Buckaroos behind bars, breaking wild horses

Brendan Riley

Friday, Dec. 8, 2000 | 8:57 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - When he was getting in trouble with the law in Las Vegas, Michael Williams knew prison was a possibility. But he never figured he'd be a buckaroo behind bars, breaking wild horses.

Williams, 41, and 10 other convicts at Nevada's Warm Springs Correctional Center showed off the results of their cowboying on Thursday: nine once-wild horses "gentled" and ready for adoption.

Officials hope the prison horse training program, which just started, will expand so that up to 200 wild horses a year can be captured, trained and turned over to new owners.

Williams has served more than nine years of a life term imposed after a judge ruled his three convictions for attempted burglaries showed he was a habitual criminal. He's up for a parole in June.

The inmate said he never imagined he'd be breaking wild horses in prison, but when word circulated that the program was starting two months ago, "I jumped at the opportunity."

"I'm learning a new trade," said Williams, an electrician. "I'd be more than happy doing this."

Inmate Mark Andruss, 25, feels the same way about learning a new job skill. But Andruss, serving a six- to 15-year stretch for assault, said the program teaches more than a new trade.

"You learn patience, which is what most of us don't have, which is what got most of us here," he says.

"And this is a way to get away from what goes on in there," said Andruss, motioning toward the main prison buildings. While the horse-training area is behind a tall chain-link fence topped by razor wire, it's separate from the prison compound.

Prison officials worked with the state Department of Agriculture to start the horse-training program. Horses are captured in the Virginia Range, just east and south of Reno, and brought first to a nearby prison camp, where they're checked for any diseases. Then they're shipped to Warm Springs.

Robin Bates, the prison warden who also participates in rodeos, said the program is good for the inmates and also for potential horse owners who couldn't handle a horse "straight off the range."

Paul Iverson, head of the Department of Agriculture, said the program also helps the environment because the Virginia Range is overpopulated with wild horses.

Inmate Andruss said there is an added benefit.

"It actually changes the attitude of an inmate," he said.

"You learn a lot of respect for an animal - and for each other."