The Road Back: Kohari Living Proof That The Path Less Traveled Can Also Bring You Home

[Wandering Eyes]

From the outside looking in, Jaron Kohari had an idyllic childhood growing up in Belfry, Kentucky. Raised by his mother and step-father, alongside two half-brothers, Kohari found his place in the world of sports as he played basketball, baseball and football.

Though he maintained good grades, participated in plenty of extracurricular activities and even won two state championships at Belfry High School, Kohari was plagued with an underlying darkness in the form of manic-depressive bipolar disorder.

Always looking to quell the constant turmoil in his mind, he found the solution in the form of alcohol, a discovery that eventually led him to more addictive substances.

“I drank in high school, but it was more of a social thing. It's what everyone in a small town does after winning a game, but I regretted my nights a lot. I probably had alcoholic tendencies from a young age. I drank more than the other people, I blacked out and embarrassed myself a lot,” reflected Kohari. “I didn't realize at the time that I was already different than the rest of them.”

After a few semesters at Eastern Kentucky University, Kohari returned home where he took up a job working underground in the coal mines.

“When I was underground, the thing to do was work all week and party all weekend. I was young, living at home with my parents, I had no responsibilities and I made a lot of money [working in the coal mines]. So, I would drink. Then if I had a drug test, I would make up some excuse why I couldn't take it because I was using cocaine, taking pills, and doing other things. That's when I got introduced,” said Kohari. “It was really drinking at first. I was an alcoholic before I was a drug addict.”

Jaron Kohari | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm

Between the ages of 19 to 29, he moved around a bit before eventually ending up in Lexington. It was during this time that he was dealing with the repercussions of an unhealthy marriage while bouncing around between psych wards, treatment and detox centers as he struggled with a severe drug addiction.

“I would have jobs but I couldn't be productive because I wasn't a dependable employee. This whole time my drug use was getting worse. I went from pills to heroin, because the pills became non-existent, then eventually went to fentanyl and around that time went to meth, because the two were mixed together,” said Kohari. “By the age of 19 or 20 it had already become unmanageable. After that, I just bounced around trying to maintain it.”

He finally hit rock bottom following the unexpected passing of his mother. It was a time where the addiction had taken over completely, creating a great divide between Kohari and the people closest to him.

“It spiraled me out for a little while. I'm married and have two kids, and they didn't want me around. My stepdad here in Lexington didn't want me. So, I was just up here running around high. Eventually, I got arrested and I was handcuffed to a bed at the hospital. My face was all scabbed over, I looked awful. I remember leaving the hospital and as soon as I got out, I got high one more time. Then I called my lawyer and he told me about Stable Recovery,” said Kohari. “I was so broken. I had nowhere to go, so I decided to give it a chance.

“I feel like my mother loved me almost to death, she bailed me out of everything. I think my mother dying actually gave me a chance to live again. I know that sounds awful, but I don't think I could have gotten sober with her because she always picked me up when I was down.”

When he arrived, Kohari didn't know what he was looking for. Sobriety was the obvious answer, yes. But he'd been through a variety of treatment programs prior to this one. It had come down to his search for something more: a reason to live.

“When I got here, I was so broken that no matter what they told me to do, I was going to do it. I had nothing going for me,” said Kohari. “I thrive off of having a schedule, a routine, hard work. It was difficult at first, going from not doing much labor in a while to coming in here and being busy 24/7. But I got in here with a group of guys, most of them are staff here now so they're doing really well, and I stuck with them. The brotherhood is huge here. Even though I had brothers of my own, I felt like I never fit in. So, that is something that is very important to me, having people around me that are like me, that I can count on.”

Jaron Kohari | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm

Though working with and around the horses wasn't the initial draw of Stable Recovery, it was something that evolved from a task into a privilege for Kohari. For someone who had struggled so long with the war in his mind, the gentle and quiet reassurance the horses provided was a comfort Kohari welcomed.

“When I started in the barn, I was actually scared of the horses, but I felt the growth in myself. It felt good to be able to get in there and overcome some of my fears. When I look at a horse, they tell me how I'm feeling that day. They're like a mirror reflection of my feelings,” said Kohari. “The horses play a huge role in this. I don't even have to touch a horse to feel it, just being in the barn is healing.

“I've been to multiple treatment centers. When you leave, you've just sat around and you haven't accomplished anything. Yes, you've got some time under your belt, but you leave and the same problems you've had are still there. When you get to Stable Recovery, you're working the whole time. You're building a career, you're bettering yourself. You actually accomplish things and you build confidence here. [Stable Recovery] offers people a productive life, giving them careers they can pursue, and I didn't get that anywhere else.”

After graduating from Stable Recovery in October of 2023, Kohari worked at WinStar Farm up until this April, when he returned to Taylor Made Farm to take on the role of program coordinator for the School of Horsemanship.

Along the way, he's been slowly gluing the broken pieces back together as he rebuilds the relationships with his stepfather, wife and two kids.

“It's nice that I get to come home and be dependable. I can give [my kids] the things they ask for, and not just material things, but I'm there for support. I can be the father that my mother wanted me to be,” said Kohari. “When I got here, I only spoke to my wife and kids three times the first year because I knew I had to separate myself and buckle down. I had to take a small amount of time in my life to have the big picture and I'm really reaping the benefits of that now.”

Though Kohari is soft spoken, the story he shares is profound, and one experienced by many that have made their way to Stable Recovery and come out on the other side of it sober, healed, and reinspired.

“I wish my mother could have seen it. That one's hard. But there's also a lot of guys in this program that have lost family members, mothers and fathers, so it's beneficial to have each other. When I first came here, I can remember sitting there and not even thinking it was possible to be in this position, but now I am. It's surreal.”

–Stable Recovery is a recovery housing program in Lexington, Kentucky that offers men in the early stages of recovery access to 12-step meetings, life skills training and-through the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship-the opportunity to develop a trade in the equine field. To learn more about Stable Recovery, click here.

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