Border Patrol’s Laredo Sector Gets Seven New Agents on Horse Patrol
Read the whole story here.
In a graduation ceremony in Laredo, TX, on Aug. 2, seven Border Patrol agents joined the Laredo Sector Horse Patrol.
At a formal ceremony on a parade ground in the border town, Border Patrol assistant chief patrol agent (ACPA), Roberto Santos, welcomed the agents and their families. “These agents work in arduous conditions, long hours patrolling the border, and caring for these horses is truly a labor of love,” said ACPA Santos.
[…]
The horse patrol program is supported by horses obtained through the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. The horses were trained by inmates at a Colorado correctional facility under the Wild Horse Inmate Program.
CBP started using the BLM source and WHIP training [bad acronym! — Ed.] under its ‘Noble Mustang Program’ in it Spokane, WA sector in 2007.
[…]
Sounds like a win-win-win.
This is the photo they provided:
Laredo Sector Horse Patrol
I found another source with fewer words but more pixels in the photo:
Class 005 wait for command instructions from their instructors during the graduation ceremony. Photo special to The Laredo Sun.
They look like pretty nice horses for range rescues.
Here’s an article about the Noble Mustang Program from 2009, when they were only using it on the Canadian Border.
[…]
With distinctive anatomical features that have enabled their survival for hundreds of years, these true American legends are descendants of animals that were released by or escaped from Spanish explorers, ranchers, miners, the U.S. Cavalry, and Native Americans.
[…]
There are three very nice photos there, too big for me to embed here. Thumbnail of one:
Patrolling the backcountry in Eastern Washington utilizing horses allows Border Patrol Agents to monitor this extremely remote region along the U.S./Canada border.