Mustangs of America Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Lynda Sanford in 2007 with the goal of promoting mustang and burro welfare through collaborative and educational programs including inmate training programs currently operating in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Sanford’s mission is to help the inmates receive the opportunity they deserve for 
a fresh start. It’s about the guys getting out of here and having hope, she tells us. I don't want them being branded for the rest of their lives as past inmates. Sanford’s important work with inmates began out of pure compassion for the mustangs. Often when wild mustangs are collected off public lands, there is no plan for them to go to a permanent home. Sanford felt compelled to help the horses find safe places to live freely and without cruelty. She didn’t always feel the same way towards the inmates, but her work led her to see them from a new perspective. I got involved with the prison program, and I just thought it was the greatest thing for these horses. I didn't really have much compassion for the men because they had done wrong. It was like, okay, you're prisoners. You'll do your time, and you'll get out. It wasn't until I started my own foundation, the Mustangs of America Foundation, that I felt the compassion of these guys. I would see them cry when they had to give up their horse for adoption. And that made me think a lot about them. Sanford realized the foundation would be about giving the inmates a chance to turn their lives around as much as it would be about helping the horses. One particularly gut-wrenching experience opened her eyes even further, compelling her to not only nurture the inmates’ transformation while they’re behind bars, but to make a lifelong, permanent impact on their lives. “One of the guys got out [of prison] and succumbed to his demons, drugs, and passed away,” Sanford explains. And I said, never again. I'm going to do something to help these guys when they get out if they want to continue in the horse business.

Developing a strategy to ensure the men would have successful paths following the inmate program required meticulous planning and coordinating. I connected with Lanny Leach Colt Starting Academy to do a certified program. I chose Lanny’s program because of his teaching ability and experience. He has trained horses since he was a child and trained mustangs 
for competitions and the movie Unbranded, says Sanford. We will provide some of the inmates that were qualified with scholarships. I make sure that number one, the guy wants to go to the academy. Number two, that they have the talent and that they have the desire to continue in the horse business. So, we are very choosy about who goes into this program. They get to learn the business end of it. They get a certification. They also come out with a saddle and tack so they can go ahead and start training. They don't have to have this big training facility or anything. They can go to wherever the horses are located.

The training regime is strict but necessary; a majority of the inmates entering into the program start their training with little to 
no knowledge when it comes to horses. Hank Curry, a lead horse trainer at one of the facilities, has been working with the Mustangs of America Foundation for 17 years and shared a similar experience to Sanford when he began his work with the inmates. When I started here, I thought I was just going to be a horse trainer. Well, I ended up being more of a people trainer than a horse trainer, says Curry. I had to develop methods that a total novice could take and excel with. Probably 90% of the guys that we deal with have no experience with horses, maybe ridden a horse once or twice in their life. Then all of a sudden, you're dealing with a totally wild animal that has no idea what you're trying to tell them. So, you have to develop not only methods that a horse can understand, but that a total novice can actually emulate as you're going along.

Lynda Sanford, Hank Curry, and their entire team’s efforts have developed their operation into a transformative experience for all involved. From the trainers to the inmates and horses, every member of the program starts from new territory and learns to work with one another and see things from a new perspective.

While the training program is physically demanding and requires a great deal of strenuous, manual labor, it also pushes the inmates toward introspection and self-discovery. Some of these guys have lived a pretty selfish existence to this point, shares Justin Pope, ranch manager and employee at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center. To have to be responsible for something other than themselves—having a horse to take care of, feeding, watering, having it trained to certain points at certain times to be able to meet our deadline for our adoption—a lot of those guys haven't had that before. They haven't had that kind of structure. So, to have them take responsibility for an animal, it really does change their outlook.

Previous program member Austin Miller is a living testimony for the change Pope witnessed. Miller trained for three years and underwent an extreme change in his character during his time in the program. He shares, When I got here, I was just, I don't know, I was an angry, lost guy, and this place is what polished me and turned me into somebody that had purpose. [The mustangs] were wild and I was wild, and they had to get brought here and were forced to have a change of lifestyle and go through lessons that they'd never thought they were ever going to learn. And maybe that's it. I felt kindred to these guys.

