Is anyone familiar with the breeding program and horses at the Huntsville Prison in TX?
Not familiar at all, so I just had to Google…
Evidently the state of Texas breeds their own horses to use to keep prisoners in line while they’re workin’ on the chain gang… The horses are three quarters QH and one quarter Percheron. They’ve been doing this since the mid 1800’s. Any horses that don’t make the cut are sold at auction and evidently they aren’t too choosey about who they sell them to. These horses are much sought after and can sell for as much as $1,600.
The article said the horses aren’t “grade”–they are “purpose bred”. Sorry folks, if they are no registration papers they are grade.
They carried 1,600 horses in 2011–it cost TX taxpayers 1.5 million dollars. They auctioned off 61culls that year.
That’s all I learned. If you want more info I don’t know where to send you. I suppose you could contact the prison but they don’t seem to be too forthcoming when it comes to answering questions.
When I was around the prison horses in 1997-1998 (doesn’t that make you wonder about me? :)), they had a couple of registered QH stallions who were fairly nice and some of the mares were Percheron or part Percheron and some of the mares were QH, so not all foals were part Perch. They had not been breeding the Perch/QH cross since the 1800s (at least not consistently). They had tried a couple of different crosses in the past to get what they wanted: a stout horse who was comfortable to ride for long periods of time for the guards. They wanted a stout horse because not all the guards were little guys. (All of this, btw, came directly from the director of the prison farms in Huntsville).
At that time, some of the foals were imprint trained and some weren’t. We were experimenting to see what worked best (and using the foals in an imprint training study). Imprint training was done by one of the civilian farm workers/guards. The trustee prisoners who worked the farm helped handle the horses as they matured, handled mares for breeding exams (done by A&M vet school students), handled foals for weaning and vaccinating, and I believe they helped start the horses under saddle (I wasn’t out there for that part).
Obviously, though, that’s been more than a few years ago. At the time, they created nice ‘using’ horses and trail horses. I hope they still do.
They do have auctions for horses they don’t retain for breeding or the guards. And from what I understand, they don’t screen buyers.
I don’t think much of this has changed since I was last there.
Tx prison horse
check out this video on a Tx prison horse
Nice! Looks like a good working quarterhorse to me, don’t see any obvious Percerhon in the mix.
