Sheryl Crow thinks all horses should be free to soak up the sun.

The Detours artist has joined Viggo Mortensen and Peter Coyote as a host of the upcoming Documentary Channel feature Saving the American Wild Horse, which examines the animals' history in the U.S. and questions their fate as the government deems more and more roaming land off-limits.

"I think it will be a real shame when we look back and we don't have these incredible species, and I guess my best hope would be that people, individuals, step up at this point and really protect these animals," Crow, who keeps a wild mustang named Colorado on her Nashville-area farm, says on the program, which premieres July 7.

"We're starting to get really, really far away from our heritage and what this country is based on...If any of these politicians visited these sites where our indigenous animals are being slaughtered in an inhumane way and being sold for meat, I feel that there would be a different take and a different approach to what's happening."