Author Explains History, and Plight of the American Mustang

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 7, 2008 at 8:40 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

What would the story of the American West be without the contribution of the horse? What makes America's wild horse, the mustang, unique and the subject of so much folklore? Where do the mustangs li

Tom Fudge: The mustang is a wild horse that lives on the ranges of the American West, but it's much more than that. It's part of our mythology. Mustangs symbolize the spirit of freedom the West respresents. But they're considered a nuisance by many Western residents, and they haven't been treated terribly well. There were an estimated two million wild horses roaming the West at the end of the 19th century. Today, that number has dropped to about 25,000.

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Deanne Stillman, author of Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse of the American West .