Local mustangs may ride in D.C. parade

By KRISTI ALBERTSON/Daily Inter Lake

Local horses used to picking their way through often-treacherous backcountry may soon face a new challenge: parading through the streets of Washington, D.C.

Eight mustangs from the U.S. Border Patrol's Spokane Sector will head east next month for the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Parade. The horses will be selected from the Spokane Sector's 17 mustangs, which are used at four of the sector's seven stations.

In addition to four mustangs in Whitefish, the Border Patrol uses horses at three Washington stations: Metaline Falls, Curlew and Colville, according to Public Affairs Officer Danielle Suarez.

All the horses will be taken to the Colville station this week for training, Suarez said. The eight that are best suited for the parade will be hauled in trailers to Washington, D.C., for the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Border Patrol wranglers such as Whitefish's James Perkins have been working with the horses to prepare them for the sights and sounds they will encounter in Washington, D.C. Replicating the city's dense traffic and the millions-strong throng expected to attend the inauguration is impossible in small-town Montana and Washington, but wranglers are doing their best.

"We're working with the horses to try to desensitize them to manmade objects and city lights they're not accustomed to," said Perkins, a senior Border Patrol agent. "We work with them every day in the summertime in the backcountry; now we're trying to get them accustomed to city lights."

Local Border Patrol wranglers have been riding the mustangs through Whitefish and Kalispell, which has drawn some curious looks from passers-by.

"We've been riding them downtown through traffic and around pedestrians on the sides of the roads," Perkins said. "A lot of people are surprised they actually see horses downtown - but horses are allowed downtown.

"We're trying to work them on a regular basis."

The horses will be part of a larger Border Patrol contingent in the parade, Suarez said. An honor guard, bagpipe and drum team and marching platoon will round out the group.

The Border Patrol unit is one of about 100 groups that will participate in the inaugural parade, Suarez said. About 700 groups applied.

"It's a huge honor" to be chosen, she said.

The U.S. Border Patrol was eager for the horses to participate, Suarez added.

"It's a unique program," Suarez said. "We're the only sector that has a large horse patrol unit with the mustangs. The headquarters office and we felt it was a great opportunity."

The Spokane Sector began using the mustangs, all of which were adopted through the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program, in spring 2007. Inmates in the Colorado state prison system trained the horses before their adoption.

The mustangs, accustomed to roaming remote and rugged public lands, are sure-footed on the rocky, steep terrain in Northwest Montana and Northeast Washington. They're also easier on the land than all-terrain vehicles would be.

Other Border Patrol sectors are considering using mustangs, she said, but only the Spokane Sector has a dedicated Mustang Unit. The horses are not used at the sector's stations in Eureka; Bonners Ferry, Idaho; or Oroville, Wash.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com