At Westbrook Horse Farm, Dreams Run Beyond The Track

Story and Photography By Raoul Dennis

According to County Executive Aisha N. Braveboy, the day-long expo at the Westbrook Horse Farm was the highlight of Preakness week.

Although just a few miles up the road, the world would be watching Napoleon Solo and Iron Honor race the final dramatic lengths for Preakness glory, the heart and soul of the day was at Westbrook Horse Farm.

“This is Preakness for me because this is where the next generation of jockeys will come from here in Prince George's County on Westbrook Farm,” Braveboy says. “Our young people are doing it!”

A day at Westbrook typically consists of horse grooming, raising, and training horses and humans alike to embrace the graceful relationship that develops between horse and rider. But on May 16, the bustling, colorful high-energy activity of springtime event attendees juxtaposed against the quiet, simple pace typical of horse stables on a Saturday morning.

Westbrook Horse Farm is a Maryland-licensed boarding, sales, and training equine facility located in Upper Marlboro, Md. Far more than a training and riding venue for young enthusiasts and tourists, Westbrook also offers a wide range of training and counseling opportunities.

It’s owned by former Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook, who’s also the founder of the Brian Westbrook Foundation.

“We bought this farm in 2005, so we’ve owned it for 21 years. For the first 12 years, we were a boarding facility. [But] we wanted to make sure that we catered to our young people. And so, right around 2017, my wife and I put everyone out. We wanted to build a foundation, an empowerment center, that allows our young people to come here and be enriched. Of course, we have riding lessons, but there’s more.”

The Westbrooks decided to create a center to cultivate the next generation of leaders and independent thinkers.

“We built the foundation. Our principles and our mission are to educate and empower our young people,” he says. “We provide them access to opportunity, and we do that in a variety of different ways. We have sportsmanship classes, we have leadership classes and leadership programs.”

It’s not surprising that the man who became the first player in NCAA history to rush for 1,000 yards and gain 1,000 yards receiving in a single season (Villanova, 1998) has the big-picture vision and toughness to see that the game of life requires mastering a number of skill sets.

“We have financial literacy. We have entrepreneurship. We have agriculture data analytics. We have athletic data analytics, and we do it in a variety of different ways. But we just want to touch every kid and allow them to be what they want to be and push them to be better than they are at this point,” Westbrook says.

This is the kind of vision put into action that connects with Sheila Curry, chair of the Maryland Horse Industry Board, who helped to create the bridge between the Westbrook farm and the Braveboy Administration when it was learned that Preakness was coming to Laurel Park.

“The person who really got us all excited about it is Sheila Curry,” Braveboy said, introducing the woman who has been a leading matron of the county.

“The horse industry in the state of Maryland is a $3 billion industry; we should lean into it,” Curry said. “We want to replicate what is happening here across the state.”

In a brief interview with Prince George’s Suite Magazine, County Executive Braveboy accentuated the revenue-building power of the horse industry and agritourism as the county continues to evolve as a national destination.

“This is a huge opportunity for our local farmers and others who are in the agricultural industry to grow their capacity to become stronger economically and to look at ways of positioning pressure or discounting to really be the place where agritourism is modeled,” she says.

The capital revenue opportunity is just one reason Braveboy and other local leaders are indeed leaning into it when it comes to opportunity. The county executive reminded guests that Maryland is the “cradle of thoroughbred racing in the United States.” She said, “We will continue to work with Brian Westbrook and others to ensure that our history is told and our future is bright.”

Westbrook’s commitment to investing in the future through young people comes from his own experience in getting the support of others.

“I want to help our kids the same way so many people helped me,” he says. “So many people allowed me to be in this position; it wasn't solely by my work, but it was a lot of other people as well. I want to be able to give that same passion, and that same love to other people as we continue to grow.”

Can’t draw it up any better than that. It’s the stuff that helps thoroughbreds win by a country mile.

One Step At A Time

The Westbrook Foundation maintains a commitment to giving each young person a better opportunity to succeed in life. Below, Westbrook shares a snapshot of a youth who made the best out of the opportunity – and the foundation stepped up for him in kind.

“We had this young man who came to us,” Brian Westbrook, founder and president of The Westbrook Foundation says. “He had some problems with the law. He joined our agriculture data analytics program. He was on parole at the time. He did everything we asked him. He really leaned into the program.”

“When presentation night came, he said. ‘Listen, you know, I got to be in the house by seven o'clock.’” The curfew was a factor of his parole.

“So, we called this parole officer and said, ‘We have this great presentation that he's been involved with, and we want him to attend the presentation. They allowed him to stay. From that point, he has been in contact with all of us. We got him job opportunities. He's done so much with our assistance to be able to become the young man that he wants to be. We're super excited for him.”