Few today can imagine riding across the West by horseback, but a company of young cowhands did just that with a book and documentary film called, “Unbranded,” chronicling their months’ long mustang odyssey.

Val Geissler, a top hand, horse trainer and cowboy poet from Cody, was crucial to the ride’s success. Geissler will discuss the book from noon to 2 p.m., Saturday, at Legends Bookstore on Sheridan Avenue in Cody.

Geissler said he originally was going to have a very small part in the film, but “what happened was that they (the filmmakers) started seeing there was a relationship between these 24-, 25-year-old men and this 74-year-old man.”

The decision to feature more of Geissler appears to have been welcomed by audiences; he said that in early screenings of the film, “it seems like me and Donquita (the group’s donkey) were about equally the ones they liked the most.”

Geissler theorized that his role as “the old guy” boosted his popularity while “Donquita was just herself and very cute.”

“Ben (Masters, the book’s author) met Val Geissler in 2010,” said Dennis Aig, who produced the film. “Val became kind of a paternal figure to the guys.”

“A well-worn cowboy hat, sitting atop gray hairs that haven’t been combed in decades, provides shade for a face deeply wrinkled by 70 years of hard work in the sun and wind,” Master said of Geissler. “Below bushy eyebrows are two bright blue eyes that have seen sights that will never be seen again.”

“It’s a book about a wild horse journey,” Aig said.

The wranglers rode wild horses from Nogales, Mexico, 3,000 miles to the Canadian border in Glacier National Park, Aig said.

On a previous long-distance trip, he found wild horses to be as sturdy or studier than any domestic horse. “I wanted to prove the worth of these mustangs,” Masters said in the film. “We’re going to take these mustangs and ride them from Mexico to Canada.”

Masters is “Unbranded’s” author, but... “we all wrote parts of the book giving our perspective of the trip,” Aig said. “It also has a lot of pictures.”

The book/film centers around four college graduates, Aig said.

Some guys complete college and take a trip on their dad’s dime. The good ol’ boys in “Unbranded” undertook a trip of a lifetime.

“These guys took 16 mustangs to Canada,” Aig said.

“I think the animal (wild horse) is a real icon,” Aig said. “Our idea of the American West.”

But the mustang is also controversial. On either side of the rail, antagonism is as prickly as barbs on a barb wire fence stretched taut.

“Ranchers claim the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is allowing wild horses to cause irreversible damage to the rangeland,” said the documentary. “Activists claim wild horses are being systematically eradicated by the BLM to make room for livestock grazing. Currently 50,000 wild horses are in government holding facilities waiting to be adopted.”

It was an arduous journey of mountains, prairie and desert, but the cowboys and their horses made it five months and one week after riding out of Mexico.

“I hope people will see the film and read the book and start thinking about the West and its heritage, and make sure the mustangs remain a part of that future,” Aig said.

A list of screenings is at unbrandedthefilm.com/pages/screenings. To purchase the film or book, go to unbrandedthefilm.com/collections/unbranded-film-merchandise-bundles.

(CJ Baker contributed to this story.)