Wild horses tame Colorado Springs man

Lonnie Aragon knows what it's like to be a caged spirit.

 It's why he relates to the wild mustang sentenced to the Air Force Academy stables for the horse version of boot camp.

 Aragon, 31, was behind bars for eight years. He learned horse training in a Cañon City prison. The Colorado Wild Horse Inmate Program serves a dual purpose: to take "the wild" out of the mustangs and the men.

 The mustang Aragon is training, a brawny 3-year-old red roan, was with a herd of mustangs near Twin Peaks, Calif., when taken into custody last year by the Mustang Heritage Foundation, a project under the federal Bureau of Land Management's program to increase adoption of wild horses.

 "I named him Chance because the horses gave me a second chance," Aragon said.

 Aragon was one of a dozen trainers in the country chosen to tame mustangs for the foundation's Mustang Magic Trainers Challenge at the Jan. 23-24 Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.

 Trainers have 100 days to reform these horses that were once the symbol of romance of the American West and now have nowhere to roam.

 Trainers and horses were paired by drawing in Texas in late September. Aragon pulled a ball from a barrel that matched the number assigned to the gray and tan mustang he had his eyes on.

 Four hours into the drive back to Colorado Springs, Aragon stopped to give Chance a drink of water.

 "I put a bucket on my knee and he walked up to me and stuck his head in and started drinking," Aragon said.

 It was a sign of trust he hadn't expected so soon.

 "They're wild. They try to figure out who you are and if you're going to hurt them," Aragon said. "It only took me a few days where I could get to lead him and saddle him."

 Chance is a sensitive chap.

 "This horse, you can't get after him, because he gets his feelings hurt," Aragon said. "He's a pretty level-headed horse."

 Aragon knows where bad judgment can lead.

 At 16, he was charged as an adult in connection with the murder of a 45-year-old Security man.

 Aragon took a plea deal in 1994, pleading guilty to aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence and being an accessory to a crime. He was sentenced to 24 years behind bars.

 Working in the prison's wild horse program changed his life.

 On a trip to check out the horses, Academy Equestrian Center manager Billy Jack Barrett saw the young prisoner in action.

 "He just had a natural gift for working with the horse," Barrett said.

 "I've been around a lot of people who try to develop that, and they don't have it. That was his gift."

 At Aragon's first parole hearing, Barrett testified on his behalf.

 "They said he didn't have much of a chance," Barrett said.

 But Aragon was given an early release from prison in 2001. Barrett offered Aragon a job at the academy center, where horses are used in riding programs for kids, veterans and cadets.

 "I didn't have much reservation. I had watched him. In order to work with these horses, you have to have a soft heart," Barrett said.

 Aragon is now assistant manager of the center, supervising workers and about 35 horses.

 "When I was in Cañon City with the mustangs, we were both locked up," he said. "They taught me that I can't go through life kicking and spurring. In everyday life, you've got to stop and think."

 It's helped him be a better man and father. His 4-year-old daughter shares his love of horses.

 Aragon and Chance will part ways after the rodeo, when the horse will go to the highest bidder and start a new life on a ranch or in a family's barn.

 "He's got a real nice mind. He has the potential to do whatever he wants," Aragon said.

 As his work with Chance draws to a close, Aragon is a proud yet sentimental parent.

 It means letting go.

 "He will change their life with who he is as a horse, like horses have changed my life," he said.

Chance whinnied in agreement.