The Mustangs

J. Frank Dobie’s history of the “mustang”—from the Spanish mesteña, an animal belonging to (but strayed from) the Mesta, a medieval association of Spanish farmers—tells of its impact on the Spanish, English, and Native cultures of the West.

J. Frank Dobie (1888–1964) was for many years secretary-editor of the Texas Folklore Society, taught at universities in Texas and Oklahoma as well as in England, Germany, and Austria, and wrote seventeen books on Texas and southwestern life, including The Voice of the Coyote, available in a Bison Books edition. Dayton O. Hyde is a rancher, conservationist, photographer, and author of many books, including Don Coyote: The Good Times and Bad Times of a Much Maligned American Original and Island of the Loons. He is the founder of the Institute of Range and the American Mustang, which creates sanctuaries for wild horses in South Dakota.

“This is a magnificent book, so packed with lore and legend that one is not conscious of the fact that it is history, too. Frank Dobie tells the story of the mustangs . . . The story too of the men, and the way of life the mustang brought into being.”—New York Herald Tribune