Retirement Homes Coming to Maryland

Gary Maynard, secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, has proposed placing a 70-acre retired horse farm in Sykesville, using inmates to construct it and take care of the horses. The project would be located on a former farm on state-owned property off of Slacks Road in Sykesville. Inmates would build and prepare the farm and take care of retired race horses, preparing them for adoption, Maynard said. A contract with Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation is near completion. Work could start by late fall, said Maynard, who helped establish the foundation’s farms in Iowa and South Carolina.

Another horse farm is proposed for Salisbury’s Eastern Correctional Institution, he said, but the state still needs land for that project.

One of the program goals would be to make inmates at the Sykesville jail, who would be ready to be released, more employable by teaching them skills, he added. The thoroughbred foundation would provide some operating money and would manage the farm, said Diana Pikulski, foundation executive director.