John Rainey believes in second chances — for humans and horses.

And a new program pairing retired racehorses with inmates at Wateree River Correctional Institution in Kershaw County offers both.

Officials are expected to announce today at Camden’s Carolina Cup races that $250,000 in startup money has been raised for Second Chances, said Kip Elser, president of the S.C. chapter of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

The program — the first of its kind in South Carolina and one of only a handful in the nation — will help inmates learn job skills while preparing retired racehorses for new roles as pets or workhorses. It will be run primarily through private donations.

“It’s a horse rescue program, but it also rescues inmates,” said John Carmichael, the retired Wateree warden who initiated the program.

South Carolina is heavily involved in the horse industry, with large equestrian centers in Camden and Aiken.

“There are jobs waiting for people in the horse industry,” said Rainey, a Columbia lawyer and philanthropist who has had a lifelong interest in horses.

“When (an inmate) comes out of there, he should have a job waiting for him,” Rainey said.

Inmates at Wateree, which includes a 7,000-acre farming operation, will be chosen for the program based on their desire to learn the skill and get a job in the industry in their home community.

Many inmates in the minimum-security prison are serving time for theft or drug-related charges. Some more serious offenders are near the end of their sentences and are making the transition from a maximum-security setting, Carmichael said.

For the most part, Second Chances will be self-supporting. Wateree will provide a corrections officer, inmate labor and feed made on-site. The $250,000 will cover the start-up costs and a year’s worth of operation.

After that, donors will be asked to sponsor horses, paying $100 per month per horse for such costs as veterinary services and supplies. The program will start with 10 horses and could increase to a maximum of 50.

Groundbreaking could be held at the Rembert prison in the coming weeks, with the program starting as early as this fall.

“The horses are getting a second chance, and we’re going to help inmates on their road to getting a second chance,” said Rainey, who has helped raise more than $150,000 since November, contributing $30,000 himself.

Rainey is chairman of the state board of economic advisors and recently was tapped to serve on the fund-raising committee for Gov. Mark Sanford’s re-election campaign.

Carmichael said Rainey’s interest in Second Chances sped up fund-raising efforts.

“I just think it’s one of the best things we can possibly do,” said Rainey, 62, who still rides.

Rainey embraced Second Chances after reading an article about a similar program in another state and learning that corrections officials already were trying to raise money for the program.

Carmichael began looking into the program two years ago.

He said state budget cuts have eliminated all of the prison’s vocational programs over the past six years. So he knew it would take private funding to institute the horse program.

A year ago, he teamed up with officials from the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation to begin raising money, and Rainey stepped in to kick-start fund-raising five months ago.

Jon Ozmint, director of the S.C. Department of Corrections, said he has seen the bonds inmates develop with animals through other department programs, like its greyhound rescue operation.

Carmichael agreed. “It really changes (inmates) when you get unconditional love from an animal.”

Inmates will stay in the program six months to a year. They will learn to be barn workers, grooms, who feed and tend to horses, or farriers, who put shoes on horses.

The inmates will then be matched up with an employer in their hometown for a trial run that hopefully will turn into a full-time job when they are released.

“There are horses and horse-related jobs all over the state,” Elser said. “These ex-offenders can return to their home community with a marketable skill.”

The program’s other main goal, he said, is to give horses long, fulfilling lives beyond racing.

Horses like the ones running in today’s races have a job — to win. But when they are through with racing — often by age 8 — owners many times do not know what to do with them. Horses can live well into their 20s.

“They need to be taken care of. They need a home,” said Bill Lickle, a Delaware horse owner who has been racing horses in Camden for decades. “I can’t think of a better way to turn a horse out.”

Lickle plans to put Young Dubliner, one of his longest-running horses, in the program at Wateree when the horse “decides” to retire. He is an anomaly in the racing world, still competing — and winning — at age 15. He will retire at Wateree as a permanent teaching horse.

Elser said if former race horses do not enter a program like Second Chances, their lives can turn tragic.

“The ugly fact is that a lot of horses without programs like this end up being passed down and being sold cheaper and cheaper and cheaper and not really having any life at all, and they end up being slaughtered,” he said.

Elser said horses will be adopted out for a small fee and can be used for mounted police units or for children in 4-H clubs who cannot afford a horse. Private adoption also is an option, but the horses will not be eligible for resale, Elser said.

Rainey has asked that the facilities be named Seabiscuit’s Stable, in honor of the recent hit movie.

“The whole idea “(is) everybody deserves a second chance.

“We want people coming out of our correctional institutions to have had their lives corrected. This is part of their second chance.”

Reach Rupon at (803) 771-8622 or krupon@thestate.com