UNBRIDLED: THE WESTERN HORSE IN FICTION AND NONFICTION

Only on the Western Plains did the horse reach its most typical American development.

In fact, would there have been a West as we know it without horses? Shortly after those plains were crossed, the horse became an integral part of nearly every Western yarn, Army report and dime novel as well as the “Western” we know today. Corralled by an admitted “fool for horses,” these 39 wonderful stories run the gamut from Mark Twain’s hilarious “Genuine Mexican Plug” and Ernest Thompson Seton’s valiant “Pacing Mustang” to Theodore Roosevelt’s “Horses of the Badlands.” Armchair saddle tramps are in for a rousing read.

—William Garwood