Fight of the Wild Stallions

Fight of the Wild Stallions is a 1947 short documentary film produced by Thomas Mead about wild stallions in the wilds and the business of wrangling them. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-Reel.

Seeing as this is supposed to come from the self-anointed “land of the free” there is something anachronistically triumphalist about the commentary as mankind uses his wits, guile and an aeroplane to frighten some beautiful wild animals into a coral of fences and adobe walls so that they can be branded as human property and spend the remainder of their lives in captivity. They are frequently referred to as “pests” for daring to continue to roam Wyoming’s Red Desert eating what they can and depriving the cattle people need to rear to feed themselves of grazing. There is some lively photography as these beasts energetically vie for leadership of the wild herd and from the air as they are coerced into their fenced prisons, but that of these lithe creatures desperately trying to escape is tough to watch. To capture horses to facilitate the pioneering efforts since they arrived in North America in the 17th century is one thing. To rope them up for rodeo entertainment is quite another. I doubt it was meant to be provocative, but it sure is now.