By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
One thousand, two hundred pounds and four legs.
Put that between your knees and you’ll find out what real horsepower is.
You’re five feet off the ground, moving as fast as a car on a downtown
street, hooves pounding as hard as your heart. Dangerous? Maybe. But as
you’ll see in Mounted by Bitter Kalli, your ancestors did it and so can
you.
When they were a young child, “around the age of six or seven,” someone
gave Bitter Kalli a set of “pony books,” the kind that appeal to young
girls, mostly white ones. Kalli wasn’t entirely comfortable identifying as
a girl then but they adored the books, in part because the stories featured
the kinds of friendships and acceptance Kalli wanted. After devouring those
stories, they begged their parents for riding lessons from a nearby
Brooklyn stable.
Fast forward to 2014, when Kalli was 17 years old, an experienced
equestrian, a trans individual, and a protester at college. During that
protest, they watched the horses that carried the police and wondered what
those animals saw in the crowd.
For that matter, what did horses see throughout Black history?
In times of slavery, it was not uncommon for fleeing slaves to steal a
horse or two to get away faster. Kalli shares heart-pounding tales of
escape, sharing examples of how human chattel was often compared to that of
equines in newspaper ads, as slaveholders mourned the latter loss much
deeper than the former.
Many Americans are unaware of the rich contributions that African Americans
made to the settling of the West. Kalli examines a popular movie,
deconstructing it and adding real history to the Hollywood tale.
“What we know as the Wild West would not exist without the 182,000 enslaved
people living in Texas in 1860…” they say.
Horses are featured in many of the world’s religions. Horsey language lends
itself to the erotic. Even, says Kalli, “Black and brown youth in Brooklyn”
understood the appeal of a good-looking Polo pony…
Take a good study of the cover of Mounted. Appreciate the artwork, notice
the design. Then add this book to your “Things I Never Really Thought
About” list, because you’ll think about it now. And you’re going to want to
read every delicious word.
Horses have been hiding in plain sight in Black history for centuries, but
author Bitter Kalli pulls them to the forefront, turning each facet of the
subject over for deeper examination and additional thought. Happily, you
won’t feel forced to do that; their writing comes across like an invitation
to a warm, intimate conversation, the kind you get while casually hanging
out with a new group of friends on the patio. What you learn is highly
intriguing, and you won’t ever see horses in the same way again.
Beware that this book has one explicit chapter inside, but it fits the
narrative and you won’t mind. You’ll be too busy enjoying what you read and
wanting more. For horse lovers and history lovers alike, Mounted is the
perfect ride.