When it comes to assignments that make me clap my hands, knock my knees, and swoon like a teenage Beatles fan, not too much could do better than the piece I have been working on for Mother Jones over the last several months. The story focuses on the Wyoming Honor Farm, a state corrections facility in the high desert town of Riverton. The Farm is home to Horse Hill, a program where inmates are charged with the task of gentling wild mustangs. The animals are trapped by the Bureau of Land Management as part of their wild horse program; some of the mustangs are then turned over to the farm. The horses go through months of handling which sees them from a wild and untouched mustang through a gentling process aimed at ultimately adopting the animal to a suitable home. The vast majority of the inmates in the program come from the state penitentiary, having succeeded in a behavior-based point system to earn a path to the farm. Once there, the horse program tends to favor inmates who request it; other inmates are divided throughout 17 other skills-based programs offered at the facility.
The specifics are dealt with in Michael Behar’s exhaustive article covering the inmates and administrators of Horse Hill. In my opinion, the most interesting element of the story is the shift in the methods employed to train a horse and how that reflects a broader change in thinking about inmate corrections. The procedures used by the Honor Farm are part of a larger movement in the equestrian world departing from the old school method of ‘breaking’ horses. Animals are now ‘gentled’ –trained through a stepped process of pressure and release designed to build a trusting relationship with the horse. Unlike the antiquated ride-the-buck-out approach, a horse’s compliance with the rider is not simply based on fear of reprisal. Rather, the horse works in tandem with their human partner.
This partnership is the crux of the program and the real point at which inmates have the opportunity for personal growth. The animal is a very egalitarian teacher in as much as it can’t be lied to, forced to do something against its will and, if you overstep your boundaries, the horse will always win. Consistent penalties, consistent rewards, and no opportunities for deceit. One of my favorite quotes in the article puts this in a little bit plainer terms. Inmate John Dowell explains: ”[m]ost of us are in prison because we’ve taken our wills and inflicted them on other people. You don’t get to do that with the horses. They teach you how to be honest with yourself and they calm your spirit. If you push them around, they’re going to make you pay for it.”
The assignment was originally slated for a short piece, something that was going to take me to Wyoming for just a day or two. The problem with this kind of assignment is that it overlaps people, places, and the greater culture of the mountain west –things that I am particularly close to. It’s not exactly something that I was able to walk away from after a few hours. And, frankly, the likelihood of me continuing work on the subject is an almost sure thing. Mark Murrmann of Mother Jones was instrumental in allowing me the means to return in order explore a couple different aspects of the story and was a quiet force in helping the final product take shape across nine pages of the magazine. Editors can really be important in the role of photographer’s advocate. It’s always a pleasure to work with someone like Mark who is able to keep a foot on both sides of that job.
Lastly, in terms of gratitude, I owe quite a bit to the inmates, corrections officers, and administrators that run Horse Hill. I have no doubt that showing up for work under Mother Jones’ banner in the heart of Cheney country left some of the prison staff a little bit nervous about the direction of the article. As I’ve continued to work on different sub-themes related to the horses and the west, some of the faces are becoming pretty familiar. Particularly Joe Crofts and Jeff Martin, the two corrections officers charged with managing the program. One of the appeals of being a photographer is that it allows me time to explore, to be curious, to be challenged, and to be creative –all in one little package. It’s nice to see that there are at least two other men who are able to wrap their interests into their jobs and to make ends meet doing what they love. It’s a good, honest, and congruent perspective that allows them to be quite an example to the inmates at Horse Hill.
Jenny Tenney
January 11th, 2010, 10:24 am #
This is a great story. You are so lucky!
David H-W
January 11th, 2010, 11:32 am #
Superb job Matt! You can feel the dirt and dryness – love the 5th shot for the framing and the 6th one for the low angle. Great stuff!! Excellent program too.
Jenn LeBlanc
January 11th, 2010, 11:34 am #
What a wonderful story, I love your insights on assignments and this one makes me jealous! The images are stunning. Thank you for sharing.
Erin
January 11th, 2010, 12:30 pm #
Great photos, great story, great layout, too!
Josh
January 11th, 2010, 3:37 pm #
Great photos and layout, I had heard of this program and I am looking forward to reading the article. My father used to break wild horses and I have spent my fair share of time in a round corral with them.
M. Scott Brauer
January 12th, 2010, 12:11 am #
Love it. Such an interesting story, and an interesting contrast to that perennial Angola prison rodeo story.
When I saw one of your status updates a while back when you were headed up to shoot this, it was at the same time that Montana was dealing with a too-big wild herd down on the border with Wyoming and thought you were shooting that. Still kicking myself that expensive and unchangeable plane tickets and plans prevented me from getting down to shoot that story…
Matt Slaby
January 12th, 2010, 12:25 am #
Yeah. The roundup actually ended up being one of the pieces that was not initially slated for the article. Following these horses post-roundup is something that’s really got my attention right now. The prison has a really interesting story to tell, but the little tributaries that shoot off of it are kinda interesting, too. Not sure what format it’ll take or when the edit(s) will be ready to go, but I’ve got a whole separate body of work cooking that builds on this stuff. Either way, next time you’re back in Montana, let me know.
Russel Albert Daniels
January 12th, 2010, 4:15 pm #
Such an interesting story, Great photos Matt. I was raised riding horses, including 4 years in 4-H horse club, these beautiful creatures are dear to my heart and my ancestry.
I assume you have been following the national debate over the BLM wildhorse round-ups in Nevada and Utah. I tried to convince my AP editors to send me to the BLM round-up ‘presser’ in Winnemucca, NV. A no go. Its really hard to gather interest/support for these stories especially when the nontransparent, cattle loving BLM made it extremely hard for the press to attend the event. The round-up was on private property 2 hours outside of Winnemucca, were you needed a 4×4 to get through the hilly snow covered freezing high-desert landscape.
I think the lede in the AP text story was the impossible access to the event. Interesting stuff, Im excited to see more of this work coming from you.
best,
russel
Matt Slaby
January 12th, 2010, 4:44 pm #
Thanks, Russel. Really appreciate your thoughts and kind words. The BLM was actually really accommodating and the APHIS vet for the USDA was even more helpful in providing all kinds of resources to better understand the nature of the gathers and how specific some of the data is to particular herds. One of the things that really interests me about this stuff is not so much the tension between horse and cow, rather the challenges this kind of issue poses to conservation minded people. Ultimately, the mustang is non-native, roams in herds that can experience annual population growth in the double digits. Horse killing has never really been palatable, but leaving herds 100% unchecked raises some interesting issues about what is humane and what’s not. Guess it comes down to the old tension between MLK and Malcolm X regarding violence. Whether you prefer nonviolence or not, there’s still violence. It’s just a matter of which side is perpetrating it. To me, this applies to some of the faster growing herds (some upwards of 50% growth/year). At some point, it’s unsustainable and where the gather/fertility treatment falls short, starvation and lack of resources to sustain the herd pick up that slack. Anyhow, I am not an authority on addressing the problem, but I find the strange ideological conflicts that come out of this issue to be really fascinating.
Matt Lutton
January 12th, 2010, 5:22 pm #
Was a great surprise to see these in my grandmother’s copy of Mother Jones on Christmas day – great story and great work, congrats