The American Mustang
The American Mustang
The history of the mustang is a bit of a puzzle. Often referred to as America's wild horse, strictly speaking the mustang is feral (descended from domesticated horses) and not wild. Of course the original wild horse species, the genus Equus, did first evolve in North America over 50 million years ago. However, that species disappeared around the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. That extinction might have come from climate change, hunting by recently arrived Indians, or both. Before they died out, however, some of those original horses migrated over the land bridge between Alaska and Russia, and eventually found their way through Asia and Europe and into North Africa.
After that extinction, the American continent had no horses until the Spanish arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Then, as Wikipedia puts it, “...horses ... returned with the Conquistadors, beginning with Columbus, who imported horses from Spain to the West Indies on his second voyage in 1493. Domesticated horses came to the mainland with the arrival of Cortes in 1519.” Many of the horses the Spanish brought escaped to become feral horses, and were called Mesteňos (stray horses) by the Spanish. And there you have the origins of both the horse and the name of what we now call the Mustang.
What kind of a horse was it? The Equinest reports that the Spanish horses carried Barb, Jennet, and Andalusian bloodlines. Further, the Spanish regularly shipped horses to what was then New Spain for release into the wild, thinking that the native peoples would capture those horses rather than steal horses from the Spanish settlements. According to EquinePost.com more than 10,000 horses were released into the Rio Grande region during this time. These Spanish-bred horses soon spread across the west, and interbred with various other feral breeds. By 1900, there were more than two million wild horses in the United States. In addition, Oklahoma State University points out that for more than 10 years around 1900 the U.S. Cavalry purchased over 150 East Friesian stallions a year from Germany. These stallions were heavy coach horses used to pull wagons and artillery, and no doubt added their bloodline to the evolving mustang.
The American mustang that results from all of this breeding stands about five feet high and can be of almost any color. Our Mustang Earrings show either the head and neck, or the entire horse, and come in gold or silver. The temperament of the mustang starts out as that of a high-spirited wild roaming horse, but with experienced care they can become excellent trail, rodeo, and ranch horses with good endurance. Native American Indians readily adopted them, particularly the Nez Perce, Shoshoni, and Comanche. Wikipedia states that the Nez Perce were especially good breeders, and developed the Appaloosa, one of the first distinctly American breeds.
With the settlement of the American West the wild mustangs became a problem. The relatively dry lands could not support farmers, cattlemen, and two million roaming mustangs. Some of the ranchers began mustanging, the shooting of the animals from airplanes to eliminate them or to slaughter them for food. Some ranchers also used poison to eliminate mustangs. John Huston's 1961 film The Misfits documented some of those practices. The mustang population dropped to around one million by 1925 and was estimated at only 17,000 in 1970.
A turnaround began when the U.S. Congress passed the The Wild Horse and Burro act of 1971. Under this act the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing mustang herds on public lands. Although the BLM states that a manageable population is 26,000 mustangs, recent estimates show more than 30,000 feral horses. More than half are in Nevada (which has the mustang on its state quarter), with others in Montana, Wyoming, and Oregon.
Over 30,000 additional mustangs are in captivity. The Oklahoma State website provides information on the Adopt-a-Horse program, begun in 1973, as a way to make these excess mustangs available to the public at a cost of $125 for each horse. The horses remain the property of the government for one year following the adoption. The purchaser then submits proof of proper care from a veterinarian or other approved agent and receives a certificate of title. These mustangs, while initially requiring experienced handlers, usually become fine riding animals and exceptional in endurance trials.
Links to our mustangs---Control click on the images to go to the website.
American Mustang
Galloping Mustang
Mustang in a Cloud Earrings
Tommie Turvey and his horse Pokerjoe in a nine minute comedy act. You may have to copy the url to your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTfZ8J-0gAk
or three plus minutes.
