Samantha Szesciorka

Cowboy Convicts: How Prisoners Help Get Wild Horses Adopted

By Samantha Szesciorka | July 2, 2022

The Northern Nevada Correctional Center is a medium-security prison that also houses minimum-security inmates. A small group of those inmates, with approval for good behavior, are allowed to join the prison’s wild horse training program. There, the inmates are paired with wild horses and will spend several months transforming them from untouchable to rideable. The trained horses are offered to the public through a competitive-bid auction several times a year.