Jake Harvath’s “Year of the Mustang” involved three horses, 14 months, 25 states and 6,000 miles.
He set off in September 2023, headed east to the Atlantic Ocean, and made his way home in November 2024.
By day, Harvath is a colt trainer and farrier – a specialist in caring for horses’ hooves. But when his cross-country journey began, he became an activist as well.
He said he was inspired to take on the unconventional road trip because of the plight of many wild mustangs in the American West.
“Our federal government is charged with managing wild horses on wild rangelands,” he said. “And the unfortunate fact is, that means they have to round a number up in order to keep them down to numbers that they’re sustainable in the wild – that they aren’t eating themselves out of house and home and out-competing other species.”
Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) show that as of early 2024, nearly 74,000 wild horses and burros roam on public land across the American west. About 4,300 of those live in Utah.
The BLM estimates Utah rangelands can only support around 2,000 horses without risking the health of both the herds and the land. To get closer to that number, it rounds up horses and burros for adoption or sale, among other practices.
But Harvath said the mustangs who are removed from the wild often face a grim future.
“These horses will live in pretty poor conditions for the duration of their lives in government holding,” he said.
The mustangs are available for adoption, but Harvath said there’s a stigma about the horses because they’re wild. With the Year of the Mustang, he wanted to combat that stigma.
“My goal was to show people my horses and what they could accomplish – to get more people interested in that adoption process, to get more of them out of those holding facilities and to be people’s partners,” he said.
Harvath said he fell in love with mustangs as a teenager. When he was 15, he took charge of a young mustang as an apprentice horse trainer in Charleston, Utah.
During the Year of the Mustang, three horses served as Harvath’s constant companions: Bella, Eddy and Denver. He said each came from a different herd, and each overcame a tough past to grow into an adaptable and resilient partner on the journey.
“It’s hard to explain just the diversity of things that we went through, from swimming rivers to being right in line with semi-truck traffic and trains and tractors,” he said. “They’re my best friends.”
Harvath said he pieced together his route a few days at a time, largely based on the seasons. He said he tried to stick to country roads when he could because it was easier for the horses.
He said riding across the country with his mustangs attracted a lot of attention, especially from people who had never interacted with horses before.
“We definitely raised a lot of eyebrows, and that just brought more attention to this cause,” he said. “It gave me the opportunity to start a lot of conversations about wild horses and open people up to what we were doing.”
Harvath also documented his travels on Instagram and YouTube, where he amassed tens of thousands of followers. Now, he plans to use his platform to continue to educate people about mustangs, ranching and the western lifestyle.
As for Denver, Bella and Eddy, they’re taking a well-deserved rest back home in the Heber Valley.
