Chris Carl searched for a metal newspaper box to hide behind as he slept on the streets of Nicholasville. The street was his refuge. He was in his mid-30s, fatigued, out of it and homeless with a lengthy criminal record—mostly drugs and theft. He had moved over the years from alcohol to pills to heroin.
He had served a tour in the U.S. Army in Baghdad, Iraq, but ended up going AWOL. He was divorced, an absent father. He had no job. He had no money.
Carl’s life had hit rock bottom. Even worse, he was hopeless. “I was ready to give up,” he said.
The troubled man had no idea during those dreary times that horses would or could save him.
• • •
Carl today is education director of HorseSensing in Shelby County off Bagdad Road, a nine-month minimum residential program where veterans and men in recovery receive treatment for substance abuse and mental and health challenges while learning a new trade involving horses.
The nonprofit program is at no cost to residents. Founders and operators David and Sally Broder provide for all needs free of charge, so the focus for the residents can be on healing and progressing to a new, permanent path of stability and health. It has no type of insurance.
For women, HorseSensing provides forms of equine-assisted therapy and training programs. It has hosted events specifically for female service members.
Residents who complete the program are placed in a good job at Shelby County professional horse farms and are equipped with the skills and support to succeed for the long term.
“I never was around horses, didn’t know much about them until I got here and went through the program,” said Carl. “They have made all the difference in my life.”
• • •
Carl was born Jan. 28, 1986, in Lexington and grew up in nearby Nicholasville. He was the first of three children born to Gerald and Barbara Carl. Another boy and a girl followed. Gerald worked in manual labor and taught Chris the value of hard work. Barbara, Chris said, instilled in him cleanliness and keeping things in order.
While in the ninth grade at West Jessamine High School, Carl’s addiction to alcohol flourished. Jack Daniel’s was his preference. He said his parents were unaware of his problem. “No one in the family questioned me,” he said. “I told them I was going camping or hiking, and I would get plastered.
“I always looked older than I was and bought [alcohol] easily at stores.”
He found pills, primarily opiates, easier to hide and a stronger stimulus “to get away from it all,” he said. “They were easy to get from different people.”
After graduating from high school in 2004, Carl went from pills to heroin. He joined the Army two years later and was deployed to Iraq. “The pills were there, too,” he said.
On a trip back home, he decided not to return to the Army. He went AWOL and later turned himself in. He lost any chance of ever getting veterans’ benefits. In the meantime, he had married, but the marriage ended in divorce in 2008. His second marriage produced a daughter and son, but that marriage ended in 2018. The children now live with his parents.
“Nothing was going right,” Carl said. “I started stealing, along with taking the drugs. I spent a lot of time in jails.”
In 2019, Carl was homeless. “I was out on the streets looking for drugs or money to buy drugs,” he said. “I slept on the streets. The police knew me. They left me alone. I overdosed. I didn’t want to live anymore.”
Carl contacted a place he had heard about called Isaiah House in Willisburg (Washington County).
Founded in 1999, it is the state’s largest comprehensive Christ-based addiction treatment and recovery service, impacting residents’ ability to maintain lifetime sobriety. It has several campuses across the state.
“They picked me up and took care of me,” Carl said. “I was there for two and a half months.”
Just before his departure from the recovery center, the manager told him about a place called HorseSensing. “He told me it was about horses,” Carl said.
• • •
On Aug. 18, 2022, Carl enrolled at HorseSensing, working with Saddlebred horses. “I was scared of them, terrified,” he recalled.
Sally Broder, a clinical psychologist who had a drug problem when she was growing up in California, recalled how a horse kicked Carl in the head early in his program.
“I said if that’s the worst they can do to me, I will be all right,” he said.
A proud Carl graduated from the program in December 2022. His two children attended the ceremony.
He landed a job at Knollwood Farm in Wisconsin, one of the country’s most respected horse farms, excelling in training American Saddlebred horses and developing riders through one of the nation’s largest programs.
“I stayed there three weeks,” Carl said. “I wanted to get high every night. I got stuff over the counter. I called Sally and told her I needed to come home. I returned to HorseSensing.”
Because of Carl, “we changed our recovery program,” said Broder, “putting it into phases and requiring a minimum of nine months.”
At his return to HorseSensing, Carl said, “I got serious about my recovery. I got better.” A year’s job at Stone Ridge in Shelby County went fine, but he returned to HorseSensing when one of its trainers died.
In 2024, Carl, who used to sleep on the street with his head under mailboxes, became education director at HorseSensing. He works six days a week.
“I love it,” he said “It’s fulfilling. The horses are soothing. They get you out of yourself. I see guys like me and can relate to them, and they to me. I don’t know if this is my ultimate goal in life, but I know I don’t have to run away anymore from my life. I can handle it.”
With its 25 horses, HorseSensing teaches skills to become top-notch grooms in the horse industry, while also providing a therapeutic environment to tackle issues such as personal growth, depression, grief, PTSD, relationships and addictions.
HorseSensing was founded in 2009 in California by the Broders. They moved the program to a farm in Shelby County in 2021 and opened its residential program in 2022. It usually averages five to seven residents.
The 30-acre working farm welcomes tours.