Wild Horse Border Patrol: Inmate Program Trains Mustangs for U.S. Border Patrol

Prisoners participating in the Wild Horse Inmate Program train mustangs that will eventually be adopted by the U.S. Border Patrol. This initiative provides the agency with inexpensive but agile horses and offers inmates skills and insights they hope to carry with them after prison.

For Brian Tierce, 49, who has served about five years of his seven-year sentence for domestic violence and assault, the horses have taught him “a lot of things I didn’t know I had in me – patience, perseverance, kindness, understanding.”

“I’ve got to be a compromising person, otherwise I’ll never get this job done,” he added.

At least 80 percent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s current stable of 400 horses come from inmate training programs in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Nevada. These horses are critical for patrolling the rugged and remote stretches of the Mexican border to detect illegal crossings by migrants and drug trafficking.

And, at $500 to $800 for a saddle-ready horse, the price is right.

Some 55,000 mustangs roam the Western U.S., more than double the number public land can support, said Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jason Lutterman. Those that do not end up in adoption programs face an uncertain future.

Originally posted by Yahoo News