Learning to tame wild horses - gently, not by ``breaking'' the animals as in a Wild West movie - is helping some prison inmates prepare for life after incarceration.
When Randy DeVaney is released from the Four Mile Correctional Center southwest of Colorado Springs, he hopes to put his new skills to good use by running a horse program for underprivileged children.
``Now I know what I want to do with the rest of my life,'' said DeVaney, 42.
The wild horses are collected on federal lands in Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado and brought to the state prison under an agreement between the Colorado Department of Corrections and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
``We formed a partnership with the prison in which they could give inmates the opportunity to learn new skills and a meaningful job and also serve a need we had in terms of marketing,'' said Sheri Bell, a BLM spokeswoman. 
The horses are rounded up and offered for adoption because they reproduce so rapidly they would quickly starve in the wild, Bell said. The problem grew worse because the summer's wildfires and drought killed off much of the grass the horses eat.
More than 2,000 horses, about 200 a year, have been trained at the 8,500-acre prison ranch since the program - the first of its kind in the country - began in 1986.
The inmates, some of whom have never seen a horse before, must apply to be accepted to the program. They are paid for their work by the Corrections Department.
All of the inmates are minimum-security prisoners who aren't considered dangerous, said George Uhland, the prison's agribusiness production manager.
Hardin said the program teaches inmates communications skills and responsibility, and gives them goals and skills.
People can adopt the tamed horses for a fee of $125. For an extra $525 to $675, peanuts by most horse trainers' standards, owners can get horses already walking on a lead and ready to ride, thanks to the inmates.