SECOND CHANCES

SYKESVILLE — About two miles away from the Central Maryland Correctional Facility sits a farm, the barn among grassy hills, a picket fence winding through.

On a sunny day in May, the Sykesville farm is mostly quiet aside from a few birds whose calls were carried on a soft breeze in the air.

It’s the quiet — and the open space — that 35-year-old Pablo Lancaster cherishes. For two months, Lancaster has gotten the chance to come out to the farm and work with six horses. It’s a nice change of pace for Lancaster, who has been incarcerated for more than a decade on burglary charges.

“For me, since I’ve been locked up 14 years, [the best part is] just to come out here and not see prison walls,” he said. “It’s quiet, I get to enjoy life a little bit before I get to go home.”

Lancaster is one of four men involved in a program at the Second Chances Horse Farm.

Sarah Stein, the program director, said this program is about bringing horses who no longer have a racing career together with inmates who need to learn how to develop a skill. It’s been going on since around 2009 or 2010, she said, and is one of nine programs in the country that partners with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

The inmates involved are in pre-release facility, she said.

“The guys who get to come here are ... on good behavior in the prison and are looking for an outside detail,” she said.

They’re at the farm every day, for almost eight hours each day, starting around 7:30 a.m.

The men feed the horses, do field work, groom the horses and more. There’s also some classroom time, she said, to learn about how to take care of the animals.

“They are interacting with horses who are animals who — due to their nature of being prey