Stable Recovery Lends A Helping Hand To Elizabeth Blythe

[Wandering Eyes]

When Frank Taylor, the director of new business development at Taylor Made, started the Stable Recovery and the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship programs, the idea was to help those addicted to drugs and alcohol, get them sober and give them the skills to work in the horse racing industry. But Stable Recovery is branching out, ready to help anyone in need.

Elizabeth Blythe once arranged the mating for Allen Paulson's horses and her work produced several champions, including the great Cigar and four other Breeders' Cup winners. But, for Blythe, little has gone right since Paulson's death. She has had to deal with three forms of cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer and melanoma. That left her unable to work and she soon found herself in dire straits financially. She didn't have the money or the energy to take care of her house and the bank was ready to repossess her property.

When Taylor got wind of Blythe's problem, he did what he always seems to do when he hears of someone down on their luck. He set out to help. He made a big enough payment to the bank to halt the foreclosure and he will soon send some of the people who graduated from his Stable Recovery program to help fix up the house this Saturday.

“Frank is fantastic,” Blythe said.

Blythe and Taylor have entered into an agreement. To pay Taylor back for all the money he has spent helping Blythe, Blythe has agreed to donate her Nicholasville house upon her death to Stable Recovery.

“I thought that's something that I can do to help other people when I'm not here anymore and to thank Frank and everybody for the help that they've provided to me,” Blythe said.

It isn't just the money.

“He would come and pick me up and drive me to appointments at the hospital, that sort of thing, or pick me up after a procedure was over with,” Blythe said. “Usually they have to give you sedation and so you can't drive in and drive home. In the early parts of it, they would have to keep me overnight because I didn't have anybody to drive me. And that got to be probably a little bit onerous for the hospital because they had to keep me there when there might've been somebody else who had something more serious than what had happened to me. And so that's kind of a part of it as well. But Frank is just wonderful and I can't tell you how much his support and help has meant to me.”

Frank Taylor | Sue Finley

Christian Countzler, who runs the Stable Recovery program, knows firsthand how willing Taylor is to help those in need.

“Frank went out of his way to help someone that deserved to be helped,” he said. “We're really excited about that. She's had a tough time, especially as of late, Anything we can do to help her we're absolutely willing to do. In return, she wants to help us by donating the house to us.”

Frank Taylor is just a good soul. There's no other way to put it. He sees a problem and he works to find a solution. He decided to branch out from his Stable Recovery work and look to assist others who are down on their luck.

“Elizabeth Blythe has been in horse business forever,” Taylor said. “She's probably about my age, late fifties, early sixties. She's well respected. She did a lot of pedigree work for Allen Paluson. I heard about a year ago that she had cancer and that she was really struggling with it. They were getting ready to take her house away. My wife and I put up $150,000 as a loan, which got the mortgage company off her back. She won't be able to pay it back but when she passes she's going to give the house to Stable Recovery. It's a really nice house. It's on three acres, but it hasn't really been maintained. It would be like having a yard that hasn't been mowed in 10 years. We're going to take our crew down there and clean it all up. We got her out of foreclosure, so she has a place to live.”

Taylor said that the people from the Stable Recovery program will also benefit from helping out Blythe.

“Part of of being sober and working the 12 steps is you need to give back,” Taylor said. “And help your fellow man. Volunteering is part of the recovery part. This is a project for these guys to help someone. Any time you're giving back and putting other people first is good for you.”

So what is it about Taylor that he's so willing to help people, be they individuals struggling with substance abuse issues or are dealing with cancer and financial pressures?

“Part of the 12 steps and being sober is that you need to give back and help your fellow man,” Taylor said. “The recovery part includes volunteering. We're using this as a project for these guys to spend their time on and help. Any time you're giving back and putting the people first is good for you.”

“Why does Frank do what he does?” Countzler said. “I think he got this from his dad. He grew up watching his mom and dad do things for other people. I guarantee he would answer that question the same way. Joe Taylor, the patriarch of the family, showed all the Taylor brothers, and especially Frank, what it means to give back and help other people, especially people who don't have the means they've been blessed with. I would almost guarantee that it was Joe Taylor that did that.”

The School of Horseman has had 89 graduates and has 25 legacy graduates. There have 10 that have made it two years of sobriety.

“That's something we are really proud of,” Countzler said.

Blythe is one of the first people not in the program that Taylor has helped. There's no doubt there will be many more.

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