In Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation, Bitter Kalli presents a (very) broad series of essays which each touch upon the social and cultural significance of horses within black spaces, particularly within art and media.

Some of these essays I really appreciated and got a lot out of-- Kalli's reflections on being one of the of the only people of color (and the only Black person) on Columbia's equestrian team, their commentary on "Pony Books" (a.k.a. horse literature aimed at girls), and essay on the The Saddle Club TV series still stand out to me. I did wish there was much more discussion of their experiences riding at Columbia throughout the work; that was a very interesting element of the book and may have made nice thru-line. I was left wanting to know more about what that was like.

As the book goes on the essays feel a little less impactful, and overall, I did get a vibe of "I am putting absolutely everything I have created that touches upon this subject matter into this book;" some of the pieces felt like less-developed reflections rather than deep analysis. But overall, Kalli succeeds in their aim at using this work to carve out more intellectual space for discussions of Blackness and horse culture, which are sorely needed in a hugely white-dominated space.

I think the book characters are great and story telling and design for the story is good and amazing and interesting I love the themes of the book and the great story as a whole