Book Review: Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs

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The book Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs: The Life of Velma Johnston was about a courageous little 110 lb lady who dedicated her life to saving her beloved "Wild Ones" in mid-century America. I think we know, by now, I'm a bit of an animal lover. Horses are my number two (after of course, the obvious: dogs) and just having a friend who owns them is somewhat magical to me. Not to mention riding them. That's really fun!

I picked this book up at the library based on it's cover, and the fact that I knew very little about the wild horse herds that are so few and far between now-a-days in the West. This book started out fairly well. Mrs. Johnston was a child polio surviver that dealt with a life long facial deformity that never got in her way as far as her politics for horses were concerned.

The middle, however, really dragged for me. I really wanted to like this book a lot, but end up giving it a mediocre 3 out of 5 stars. There was a lot of political jibber jabber, and although the main plot was interesting enough, it just didn't grab me the way I thought it might. It took me 3 weeks to finish this book, and I'm a book-a-week nerd, normally. I love that I now know a bit more about the Wild Horse Annie Act and the efforts this little lady took to conserve the true horse beauties of this country, but I can't recommend this book unless you can swim though the mire of unimportant bill numbers and a whole mess of names & figureheads.

But a pretty cover, no? :)

PS-If you're interested in conservation efforts there are loads of ways to help out or donate for these beautiful animals.

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