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Homestretch Filmmaker Offers Video
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Sheri Bylander directed this video. Bylander edited the award-winning documentay Rising Low and was the associate producer of the feature-length documentary and Cable Ace Award winner Wonderland. She has worked with such luminaries as Sydney Lumet, Woody Allen, John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson. Bylander began work on the movie Homestretch in 2004.
Homestretch, a documentary that features the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and its work with retired horses and prison inmates, debuted April 13, 2007 at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival in California.
The Sonoma festival described Homestretch as: “The power of horses to heal hard hearts. Our society warehouses convicts, often in subhuman living conditions. On a parallel track, the world of thoroughbred racing routinely sends over-the-hill horses to the slaughterhouse. A deeply-affecting cinematic experience, Homestretch chronicles the pairing of inmates and rescued end-of-career racehorses, as they come together on prison farms to care for and save each other.”
Also, Silver State Industries runs the Comstock Wild Horse Gentling Program at the Warm Springs Correctional Center, Carson City, Nevada. This seems to be patterned on the now inactive program earlier set up in New Mexico with the BLM.
The study of such programs by Earl O. Strimple titled A History of Prison Inmate-Animal Interaction Programs was published in American Behavioral Scientist. It says, “Interest is growing in establishing animal-facilitated programs in prisons. Although food animals have been maintained by prisons for years, few have looked at the benefits inmates derive from working with animals. Recently, prisons have started dog and horse training programs. Preliminary evidence indicates that inmates benefit, learning life-enhancing skills and lowering the recidivism rates. Shelter dogs and wild horses trained by the prisoners help people with physical and emotional needs. State and federal funds are needed to further study the benefits derived for prisoners, animals, and society.”
A big hug and thank you to Society for Animal Protective Legislation for posting this video.
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