For the Love of a Horse

These true tales begin with Evans’ first horse, Cricket, a $10 steel bay that accompanied Evans across the Texas plain in search of rabbits.

Among the most memorable chapters is one that recounts the teenaged Evans’ 60-day ride with a cowhand, simply called Boggs. They trailed a shabby remuda of five mules and 16 half-starved horses from Texas to Oklahoma in the hopes of peddling them to farmers who were just shaking off the Dust Bowl blues. Here’s the West as it was and is, so saddle up those armchairs. —William Garwood