Wild Horses

For 30 years, incarcerated men at a Canon (“canyon”)City prison cared for and trained wild mustangs, getting them ready for adoption. But now, the federal government says it is ending this unusual program, saying it costs too much. We learn more about the program’s impacts, and what’s next for Colorado’s wild horses.

A federal judge in the Mountain West recently ruled in favor of wild horse advocates who sued federal land managers for failing to stick to their own rules.

As my wild horse paws at the snow and eats hay in my pasture, I look at him and wonder what I’ve done. I would sit with my mustang, Boo, every day all winter, into the spring. Just hoping he’d start to trust me – and want to be around me. It had to be his choice, to come to me, to choose me.

The first time I visit a government holding facility for wild horses is in Burns, Oregon. I’m thinking about adopting a wild horse – one of thousands that the U.S. government rounds up each year. They’re kept in large corrals until they’re adopted, and some live out their days in captivity.

I remember the first time my mustang, Boo, bucked me off. We were riding along through the sagebrush following a cowboy friend of mine, Dave Johnston. I wouldn’t let Boo put his head down to munch the spring grass so he threw a temper tantrum. I stayed on for maybe four or five good bucks but then he dumped me.