Special report: Horse units patrol border from dusk till dawn

EDINBURG, Texas ( Border Report ) — Weighing in at over 1,000 pounds and equipped with night vision, the horses on the Border Patrol’s horse patrol units play an integral part in securing the nation’s border, agency officials tell Border Report.

In the Rio Grande Valley Sector, there are 31 horses — all geldings, and most mustangs — and 30 Border Patrol agents who ride them. Officials say their stealth and swift skills are a force multiplier that help to stop migrants from illegally crossing from Mexico into South Texas, especially at night.

Border Report recently visited the RGV Sector’s horse patrol training academy in Edinburg, and went on a night ride along with Border Patrol agents on horseback where several migrants who were trying to cross the border were apprehended with the help of horses. We saw firsthand why agents vie for this popular detail, who is selected and how they get these horses to work the border.

‘Excellent partners’

“They’re very good partners. In the night they do excellent. They’re able to see. They’re able to identify objects or people coming across before pretty much before agents do,” Border Patrol Supervisory Agent Danny Rios, who has led the horse patrol unit for the RGV for the past few years, told Border Report.

“They’re very useful out in the field. They can get into areas that other entities aren’t able to get into. They’re very stealthy out in the field,” Rios said.

But before they’re able to go into the field for overnight duty, these horses — and the Border Patrol agents who ride them — must go through extensive training and pass a national Border Patrol training program, that takes about six weeks.

The training facilities for the Rio Grande Valley Sector are housed behind the RGV Sector’s headquarter building where there are hitching posts, stables and a large field where new horses are broke in. It’s also where agents must hone horseback skills before they are admitted into this popular detail.

There are 24 mustangs currently in the RGV Sector’s horse patrol unit, and seven quarter horses. And Rios says they want to increase the program to 36 horses and agent riders.

The mustangs all come from out West where these wild horses were herded up by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of a program called Operation Noble Mustang . The BLM removes the horses from federal lands where they face overpopulation and starvation.

The agency then works with the Nevada Department of Corrections where prisoners help to break the horses and get them ready to be adopted out to assist law enforcement agencies throughout the country, like Border Patrol.

About 60 wild horses are adopted through this program every year. And prisoners in other states, like Texas, also assist in breaking in horses that are being trained for law enforcement jobs, like Border Patrol.

Horses selected for the Border Patrol must have a certain temperament, be of a certain height and show other physical and mental characteristics that will allow them to gallop swiftly through the thick border brush and round up migrants who are seen trying to illegally cross the border.

Rios — who travels to Nevada for the horse selection process — says the prisoners take great pride when “their horses” are selected for adoption after their initial 45-day training periods.

But he says these wild horses come to them only “green broke” — meaning barely trained and saddle-ready. The horses then must undergo much more training and pass muster before they’re field-ready.

These 1,000-pound animals can get spooked by objects they’re not used to. If that were to happen in the field it could cause an agent to fall or lose control of the powerful animal.

“These horses are scared of a plastic bag when they get here. That’s why they have to do the training,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection Public Information Officer Rod Kise said.

Since many were rounded up via helicopters out West, Rios says they’re most scared of helicopter sounds and must be broke of those habits because helicopters overhead often accompany active encounter apprehension operations on the Southwest border.

Drones, tarps and other objects they’re not used to also can startle them. And they must wear horseshoes.

But these highly intelligent creatures catch on quickly and once they learn the rules, Rios says, “they’re awesome partners.”

Here in the RGV, agents ride and train horses ranging in age from 6 to 15 years old with names like Centennial, Astros, Junior and Gary.

Horse patrol agents tell Border Report the horses ears will point strait up, their bodies tense, and their breathing change when they are alerting agents to potential danger or identifying objects.

And they’re fast.

“There’s places in the brush that horses are a valuable tool. They can get in there – in less amount of time,” Rios said. “A horse will get in there twice as fast and use less resources.”

Regular veterinarian care, fresh hay and water, and stables equipped with water misters to keep them cool during the day, is all they require to work the night shifts.

Overnight horse patrols

The trained working horses are kept at special stables near the border in Mission, Texas. There also are additional stables in Brownsville, which is located in Cameron County on the Gulf of Mexico.

Agents on horseback patrol a region that is over 130 miles of borderlands from Brownsville to western Starr County, near Falcon Dam every night. And they always patrol in pairs.

Border Patrol agents ready their horses on Oct. 10, 2024, at the RGV Sector stables in Mission, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report Photos)

They typically start their shifts at 8 p.m., and begins with assessing the horses and getting them ready for a night out.

Every agent is assigned to a specific horse and is familiar with its disposition and knows if the animal appears to be ailing, tired or not up to working on any given night, Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Hipolito Coy told Border Report.

