For two years, Sean Blackford has been one of the stars of The Kentucky Horse Park's Parade of Breeds.  He's worked at The Horse Park in a variety of jobs: in maintenance, as mounted crowd control for the Police Competition "Mount Washington Police Camelot", as a barn manager of the Mounted Police and as a freelance horse trainer.  He's even been in the operating room of some of the top equine surgical centers in Lexington.  At 20 now, Sean has just started payments on the first horse of his own: a Saddlebred yearling filly the exact color as his chestnut skin and has named her, "Sultan's Kaboom".  Sean's great great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, so he's a great talent in the saddle and has high hopes.

Flash back 10 years.  Sean, one of seven children, was severely neglected and abused.  The details greatly moved me, knowing his story wasn't original.  As a 10 year old he stumbled upon a program of The Police Activity League (P.A.L.) where the volunteers would pick up children at two inner city locations and take them out to The Horse Park for a new program called The Mustang Troop.  Sean had never ridden a horse and had never left the inner city streets, but he got himself to one of those pick up spots for the next 10 years.  At times he would talk the driver into going to a house of a child he thought had potential, but perhaps not the initiative to get to that pick up point.  Sean's sensitivity has made him a great people-person as well as a horse-person.

The Mustang Troop changed his life.  Sean was able to evolve from the "inner city" lifestyle, a glossed over description of poverty, violence, and drugs with no escape other than death, to The City of The Horse Park.  The Horse Park is big enough to be a city and became his home away from horror.  With The Mustang Troop he ended up in D.C. at both Clinton's and Bush's inaugural parade and in Florida at The Gator Bowl, the only times he's ever left Kentucky.  With a tear in his eye, he would leave his Mustang Troop Barn each day, a more capable and experienced horse person.  He was learning a trade but really, all that grooming, mucking, tacking and riding was saving his life.

The Mustang Troop was the brainchild of a Horse Park executive, Lee Cholak.  The idea had difficulty at first.  People were worried about matching up wild kids with wild horses donated by the Federal Bureau of Land Management.  We know differently now, but the idea then was novel and did not get a lot of support.  Sean met Todd Waronicki first, who has been with the program for 10 years as The Big Barn Manager and their riding instructor.  I saw a picture of Todd with a group of children and there was Sean, up front at 10 years' of age.  The dedication of Todd has saved a whole bunch of inner city kids but without funding...well you know the rest.  I saw one of the girls in the program kick the dust as she was holding a bridle and say, "The Mustang Troop is ending in a week?" (For the season)  It was more of a statement than a question and she looked out over one of the paddocks, while I wondered what she was going back to.

Sean has earned a certain amount of celebrity status in his twice-a-day Parade of Breeds show, has been on Television with The Mustang Troop and his photogenic style, and he's even had an artist paint him on his favorite mustang, which is hanging in a Texas museum.  But on his days off, he still goes over to help the kids in The Mustang Troop.  Once in a while he even goes back to the inner city.  He can't bring his childhood back but maybe there are a few more children that can be saved.  He lives out on a farm near The Horse Park but still has a way to go--a car, a permanent job with The Horse Park with benefits, getting his GED diploma and perhaps fulfilling a lifetime dream of becoming a Mounted Police Officer.  The Mustang Troop hopes to get to the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona by New Year's Day.  That dream is dependent on funding, which has been recently cut by the State of Kentucky.  The Mustang Troop is ever more dependent on groups like Thoroughbred Charities of America, where yearly grants have helped to keep things going.  For Thoroughbred Charities of America, The Mustang Troop is one of over a hundred organizations worthwhile to support.  But for now, for Sean, each day is a new costume, a new horse to ride and more Mustang Troops to foster.

Liz Harris is the Executive Director of Thoroughbred Charities of America