Training Wild Mustangs With Convict Cowboys

At the Northern Nevada Correctional Facility, prison inmates train wild mustangs to become domesticated horses. Using modern gentle-taming methods, inmates are taught proper horsemanship and how to ride and care for the animals. Once trained, the horses are auctioned off to the public and have been used by local and federal agencies. Head horse trainer Hank Curry has been with the program for more than 15 years and has witnessed firsthand the program’s rehabilitative power.