Unbranded.

Front Cover -- Contents -- 1. Preparation -- Inspiration -- Why Mustangs? -- The Kickstarter Campaign -- Choosing a Route -- Filming the Ride -- 2. The Mustangs -- Picking Out the Herd -- The First 30 Days -- Training the Horses -- Val's Lessons -- Shoeing the Horses and a Resurrection -- 3. The Outfit -- Ben Thamer and His Horses -- Jonny Fitzsimons and His Horses -- Thomas Glover and His Horses -- Ben Masters and His Horses -- Donquita -- The Hired Guns -- 4. Arizona -- The Trail: 850 Miles -- Day 1 and Day 2 -- Cameraman Down -- Violet's Injury -- Val at the Vineyard -- The Cholla Incident -- Dysentery -- The Grand Heatstroke -- 5. Utah -- The Trail: 830 Miles -- Losing the Horses: Round One -- Leave Your Guns at Home, Jonny -- Hell's Hole -- Trail Food -- Impassable -- Losing the Horses: Round Two -- 6. Idaho and Wyoming -- The Trail: 520 Miles -- Two-Second Rodeo Career -- Western Hospitality -- Horse Care -- Trout Fishing into a Thunderstorm -- 7. Montana -- The Trail: 800 Miles -- Seeing the Production -- Fly-Fishing Horseback -- Burned Out of the Bob -- Glacier -- The Last Mile -- The Finish Line -- 8. Reflections -- Auctioning Luke -- Mustang Dilemma -- Looking Back -- Thanks &amp -- Acknowledgments -- Back Cover.

On an epic 3,000-mile journey through the most pristine backcountry of the American West, four friends rode horseback across an almost contiguous stretch of unspoiled public lands, border to border, from Mexico to Canada. For their trail horses, they adopted wild mustangs from the US Bureau of Land Management that were perfectly adapted to the rocky terrain and harsh conditions of desert and mountain travel. A meticulously planned but sometimes unpredictable route brought them face to face with snowpack, downpours, and wildfire; unrelenting heat, raging rivers, and sheer cliffs; jumping cactus, rattlesnakes, and charging bull moose; sickness, injury, and death. But they also experienced a special camaraderie with each other and with the mustangs. Through it all, they had a constant traveling companion-a cameraman, shooting for the documentary film Unbranded. The trip's inspiration and architect, Ben Masters, is joined here by the three other riders, Ben Thamer, Thomas Glover, and Jonny Fitzsimons; two memorable teachers and horse trainers; and the film's producers and intrepid cameramen in the telling of this improbable story of adventure and self-discovery.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.