Taming the wild out of the mustangs presented Miller with challenges he had never encountered before. He had countless falls, was thrown off horses’ backs, kicked in the nose, and once even had his head split down his eyebrow after hitting a railing. But Miller came to realize the challenges he was experiencing with the horses were coming from within. I was angry and lost and I was really reactive, says Miller. I had no control. It was all reacting to my environment, and I developed a temper, honestly. I'd done three years before I got here, and some level of violence is somewhat useful in here. And so, when I got here, I was just really wound up in this intense thing. And I would see it in the horses that I would work with. It would reflect back at me. I thought maybe Hank's throwing me the tough ones, but that wasn't it. I mean, I had some tough horses, but mainly I was just so intense and wound up. It taught me to regulate myself and bring myself back down to a level that these horses could actually learn from.

Throughout the training process, Miller learned to gentle the animal he was working with by managing his emotions, a skill that he was then able to apply to life outside of prison. He explains, It helped me immensely, being able to regulate myself, 
especially out there. In [prison], it's necessary to be able to get intense, but out in the world, you have to be able to regulate yourself. You can't just blow up for nothing. You have to be able to turn the other cheek and swallow your pride. This place humbled me.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the inmate program is the road to change and growth that horse and inmate journey on together. The transformation is life-changing for both and a testament to what can be accomplished when one places their trust and belief in another. Starting from ground zero and learning to build trust, self-love, and the value of life alongside the horses helps the men unlock their ability to feel hope for the future. Sean Good has been a member of the program for about eight months and shares the impact the program has had on him on an emotional level. I learned about myself that when I'm dedicated, I'm passionate about something, I pick it up pretty well and it kind of changes my priorities with everything I'm doing and brings out a lot of empathy in me. Working with the horses can bring that out of you. They all have different dispositions, and all communicate a little differently. They're a lot like human beings. And once you figure out how to communicate with that individual, it's a good feeling, because each one's a challenge, and you rise to the occasion and overcome.

Another current member, Shane Marsh, describes how working with the mustangs helped him to reconnect with vulnerable emotions that are often lost in prison. Loving an animal and putting your heart into an animal really brings something out of you that a lot of these guys really don't have. And it's really brought a lot out of me. What I've learned and what I've developed, I want other people to do the same thing because it might change their life. It might give them a better opportunity to be a better person once they're released out of here.

While the men enter the program hardened by prison life, the mustangs break down the walls they’ve put up around them, helping them grow to be empathetic, self-loving, trusting, and hopeful. Sean Good explains, The most challenging moments that I've had thus far in this program, surprisingly, haven't come with the physical part of the program or the characteristics of the horses. It's when you tame a wild mustang, when you break them, when you first catch them, you create a bond with the animal. And it's the same thing as love. Like I love my friends and my mother. Each one of the horses has a different character that you fall in love with. And you can tell when that bond is created and they begin to trust you, that they love you as much as you love them. And so, the challenge for me has been when I got to see them go. When I got to see them go, it makes me a little emotional.

As each wild mustang leaves the program gentled and ready to join their new home, the impact the horses have had on their trainer stays with them for the remainder of their sentence and life after prison. Miller shares, I love these mustangs. They changed my life and it's the one thing I've been able to lean back on no matter what. It doesn't matter what I'm going through. 
I take a ride. And it's just been the one contant in my life since I've been out. And there's been a couple patches where just things would get slow with work or whatever it may be, I may be going through a rough time, and having this skill to fall back on, man. It paid the bills more than a couple times and paid for groceries, and it's been the best thing that's happened to me in a long time.

The men in the Northern Nevada Correctional Center’s inmate program put in the work both physically and mentally to be able to successfully train mustangs in need. Each man finishes his sentence with the skills needed to find a job working with horses, but more importantly, he finds a newfound ability within himself to reintegrate into society and start a new life as a changed man. I don't see myself coming back to prison or breaking the law again, says Good. I think something that this program 
and my supervisors have helped me with is maturing spiritually. I don't see a future coming back to prison but definitely working with horses.

The Mustangs of America Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides funding for inmate training programs and scholarships for parolees. Learn more about the organization at mustangsofamericafoundation.org