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HORSE POWER AMERICAN LEGACIES 1 × 50 min. Written and directed by Eric Bendick Executive producers: Birgit Peters, Sabine Holzer 4K, 5.1 and Stereo NATURE

closest genetic link to the original Spanish stock. With the return of American horses, American horses are icons. Mustang. the stage was set for a new generation of Appaloosa. Morgan. Quarterhorse. Even American breeds. their names suggest a timeless power. A combination of natural and artificial orsepower that shaped a nation. selection, accident, and rare fortune A nation whose demands shaped created the wide spectrum of American them. Each has a unique story to horses we know today. Emerging from tell. Born of legendary historical regional patterns of work, culture, tradi- Hmoments, charismatic figures, and singular tion, and geography, these signature places, this documentary takes us on a - breeds have each made their mark in journey tracing the emergence of these history. From the Appaloosa, bred and breeds over time. But the work to under revered by the Nez Perce tribe, to the A co-production of THIRTEEN Productions LLC and Terra Mater Factual Studios stand, create, and maintain their legacies American Quarterhorse, perfectly engi- is not over. Today’s horse trainers are as neered to work the open range, to the in association with PBS, CPB and WNET produced by Grizzly Creek Films diverse as the horses— they for carethey for.continue Their Morgan Horse, whose underdog story is passion is unbridled as legendary as— whosethey come. wild And,behavior of course, is now in the long tradition of innovation and the Mustang husbandry that is now part of the very being understood for the first time. fabric of America. Viewed individually, each breed and each exemplary horse is also a living work of art. The origin story of American horses can be On a cinematic canvas where the play of traced all the way back to the 50-million- light, atmosphere, mood, and environment year-old fossil beds of Polecat Bench, coalesce, we discover intimate relationships Wyoming. Here, the discovery of the between horse and human, breed and earliest known fossils of Dawn Horse selector. Whether working cutting cows reveal that the ancestors of our contempo- in a sagebrush sea, galloping through rary horse arose on the North American autumn foliage in New England, or racing continent. From these ancient beginnings, across the Utah desert on the Pony Express Equus spread around the globe. But only Trail, these are the vivid scenes and a few miles from the site of Dawn Horse, unforgettable moments which bring the a herd of wild Mustangs now roams the natural history of these icons to life. — rugged Pryor mountains. These horses are descendants of the earliest horses to return These are the stories of American horses to American soil. Arriving aboard ships of and true Horse Power, brought to the Spanish explorers, horses reclaimed North screen. America. The Pryor Mustangs, isolated in this range for four-hundred years, are the

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