Wild Horse Inmate Rehabilitation Programs

Beginning in 1988 at Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility, Wild Horse Inmate Rehabilitation Programs provide animal therapy and work experience opportunities for inmates. Correctional facilities work directly with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to provide rehabilitation opportunities through working with wild mustangs that have been rounded up due to overgrazing or overpopulation for inmates who fit the qualifications to be a part of the program. Inmates not only work at the equine facilities where the mustangs are held but also participate in training, commonly referred to as gentling, the mustangs to improve their chances of adoption. Tasks include feeding, watering, and grooming the mustangs, as well as mucking paddocks and/or stalls. Inmates who participate in the training of wild mustangs will often be the first person to touch the wild horse and will gentle them to varying degrees, including halter-training, saddle-training, and training them in ridden work. After they have been gentled, most of the mustangs are adopted to various people, including the inmates who gentled them after they have completed their sentence.