Editorial Reviews

The horses had never been touched, fourth generation wild.... I had seen them, twice before the snow, catch a coyote out too far from cover, encircling the quick gray dog, and by sheer force of number, each angle vectored by a striking hoof, hack the little predator to a mess of trampled bone and pulp.

-- Mark Spragg

For thousands of years the hoss an' his long-eared cousins furnished all transportation on land for man an' broke all the ground for their farmin'.... I'm here to tell these machine-lovers that it will take a million years for the gas wagon to catch up with the hoss in what he's done for man. To-day some of these auto drivers want to kill him off to make fertilizer out of his body. Mebbe I'm sentimental, but I think it's a damned hard finish for one that has been as good a friend to man as the hoss. -- Charles M. Russell

Suddenly, the willows along the bottom erupted in rifle fire. The stallion humped up, leaped, screamed once, and died. I shouted at the mustangs to run, but only the mare and foal made it up over the narrow trail to safety.

-- Dayton O. Hyde

I had a four-strand silk manila lariat rope on her that she couldn't break ... I managed to get her wrapped around a tree and me to have the longest end of the rope and I got down and started to put a hackamore on her. She was choking pretty bad and had rolled her eyes around and was watching me real close. In the split half second that it takes to slip the nose-piece over a horse's head is when she snapped my right hand. I pulled as quick as I could and she tore the skin ... but I was jerking enough that she didn't bite a whole plug out of the back of my hand.

-- Ben K. Green

With a sudden pounding of hoofs, the three cowboys who had been waiting near the trap hurtled into view, yelling.... We were getting up from our hiding places when there were warning shouts. The helicopter was still out there, pushing. Finally a last small colt staggered into view, exhausted.... But as we spectators straggled down the slope to the trap, we could see that something was wrong.

-- Lynne Bama

Customer Reviews

Wild horses captured on film, 2003-02-14
by Ronald Scheer (Los Angeles)

Although the original essays and reprinted material in this book make fine reading, the real contributors are the 13 photographers whose images of mustangs on nearly every page will please anyone with an interest in horses and the landscape of the Western states. Some shots are of horses grazing or standing still, looking back at the photographer, ears up and altert, but most are of horses in motion, sometimes in tight telephoto closeup, sometimes against rolling hills or sage-covered flatland. There are many kinds of weather as well, foggy, stormy, snow, wind, spring sunshine, dusty summer, and horses of all colors and markings. A handful of shots include saddled horses with cowboys.

The book has also been very handsomely designed. Page layout, typography, end papers, variety of image placement and use of white space, balancing of images and text, all serve the subject wonderfully and please the eye. Nearly all the photographs selected are crisply cear, motion frozen with a high-speed shutter. The wide pages make possible many double-page spreads that look and feel panoramic.

Editor Mark Spragg has brought together the work of seven writers, including himself, and an Assiniboine tale to accompany the images. The writings are mostly contemporary, but a few hark back to earlier times, such as Charley Russell's cowboy theory about the origins of horseback riding and Ben Green's account of trying to capture a band of mustangs, while nearly losing his hand to an infected horse bite. Spragg's harrowing essay "Wintering" appeared later in his collection of essays, "Where Rivers Change Direction." There's also an informative essay by New York Times writer Verlyn Klinkenborg, who writes eloquently of the rural life and has visited wild-horse territory earlier in his book "Making Hay."

I highly recommend this beautiful book to lovers of horses, good writing, and the Western landscape.

The perfect embodiment of horse lore and behavior, 1999-03-06

This book reads like a group of short stories, of which they are all by different authors. The combination of their stories gives one the true feeling of the multitude of facets of the wild horses. It will make you realize they are carved out of the landscape, and an intrical part of nature. A creature of survival sometimes at the risk of their very own life. The stories are memorable and unforgettable. A definate must for the armchair western adventurer.

A wonderful book that captures the spirit of the wild horse., 1998-12-04

This is a great book for anyone interested in the Mustangs. It shares stories and legends of wild horses and people's interactions with them. The stories range from heart warming to tearful. Each brings you a step closer to understanding the difference of the wild and domesticated horse. Throughout the book are beautiful pictures that capture the spirit of the mustangs.