Desert Chrome

Water, a Woman, and Wild Horses in the West

By: Kathryn Wilder

Narrated by: Kathryn Wilder

I lead my Grulla Mare, Savanna, to water. She is the gray of a mule deer's winter coat, with a dorsal stripe and zebra markings on her legs that trace back to the original wild horses, though she is quarter horse, not mustang. The mustang follows. It is his first time here, to the pinon pine and juniper woodland that defines my desert home. We walk down the rocky path and around to a flat below the cabin, where in the 1930s post-and-rail sheep pens were built right up against the wall of Dakota Sandstone, which forms the back fence of the old pens and the cliff base upon which a modern log cabin sits.

©2021 Kathryn Wilder (P)2022 Kathryn Wilder

Critic reviews

“A raw and honest journey of addiction, love, trauma, and redemption—grounded in a deep love of place and all things mustang. The best memoirs reveal the deeply personal in order to see the larger world with renewed clarity and insight—this is one such book. As Wilder moves from heroin to horses, we see a substantive journey of recovery and strength—and ultimately, of resilience.” (Laura Pritchett, author of Stars Go Blue)

“For too long, the lone cowboy myth has corralled the Ameri­can West in the barbed wires of dominion and destruction. Tan­gled in that telling are women and mustangs—their wildness, togetherness, and vulnerability. In Desert Chrome, Wilder bucks against a story as desiccated as the deserts she has dwelled in—kicking hard enough to free what was bound, to redeem what was broken. Listen now, to the thundering of hearts and hooves. They’re coming for us, at last.” (Amy Irvine, author of Air Mail and Desert Cabal)

“Desert Chrome journeys through parched valleys, on wild rivers, and into deep rock canyons on a unique quest. In this authentic, hard-won account of her life, Wilder finds the warm, true hearts she’s been seeking and that deserve our humanity, healing, and a hell of a lot better future than they’ve been dealt. There’s a quiet heroine at the center of this story, yes, pointing toward a beauti­ful world. It can be ours if we’ll love better, lean closer, and listen to the voices, like Wilder’s own, well worth heeding from birth.” (Rebecca Lawton, author of The Oasis This Time)

“A powerful coming-of-age story, into the age of a woman’s strongest power, when, with complete awareness of her past, she can, with might and strength, will the future before her. Wilder writes with all the love, wisdom, and courage it takes to make positive changes for the western landscape, horses, and readers.” (C. Marie Fuhrman, author of Camped Beneath the Dam)