An Open Report to the Thoroughbred Community · May 2026
Bully's Promise
A Second Career for Horses.
A First Chance for Kids.
Nobody crosses the finish line alone.
From Tamara von-Wedel Alvarado
Marion County, Florida
Dear Friends —
I am writing from Marion County, Florida, where horses are not a hobby but a heritage — and where a quiet experiment in what horses can do for children, mothers, and justice-involved young people has just become a registered 501(c)(3) ministry called Letters to Ron, Inc.
We are named after my son. The afterschool program is named after a horse. Bully — bred at Adena Springs, sold for $9,000 to Eddie Kenneally and Homewrecker Racing as a 2-year-old, and now retired into the work of teaching children what classrooms can't: that the way you stand near a thing changes the thing.
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We don't throw anything away. Not the horse with the ribs showing. Not the son in the cell. Not the mother who couldn't get out of bed this morning. Not the child who fell behind.
We don't throw people or horses away. Not the guilty either. We think about the children of animal abusers. Where is their entry point? (here)
A chuckwagon ministry · #BullysPromise
Bred & Raised by the Founder
Amor y Control
Amor y Control was bred by me — and embodies the grit we teach. He was not born into ease. He was born into work, into patience, into the long, unglamorous labor of becoming. Every horse on this farm carries a lesson; he carries a sermon.
Love and discipline. Tenderness and accountability. The two reins a child needs and a horse already understands. When we tell young people that grit is a posture, not a feeling — that the way you stand near a thing changes the thing — we are telling them what this colt was bred to prove.
Amor. Y Control.
The Honest Part
Four Doors You Can Walk Through
Sponsor a Child
Our first cohort is forming now in southwest Marion County — built on ponies and miniatures under twelve hands, a deliberate safety standard for children eight to twelve.
Refer a Horse
We are not a rescue. We are a working program building a small herd of suitable second-career horses — ponies, retired claiming horses, broodmares whose careers have closed gently.
Refer a Young Person
Beginning July 1, 2026, our Equine Groom School Diversion accepts referrals from the 5th Judicial Circuit — real horse work, real accountability, real wages.
Lend Us Your Name
An endorsement, a reference letter, an introduction to FTBOA leadership, a quiet word in the right room. The thoroughbred community knows what private trust is worth.
5th Judicial Circuit · Marion County
Court Diversion
A Barn Instead of a Cell
Letters to Ron, Inc. operates a structured court-diversion pathway through the Fred G. Warren Equine Groom Program. Young people referred by the 5th Judicial Circuit and partner agencies are placed — hand on lead rope — into the working life of a Marion County barn. Mucking stalls before sunrise. Foaling at 2 AM. OBS prep at dawn. Real horse work, real accountability, real wages.
This is not a curriculum. It is an industry. The thoroughbred world hires people with records when those people can do the work — and we are training them to do the work. A civil-citation pathway out of the courtroom and into a paycheck. Beginning July 1, 2026.
A second career for horses. A first career for kids.
Letcher & Olin Gentry
Idle Hour Farm · Kentucky
A Lineage, Not a Credential
"My biological great-uncle, Olin Gentry, trained at Idle Hour Farm and saw five Kentucky Derby winners come out of a barn he ran. That lineage is not a credential; it is an accountability."
Marion County, Florida
Florida Equine Activity Notice
WARNING: Under Florida law, an equine activity sponsor or equine professional is not liable for an injury to or the death of a participant in equine activities resulting from the inherent risks of equine activities.
§ 773.01–.06, Florida Statutes