U.S. Border Patrol recruits - wild horses, tamed by prisoners

U.S. Border Patrol agents from Boulevard Station inspect three men near Jacumba, California, U.S., November 14, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake

FLORENCE, Arizona (Reuters) - Long before the desert sun has had a chance to heat the dusty prison yard, some 20 inmates at an Arizona state prison begin quietly tending horses.

The men - many with violent histories - gently manoeuvre bits into the mouths of mustangs still unaccustomed to human touch; they remove caked mud from hooves and tighten girths against bulging bellies. And the horses, which just weeks ago roamed free, mostly comply with what is asked of them.