"America would not be here without the horse," author Deanne Stillman said this week.
Stillman will present the second print edition of her acclaimed book "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West" at The Community Library in Ketchum on Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 6 p.m. The event is free.
"They have blazed trails and fought our wars," Stillman said. "Now the wild horse is fighting for its life."
Stillman will talk about her book and will be joined by photographer Elissa Kline, who will share her images in a slide presentation. Kline has been photographing the Challis herd in Idaho for the past five years. Stillman's book includes one of Kline's photographs.
"This book is timely," Kline said. "There's so much going on in the world of wild horses."
A bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would prohibit an end to helicopter round-ups of wild horses. It has not yet passed the Senate.
"I have taken an informal poll and asked people as taxpayers if they had a problem in helping wild horses," Stillman said. "Most Americans said we should be taking care of our greatest icon. It's the one issue Americans across the board are mostly in favor of."
Stillman's book has received the California Book Award Silver Medal for Nonfiction and a Los Angeles Times Best Book 2008 award.
"We are at war with ourselves, and we are a schizophrenic country," Stillman said. "We worship freedom but look what we do to what's wild. We need to come to terms with our own schizophrenia."
Wild horse roundups take horses to holding pens and eventually to auction. However, due to a down economy, the Bureau of Land Management has in some instances had to give wild horses long-term care because auctions have not been successful.
"I would like to know what they spend on a roundup," Kline said. "These horses are kept in long-term holding, and we are paying to feed them. It does not make sense why are we doing this."
Kline said she has gotten to know some of the horses in the Challis herd. They are not pets, but she said they have been living on their own as family units and they have been healthy.
Stillman and Kline will discuss the process of roundups and the effects they have on the wild horse herds, especially the separation of foals from mares.
"I can't think of a better thing to do but to help these horses," Kline said. "They don't hurt anyone and they don't hurt the land. As an artist, if this is what I have to do with my life, I will do it."
Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com
For the last five years, Elissa Kline has been photographing the Challis wild horse herd living on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Courtesy photos by Elissa Kline
