Mustang Saga

I love vintage cowboy and cowgirl photos.

Not the fakey Hollywood photos with too much makeup where everything is way too clean and cheerful or sexy. Although those are interesting too.

I love to look at their tack, their getup, and their horses. Horses have changed a lot in the last... 80 years? 100 years? Heck, the world has changed a lot in that amount of time.


My collection is small so far, mostly postcards. I have a bookmark too. I can't seem to keep tabs on it though. I lose it in the bed and then it drifts away and I find it again later -happy rediscovery!

I also like to read the stories on the back of the postcards, although they're short. A woman robber who was in the prison in Yuma, which I visited almost a century later. A woman bronc rider landing on her head, hair flying, who later died in a similar fall. Women rodeo performers who obviously love their jobs and their sisterhood. A black cowboy on the range, scraping out a living with hard work on his broken down old buckskin. So many stories, so briefly told. I wish I could interview them. Their faces are often so closed though. I gather they might be people of few words.

Speaking of which, if you've never read a book by Molly Gloss, I highly recommend her. The Jump Off Creek is great, as is The Hearts of Horses. I also very much liked Wild Life. Her books remind me a little of Willa Cather. Often stark and usually quiet. Strong women. Pioneering. Great books.

Anywhoo... I think it's past my bedtime. See y'all later!