Horse Program Keeps Hartford Youth Out of Trouble

— -- It might be odd to see teenagers riding horses in Hartford, Conn., but for 17-year-old Fredrick Wright, staying on the horse is keeping him off the city's streets.

When Wright was younger, behavior issues forced him to transfer schools several times. He suffered from low self-esteem and had no hope for the future. While he never sold drugs, he said he had the opportunity and “was definitely on that wrong path.”

That all changed when he met Patricia Kelly, a former marine and equestrian who runs Ebony Horsewomen, a nonprofit program that teaches horseback riding and animal sciences to children in the city.

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“So many of them call me Ma,” Kelley said in an interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts. “People ask me ‘Is that your son?’ Yes. ‘Is that your daughter?’ Yes. They're not my biological children but they're my kids.’

Kelly helped Wright find peace on a horse.

“At the time the horses were taking up a lot of my time,” he said. “You know, it kept me busy. And then Miss Kelly started to teach me things about horses and, you know, make me look forward to something.”

Kelly founded Ebony Horsewomen 30 years ago. The organization helps more than 300 young people stay on the right track every year.

“I'm working with some of the brightest human beings ever put on the planet … what has happened is that some of that creativity and some of that brilliance has been blocked up by circumstances,” she said. “Could be economics, could be environmental."

Hartford is of the most violent cities in the country, but Kelly wants to change that by empowering its youngest citizens.

“The success rate is tremendous,” she said. “We stress education. We've had a 100 percent graduation rate from high school.”

Next fall Wright plans to take his passion to new heights: he’ll join the horseshoeing program at Cornell University in New York.

Kelly is proud of him.

“He will never be defeated,” she said. “He has the strongest work ethic I have ever seen in a young man his age.”

Wright, too, thinks highly of Kelly.

“She did a lot for me,” he said. “And the only way I could think about repaying her is just going through with all the goals I set for myself and showing her that I'm going to be successful.”