THE MUSTANGS: AMERICA'S WILD HORSES BEGINS STREAMING MARCH 2 ON PBS

LOMPOC, Calif., Feb. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ORNIA—The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses premieres online for free at PBS.org and on the PBS App on Sunday, March 2. The feature documentary takes viewers on an odyssey throughout our public lands where few people have ever been to tell the story of one of the nation's last great icons: the American Mustang.

Produced by Steven Latham Productions, with actor Robert Redford, musician Patti Scialfa Springsteen, and Olympic equestrian Jessica Springsteen as executive producers, the 90-minute film debuts online during Wild Horse and Burro week (March 2-8).

As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Philipps explains in the film, "The wild horse is so ingrained in the American imagination that even who have never seen one know what it stands for: fierce independence, unbridled freedom, the bedrock ideals of the nation. From car ads to high school mascots, the wild horse — popularly known as the mustang — is the enduring icon of America. But in modern times it has become entangled in controversy and bureaucracy, and now its future is in question." 

The Mustangs takes television viewers into the center of this crisis to fully understand how we got to where we are and introduces individuals and organizations having a positive impact in very different ways.

Interspersed throughout the film, beautiful photography of mustangs in the wild is set to a score that includes songs by Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson and an original song written by Oscar, Grammy and Emmy winner Diane Warren.

Viewers are introduced to people and agencies who have worked tirelessly since the 1970s to protect mustangs, including Velma Johnston, a secretary who earned the nickname "Wild Horse Annie" for her efforts. She mobilized an army of children to raise awareness about the plight of wild horses and testified before Congress, which unanimously passed the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to ensure the protection of wild horses and burros on public lands.  

Unfortunately, the crisis continues — but as the film explores, the mustangs have new champions.

The Mustangs takes viewers to Colorado where a group of volunteers are darting mares to help with fertility control; to a competition in Texas where trainers have 100 days to work with an untouched mustang to help them get adopted; to a group in Illinois that pairs military veterans with PTSD with mustangs for mutual benefit; and a moving reunion of horses separated during capture and now safe at Return to Freedom's American Wild Horse Sanctuary in California.

The Mustangs shows the possibilities for positive change in wild horse management, offering a hopeful look at the potential for wild horses to remain an integral part of American society.

Learn more: https://returntofreedom.org/themustangsfilm/

The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses is the latest public television offer from Emmy^® Award winning filmmaker Steven Latham. Latham produces and directs the series Shelter Me, now in its second season on public television. Latham's previous work for public television includes producing and directing Saved by the Sun for NOVA and the PBS biography series The Living Century, which he co-created and produced with Barbra Streisand.

Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the freedom, diversity and habitat of wild horses and burros through sanctuary, education, advocacy and conservation since 1998. RTF also operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary in California, caring for more than 460 wild horses and burros. Follow us on social media @returntofreedom.org.

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SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation