Horse Girl

Terri Farley has always loved books, horses, and wild places. One of those wild places was inner-city Los Angeles, where she first taught high school English and journalism before moving to Nevada. Farley now rides and hikes the range, and spends time researching and writing the books that have made her an acclaimed author and advocate for the West's wildlife—especially wild horses. She is the author of the Phantom Stallion adventure series and Wild at Heart: Mustangs and the Young People Fighting to Save Them. She was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2017.

"Successfully relating the very true tale of 'Wild Horse Annie' required a capable historian, wild horse advocate, and masterful storyteller. Fortunately, Terri Farley is all three, and in her hands, Velma Bronn (Annie) springs to life." —Ellen Hopkins, New York Times best-selling author of Sync and Crank"In an age when we are bombarded non-stop with discouraging news, it's heartening to read Horse Girl: How Velma Bronn Johnston Became Wild Horse Annie and Outsmarted the Mustang Killers of the West, Terri Farley's compelling and timely new biography of this trailblazing figure. With unprecedented access to Annie's family and years of her own experiences on the Nevada range, Farley acquaints readers with the origins of the ongoing battle to save America's last wild horses, and deftly shows how one dedicated individual, no matter the difficulties in her own life, overcame them and went on to save our great partner and icon of freedom - the mustang. As protections are being unraveled today, this book arrives at the perfect moment."  —Deanne Stillman, author of Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West"This is the little-known history of how the American mustang was saved from slaughter and extinction largely by the determined efforts of one woman. But beyond that, it is a story of a young girl's coming of age, and a window into a way of life that although not far in the past has now almost entirely disappeared from our world. I was completely taken with it from the first page." —Molly Gloss, award winning author of The Jump-Off Creek and The Hearts of Horses"At a time when environmental news seems to be nearly all bad, here is an uplifting, inspiring story about a compassionate, intelligent, ethically centered woman who rose above her personal challenges to achieve meaningful protections for fellow creatures in the Intermountain West. Horse Girl is a compelling, well-written narrative about a remarkable Nevadan whose accomplishments deserve to be more widely known and celebrated." —Michael P. Branch, author of On the Trail of the Jackalope and Raising Wild