives and contributions...