On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with H. Alan Day, who's the younger brother of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and who co-wrote with her the bestselling "Lazy B" memoir of a dozen years ago. Alan Day has a new book out called "The Horse Lover," which he tells us about on today's program. This moving and perceptive autobiography mainly describes how he was able to establish a sanctuary for unadoptable wild horses previously warehoused by the Bureau of Land Management. Mustang Meadows Ranch, as the facility was called, began in the late Eighties; it was the first-ever government-sponsored wild horse sanctuary established in the United States. Yet Day's volume --- which Booklist, in a starred review, has tagged "an instant classic" --- is more than simply a chronicle of the joys, surprises, trials, and frustrations that went into establishing and operating Mustang Meadows. "The Horse Lover" is also, of course, a sincere meditation on humanity's deep connections with animals as well as landscapes --- and with horses especially. As was noted of this book in a review in "True West" magazine: "Day's poignant personal journey is one of both heartache and hope, a mirror of not just one man's desire to save a great American icon of freedom, the wild mustang, but a nation's."
"The Horse Lover: A Cowboy's Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs"