“They’ll come get them from their pens. Take them down to the hitching post where they’ll start brushing them down, grooming them down, picking on their hooves and making sure that the horses are sound. Haven’t been injured in the stables or pawing a panel or something and then start tacking them up and getting ready for the night shift,” Coy said.

Coy recently took over supervision of the horse patrol program, having been an agent rider for years starting in 2011.

He says he has been trying to get back to the unit for years and loves working with animals and agent riders.

He’s also watched the program grow in the RGV, starting with just six horses in 2011 and now to 31, with the intent to add five more horses soon.

The horses are a force-multiplier as a tool to get around in a more tactful manner,” Coy said. “It’s a faster pace and you have to trust your animal when it’s pitch black.”

He says riders rely on adrenaline and gut instincts.

“Riders read their animals,” Coy said.

“It’s a good gig. If you like horses, it’s a good detail. You come to work and someone is always excited to see you. They know who you are,” Rios said.

Most agents in the detail have been riding horses their entire lives, but not all.

Rios says there are some Border Patrol agent riders who entered the program with no horse experience and who are excellent in the saddle.

“It’s all about pairing the agents with the right horses,” he said.

Border Patrol Agent Veranda Zertuche has been on the force for seven years and has rode horses since she was 4. But she is one of the unit’s newest agents, having just completed training a couple weeks ago.

She tells Border Report that she has been angling for this post since she started with the agency.

“Ahh, I love it. I love it. It’s the best detail that the Border Patrol has,” Zertuche said.

With her long blond hair tied in braids, Zertuche cleans dirt and grime from her horse “Gary’s” hooves. She brushes and sprays him with bug repellant at a hitching post alongside seven other agents at the start of a recent shift.

It takes an hour to prep and saddle the horses, which are also walked and galloped around before they’re loaded into vehicles and dispersed throughout the region.

Having laid in stables all day, Coy says the horses must get out their energies before going into the field in order for them to be more focused and disciplined.

Night arrests

Once the animals are ready, agents listen intently to radio channels from other Border Patrol agents as to the best locations where they can assist.

Apprehensions in the RGV Sector have dropped substantially from a few years ago. Now there are about 200 arrests per day in the entire sector and the Mexican cartel and human traffickers are selective in where they cross migrants knowing that under new asylum regulations, if caught, most will be deported back.

Barely minutes after leaving the Mission stables one night, agents heard the radio crackling with news that migrants were seen crossing near the stables.

Kise says that’s part of the tactic that cartel use on the border. He says “spotters” are everywhere watching and relaying information to the cartel. Once they see the caravan of horses leave the stables, he says it’s not uncommon for smugglers to take migrants right through that very area.

A few minutes later the radio crackled with news of several migrants spotted on dirt trails in Hidalgo County in a rural unincorporated area called Abram, near the town of Peñitas.

Three horses and riders helped to corral the migrants and walked them up a trail where they lined up in front of a 30-foot-tall span of border wall.

“In this rugged terrain, that’s where the horses come in handy. You put them in the brush where traffic can’t get through. They’ve been very successful,” Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Juan Mancillas told Border Report.

With wall behind them and horses in front, the group of 10 did not move.

The migrants were family units — some unaccompanied minors, a woman with her two children, another woman with a baby and a husband with his 8-month-pregnant wife. They told agents they were from El Salvador and Honduras.

But all likely face deportation and removal under new asylum regulations that were implemented in June by the Biden administration.

Under these restrictions, which are currently in effect, migrants must cross at U.S. ports of entry — not illegally. And they must make asylum appointments via the agency’s CBP One app. They also must openly declare if they have a credible fear of returning to their countries, and will not be asked that by officers unless they say so themselves. Those who do not meet these criteria, face deportation.

“It just all depends right. It depends on peoples’ biographical information and what I mean by that is if they have any prior immigration or criminal histories,” Border Patrol Public Information Officer Christina Smallwood said. “Everybody will be processed accordingly and sent to the proper detention facilities.”

Their belongings were put into plastic bags, their shoelaces removed for safety and their photos taken for biometric information that is stored by CBP.

One of the horse patrol agents is an EMT and he took out a stethoscope and began medically evaluating the 22-year-old pregnant migrant woman.

The unaccompanied children will be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services, and the families will be put in area detention facilities designed for groups and young children. Smallwood said the pregnant woman and her husband likely will be separated because they did not have a child with them.

A baby held by a 20-year-old woman coughed and cried as dust and dirt spewed from the scene and bright lights shone on the group.

The horseback agents remained on the horses as other agents asked migrants questions and processed their information. Then the horses walked the group to a waiting bus that had been driven on the dirt levee to take them away.

The horses returned to their stables around 6 a.m. And after being groomed and fed and watered they will relax until agents call upon them the next night.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

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