THE LAST RIDE

1916 is when Uncle John Hatton gets his chance to indulge his passion for horses for the Army needs mounts and the wild horses of northern New Mexico are the answer. With Van and Charlie he takes on the job of rounding up, cutting and breaking and they camp high in the mountains to locate the manadas ruled by the different stallions. It is the wily, powerful chestnut stud that is the focus of Uncle John's hunt and that manages to evade him until the final showdown and it is the hard riding, fast action that accomplishes the goal of a worthwhile sale of horses -- some to the Army and others to rodeo. The technicalities of the runs on the manadas, the strategy of capture, the details of castrating and taming, are very much a part of aging Uncle John's story which continues O'Rourke's panel of western life in unvarnished, salty and masculine terms.