Chad Hanson’s gorgeous book The Wild Horse Effect: Awe, Well-Being, and the Transformative Power of Nature combines beautiful imagery of the West and wild horses with reflections on mindfulness, nature, and the science of awe.
Sociologist and photographer Hanson shows how “the wild horse effect”—witnessing these majestic wild animals in their natural environment—can evoke our own reverence for nature and cultivate a spirit of wonder: “Wild mustangs … can turn any landscape into a setting that radiates.”
From Abraham Maslow to Henry David Thoreau to twenty-first-century scientists, Hanson highlights the influence of nature on our minds and moods, supporting the argument that nature can be the most powerful source of awe, spirituality, and joy. “Horses are among the biggest and most beautiful animals left on earth … Why not use awe to the same effect that we use antidepressants? Why not enlist nature as a nondenominational and undogmatic means to make us feel connected—to the world and to each other?”
Amid photos of vast, cloud-studded skies; open prairie lands; and wild horses alone, in herds, and among their families, Hanson writes about equine history and the social and emotional lives of horses, underscoring the importance of their wildness. “In the case of domestic horses, we spent six millennia working to make them more effective servants and ministers to our needs. That put us behind. Today, we are only just beginning to know what it might be like for horses to live in the communities they build on their own.”
Though its beauty and high production quality makes The Wild Horse Effect a quintessential “coffee-table book,” Hanson’s perspective as a sociologist makes it much more than that. He notes that younger generations of humans experience alarming rates of anxiety and depression and makes the case for tackling nature-deficit disorder by getting out of doors. And wild horses, he writes, “hold a unique kind of potential when it comes to recultivating a reverence for nature and life. No mincing of words: They are beautiful.” Page after page, Hanson’s photos back up this claim.
And though the photographs say it all, Hanson reiterates the case for conservation by writing about current laws protecting American wild mustangs, including the discouraging trend that favors livestock over wild horses. Every year, he writes, the Bureau of Land Management rounds up populations that have “grown too large by the agency’s standards” and sends the horses to feedlots (which are horrific enough for domestic animals, let alone wild animals). “For most of the captured mustangs, removal from public land and placement in a holding pen becomes a life sentence. In 2021, the BLM held nearly sixty thousand wild horses in off-range facilities”—at the cost of $108 taxpayer dollars per month. Agribusiness takes precedent over protection and preservation.
Despite the grim truths about the fate of so many wild horses, the book is aimed at inspiring us: “Domestic horses were here for us, but wild horses are here with us at a time when we have countless reasons to change our course.” Sidebars throughout the book offer hands-on suggestions for how to disconnect from our devices, connect with nature, practice mindfulness, and add awe to our lives. Whether it’s an invitation to go cloud-spotting, seek solitude, or “roam free,” these tips are perfectly paired with their accompanying photographs. (Visit Chronicle Books to get a peek at more photos.)
The stunning quality of The Wild Horse Effect makes it a wonderful gift, and it’s also a book to keep close and open often to draw from the wisdom and beauty within it. Hanson exhorts us not to forget our wild counterparts, or our own wild selves: “With their parallel lives—existing in our world, and yet not a part of our world—wild animals offer us a unique version of companionship. They are not our friends. We do not possess them. What they present to us are encounters, moments of mutual curiosity. And the assurance that we are not alone in the cosmos.”
Midge Raymond is a co-founder of Ashland Creek Press. She is the author of the novels Floreana and My Last Continent, the award-winning short story collection Forgetting English, and, with John Yunker, the suspense novel Devils Island.
