The Story of the Mustang Horse

 

Written by: Anita Reiby and Maria Terese Engell

3^rd year students, 2006.

 

 

The history of the Mustang goes back 500 years.

Mustang Horse (American Indian Horses or Spanish Horses) were brought to the New World by the Spanish in the 1500s.

Originally these were Spanish horses or their descendants but over the years they became a mix of numerous breeds. It was a mixture of Barb, Arabian and Andalusian blood and was the best of that time, a small, and tough desert-bred.

These were the horses which changed the lives of the Native Americans living in or near the Great Plains.

 

 

The modern horses evolved 3 million years ago, but were extinct from North America 10 000 years ago.
Before the Spanish Conquistadors reintroduced the mustangs, the Indians had never seen horses. They thought the riders were godlike creatures.

The Spanish forbid them to own or ride horses, but “the Big Dog” was soon acquired by the Indians.

 

Some of the horses escaped form the Spanish and many thousand were left behind when the Spanish had to make a hasty retreat in 1680.

Instead of capturing these wild horses, the Indians stole horses from the Spanish settlements. The Spanish government shipped many horses to the New World in hope that the Indians would go for these horses instead and leave the settlements alone.

 

 

Some of the horses escaped, both from the Spanish and the Native Americans, and they formed herds and started to breed.
Later the missionaries even let thousands of horses wander off as they had no interest in keeping them as livestock.

 

This was the origin of the Wild Mustang Horse.

 

 

The name Mustang comes from the Spanish word “me steno” which means “Own less or Stray horse”. This term is used for all wild horses in the US.

 

This is the beginning of the Indian culture as most of us think of it, with horses as a very important part of their every day life. The Indians went from being pedestrians, to become nomadic hunters and warriors.  

 

The United States Army found that the only way to conquer Indians was to take their horses away from them. This was done by complete massacres of Indian horse herds.

 

 

 

In the 19^th century the railroad was built across the west.
Passengers were encouraged to shoot bison and horses from the train, and the number of animals decreased drastically.

 

Ranchers started to kill the Mustang to protect the range-land for their cattle and sheep.

 

In 1807, two herds of 7,000 wild horses were driven into the ocean at Mission Santa Barbara to drown; and at the San Diego Mission, hundreds of horses were shut in corrals to starve.

 

In “The Great Drought of California” between 1828 and 1830, as many as 40 000 horses were killed.

 

The population of Mustangs at the beginning of the twentieth century was estimated to two millions. But by 1926 the population had been cut in half.

 

 

 

In 1933 the horses were used also for food industry, and 29 610 381 pounds of horse meat was canned.

In 1920 the chicken feed industry paid $ 5.00 for each dead horse. They did not stop using the mustang for chicken feed until 1970. 

 

Later also the pet food industry found an interest in the mustang horse: In 1924 they killed 500 animals per day.

During 1928, 40 000 horses were killed for pet food.

 

Fewer than 17,000 horses remained by the year 1970…

 

 

In 1971 the Congress stated that Mustangs were "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West". They therefore passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.

According to this Act the Mustangs were protected from being killed or harassed on the land of Federal BLM (Bureau of Land Management).

 

During the 1970’s the population grew, and soon they had to regulate the number of animals in order to keep the ecological balance.

In 1973 the program Adopt-a-Horse made it possible for people to adopt the excess horses to avoid them being killed.

 

 

The Mustang horse has contributed to formation of many American breeds such as the Morgan, Quarter Horse, American Saddle Bred, Tennessee Walker, Appaloosa and Buckskin. 

 

The Spanish blood has been diluted over the years by East Friesian, French blood, draught horses and cowboy ponies, but many of the horses still exhibit Spanish characteristics.

They are light horses or warm-blooded type.

Because they are the result of natural selection they are fine riding horses and exceptional in endurance trials.

 

Mustangs come in all sizes, shapes, colours and types of build.
The most common colour seen is sorrel and bay, but any colour is possible. The flashier colours such as Paints, Appaloosas, Palominos, Buckskins and black seem to have been bred out of the breed over the years, but again, it is not uncommon to see these colours.

 

 

Today they try to preserve the remaining wild horse by BLM and organizations such as Wild Horse Research Centre at Porterville, The International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros in Scottsdale, and the North American Wild Horse and Range Systems.

The Mustang today is threatened by fires, drought and illegal shooting, and they are still banished from land of cattle ranchers. On non-federal land they are not protected by the government.

 

The foaling and mortality rates were obtained by a study done by Donald B. Siniff, John R. Tester and Gregory L. McMahon. They studied two different herds in two different areas of Nevada from 1981-1982, using radio transmitters.

 

 

In the area Pah Rah as many as 45% of the mares foaled both years, but the foal mortality rate differed greatly over the two years, from 3 to 33%. In Pine Nut only 10% of the mares foaled in the same period, but they had a more stable mortality rate that ranged from only 10-15%.  The explanation for this variation is unknown; it may be related to food resources.

 

This study shows us that if 69% of the mares were foaling and there were only 2% foal mortality as in Pah Rah in 1982, the population could increase dramatically. But in Pine Nut area the same year the foaling rate was 30% with a foal mortality of 10%. This will results in a much slower population increase.

Such high variability over a small area indicates that caution must be taken in extrapolating demographic data on feral horse herds to large geographic areas or over long time spans.

 

There are about 41,000 wild Mustangs today but many of the herds are too small to stay healthy and free from inbreeding.

 

Experts agree that at the present rate of decline, the Mustang could become extinct by the end of the century!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

ˇ  http://www.horses-store.com/MustangHorse.html

ˇ  http://www.equiworld.net/uk/horsecare/breeds/mustang/index.htm

ˇ  http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/mustang.html#char

ˇ  http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/mustang/

ˇ  http://jrm.library.arizona.edu/data/1986/394/3sini.pdf