# The Pacing Mustang — Wild Animals I Have Known character guide

> The Pacing Mustang in Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** The Mustang, the Black Mustang, the Great Black Mustang, the Stallion, the Black Stallion, the Black, the foaming Black

**First appearance:** 0008-the-pacing-mustang

## Snapshot

A coal-black stallion who never breaks his strange pacing gait, outrunning every rider and rope that the New Mexico range sends after him.

## Who they are

Among the wild mustang bands near Antelope Springs, this black yearling grows into a legendary horse whose smooth pace and untouchable freedom make him a prize and an obsession. Cowboys shoot mustangs on sight as worthless vermin, yet something about the Pacer's speed and refusal to be broken turns him into a symbol of everything wild that men cannot own. His defiance drives the story's central chase and gives the collection its most haunting meditation on freedom.

## In the story

### [Note to the Reader](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/wild_animals_i_have_known_se/chapters/note-to-the-reader)

The Mustang lived near Lobo in the early 1890s; there is a dispute about his death, with some saying he broke his neck in a corral and others claiming he leaped into a canyon with his rider.

### [The Pacing Mustang](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/wild_animals_i_have_known_se/chapters/the-pacing-mustang)

The black pacing mustang colt, later a magnificent stallion, is the central figure of the chapter, pursued by Jo Calone and others.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/wild_animals_i_have_known_se/characters/the_pacing_mustang
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/wild_animals_i_have_known_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/wild_animals_i_have_known_se/characters