Inmates train horses to protect America's borders
The U.S. Border Patrol wants to save money by establishing its own herds instead of leasing horses from vendors.
By TRACY HARMON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
CANON CITY - Eight prisoners will be "sprung" from captivity at the East Canon Prison Complex Monday to take up new lives working with law enforcement.

The prisoners are actually wild mustangs who have been at the prison complex since their capture on public lands. The free-range horses once roamed unclaimed and neglected.

While at the prison complex during the last six months, they received proper food, care and training - all provided by inmates working for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Colorado Correctional Industries Wild Horse Inmate Program.

The mustangs have been transformed into proper saddle horses with well-kept coats, manes and hooves. No longer are they wild animals but they still have free spirits.

The highly trained mustangs are ready to go to work with the U.S. Border Patrol agents under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security, helping comb 308 miles of mountainous, rugged Canadian border lands in Washington, Idaho and Montana.


CHIEFTAIN PHOTOS/TRACY HARMON
Cupid the foal, so named because he was born on Valentine's Day, takes an early morning walk with his mother. Foal and mother later may become law enforcement horses.

"We are the only sector of among 20-plus throughout the nation to utilize mounted patrols," said LeAlan Pinkerton, assistant chief patrol agent in Spokane, Wash. "The reason we do is because we cover from the Cascade Mountains to the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park."

The only way for agents to patrol that section of the border is on foot or on horseback. The agents currently lease horses from vendors, but it is a cost-prohibitive venture.

"We are trying to establish our own horses to cut costs," Pinkerton said. "We have to pack in for four to five days to a week and it's very rocky terrain, so we need very durable horses."

The eight mustangs are the first to be trained in the pilot program.

In his younger days, Pinkerton worked as a logger in Burns, Ore., not far from a U.S. Bureau of Land Management wild horse capture program. Pinkerton recalled the mighty

mustangs when the agents began to consider options for establishing their own horse herd.
"Those mustangs have big, hard feet, big-boned legs, bulky hips and shoulders. They fit what we do and they are used to eating wild grasses, so we are probably not going to need to pack in the bulk of feed domestic horses need," Pinkerton said.

Agents working the Canadian border are not as busy as their southern border co-workers, Pinkerton said, but they still must be vigilant. Canada's immigration policies, which allow some foreigners to enter without visas, can unwittingly aid illegal immigrants who then enter the United States through its northern border.

Another target of the northern Homeland Security patrols is a Canadian grown high grade marijuana that is being brought into the United States by smugglers, Pinkerton said.

"We couldn't have found a more perfect fit for our needs," Pinkerton said of the wild horses.

For the past 18 years, BLM workers have rounded up wild horses on public lands, then turned them over for training by inmates at the prison complex. The eight horses going to Washington represent the states of California, Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado.


Fran Ackley, BLM director of the Wild Horse Program gives a pat to Ripples, one of the rare curly wild horses that was captured in Wyoming. Ripples is the Wild Horse Program's mascot.

"Three of the horses came from the Crooks Mountains in Wyoming, so I like to joke it is the cops riding the crooks," said Fran Ackley, BLM director of the Wild Horse Program.

Ackley said saddle-trained wild horses sell for a reasonable $1,000 and are in high-demand because buyers like getting horses that have been gentled.

"There is a market niche for the saddle-trained horses and they are in demand. I wish we could train more saddle horses because they are adopting out easier than the $125 (untrained horses)," Ackley said.

"We also have a halter-training program and those horses are proving to be very popular," he said.

Asked about the future, Ackley said he expects to see a change in the wild horse population.

"I think we will be looking to gather 5,000 to 6,000 horses a year instead of the 9,000 to 12,000 we are now. So we will be at a maintenance level instead of a surplus," Ackley explained.

The BLM also sells the saddle and halter trained horses to the public during auctions. DOC and the BLM maintain Web site information about burro or wild horse adoption.


CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/TRACY HARMON
Border Patrol agents and inmates take a trail ride on the open range land at the East Canon prison complex Thursday, which was led by McEnulty of the Wild Horse Inmate Program.
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1176012099/4