Mustang (horse)

This article is about the free-roaming horses of the western United States. For other meanings of the word, see Mustang. For information on other types of "wild" horses, see wild horse.

Free-roaming mustangs (Utah, 2005)

Mustangs at the Palomino Valley Adoption Center

A mustang is a small, hardy, free-roaming horse of the North American west, descended primarily from horses brought to the Americans by the Spanish conquistadors. Because of the image of the wild horse of the west as possessing hardiness, grace, speed, and independence, the name "Mustang" is popular for high-performance products and for sports mascots.

Mustangs are often referred to as "wild horses" in the press and in daily usage. However, because all "wild" free-roaming horses in America descended from horses that were originally domesticated, the proper term is feral horses. The American Museum of Natural History When Is a Wild Horse Actually a Feral Horse? Today, the only true wild horse is the Przewalski's Horse, native to Asia.

However, horses once were native to the North American continent prior to the arrival of humans. That population died off at the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 10,000 years ago, possibly due to either climate change or the impact of newly-arrived human hunters. "Ice Age Horses May Have Been Killed Off by Humans" National Geographic News, May 1, 2006. Therefore, horses were extinct in North America until the arrival of the Conquistadors in the late 1400s and early 1500s.

Because horses once lived in North America, some scientists argue that the free-roaming horse in America, the modern Mustang, could also be considered a reintroduced wildlife species.The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Patricia M. Fazio Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife

The English word mustang comes from the Mexican Spanish word mestengo, which was derived from from the Spanish mesteño, meaning cattle raised under the extensive system of the Mesta and strayed.

The earliest mustangs

The first mustangs descended from Spanish horses brought to Mexico in the 1500s by the Conquistadors. Most of these horses were of Andalusian, Arabian and Barb ancestry. Some of these horses escaped or were stolen by Native Americans, and rapidly spread throughout western North America. There is some evidence that tribes may have posessed prehistoric myths about horses and many Indian people claimed, long before verified by modern science, that "the grass remembered" horses.

Native Americans quickly adopted the horse as a primary means of transportation. It replaced the dog as a travois puller and greatly improved success in battles, trade, and hunts, particularly buffalo hunts. Many tribes bred their horses carefully to improve them for their purposes. Among the most capable horse-breeding people of North America were the Comanche and the Shoshoni. The Nez Perce in particular became master horse breeders, and developed one of the first truly American breeds: the Appaloosa.

Mustangs in the 19th century

Starting in the colonial era and continuing with the westward expansion of the 1800s, horses belonging to explorers, traders and settlers that escaped or were purposely released joined the gene pool of Spanish-descended herds. It was also common practice for western ranchers to release their horses to forage for themselves in the winter and then recapture them, or other mustangs, in the spring. Some ranchers also attempted to"improve" some wild herds by shooting the dominant stallions and replacing them with pedigreed animals, including Thoroughbreds. In some cases, this helped avoid inbreeding, especially in areas where the herds could become genetically isolated during periods of drought. In other places, especially when the domesticated stallions introduced were of breeds unsuited for prairie survival, such as draft or other heavy work horse breeds, it was a disaster that led to a reduced population and a decrease in quality of the animals that managed to survive.

Mustangs in the 20th century and the 21st century

By 1900 North America had an estimated two million free-roaming horses.J. Frank Dobie, "The Mustangs", Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, 1952 Mustangs were viewed as a resource that could be captured and used or sold (especially for military use) or slaughtered for food, especially pet food. The controversial practice of mustanging was dramatized in the John Huston film The Misfits, and abuses, including hunting from airplanes and poisoning, led to the first federal wild free-roaming horse protection law in 1959.http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/resources/annie_act.html Protection was increased further by the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Protection Act of 1971 Text of Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Protection Act of 1971. Congress recognized wild horses as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West [... that [...] contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people."

Mustang Controversies

Free-roaming horses have benefited dramatically from the romance surrounding the horse in the American West. However, there are multiple viewpoints on the issue. Those who support the preservation of wild horses point out that feral or wild herds of horses pre-date modern Ranching practices and are part of the ecology and history of the Western United States. Essentially, the argument goes, mustangs have at least as much right to be on public lands as do cattle, another "non-native" species.

On the other side is the cattle ranching industry, which argues essentially that feral horses are a non-native species that degrades rangeland and competes with private livestock for public land forage. And it is correct that without some form of population control, horses reproduce rapidly enough to overrun a limited range within a short span of years.

There are also some horse enthusiasts who consider the mustang herds of the west to be inbred and of inferior quality. Supporters of the Mustang argue that the animals are merely small due to their harsh living conditions but that survival of the fittest has eliminated any traits that lead to weakness or inferiority. Some Mustang supporters also maintain that some "inbreeding" actually concentrates the traits of hardiness and durability, making the Mustang a valuable genetic resource.

No matter which side is correct, the Mustang of the modern west has several different breeding populations today which are genetically isolated from one another and thus have distinct traits tracable to particular herds.

There is also some debate as to what degree Mustangs and cattle compete for forage. Most current Mustang herds are in arid areas which cattle may have difficulty fully utilizing due to the lack of water sources. Horses are able to go longer without water than cattle, which allows them to graze areas too remote from water to be grazed by cattle. On the other hand, horses have a less efficient digestive system than ruminants such as cattle, so a horse consumes more forage than an equivalent sized cow.

In either case, since 1900 the mustang population has been reduced drastically. Today, free-roaming horses have disappeared from 6 states and, according to the Bureau of Land Management, their remaining population is fewer than 25,000, with more than half of them in Nevada, with another significant population in Montana. http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/pdf/National.pdf A few hundred free-roaming horses survive in Alberta and British Columbia.

Adopting Wild Horses

The Bureau of Land Management controls the mustang population through a capture program, intended to control competition with beef cattle. Most horses that are captured are offered for "adoption" to individuals willing to pay a small fee to cover paperwork and a few basic costs. In order to prevent the later sale of mustangs as horse meat, adopted mustangs are still protected under the Act, and cannot be sold except when certain very specific criteria are met. There usually is a much larger pool of captured horses than of prospective adoptive owners.

Shooting or poisoning wild horses is illegal, and the penalties for doing so are severe. Of course, it is questionable how strictly these laws are followed in some remote areas.

In January 2005, through a controversial rider attached to an appropriations bill, Congress modified this program to allow the sale (with the result usually being slaughter) of captured horses that are "more than 10 years of age" or have been "offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times." Due to the controversy provoked by this rider, there is also a considerable political movement to have it repealed and the original language restored.

References

External links

* All Horses Breeds - Mustang

Mustang (horse): Encyclopedia BETA

Contents