Angola Cons Train Police Horses

Joseph Ward spends his days putting horses through their paces, trying to get them used to things that would normally distress them.

Leonard Nicholas does the same thing. He calls it "bomb proofing" the supersized horses he works with.

Nicholas has already served 33 years of a life sentence for murder at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Ward is just seven years into a 100-year sentence for manslaughter and kidnapping.

But these days, they work for the cops, training police horses.

Nicholas and Ward are among the 20 to 25 prisoners at Angola who spend eight hours a day training police horses to work in some of the most chaotic situations police officers face — everything from controlling huge crowds to helping break up riots.