Want to know more about the American Mustang? Read on for a brief overview of the history of these living legends.
Some purists might argue that the mustang isn’t technically a wild horse but a feral one. For many, the difference in definitions is important, because it determines how much protection the horses deserve. While it’s true that the mustang has domesticated ancestors unlike the legitimately wild Przewalski’s horse, the fact remains that for hundreds of years bands of mustangs have roamed the continent untouched by human hands.
When the Spanish conquistadors made the journey to explore North America, they did not do so alone. They brought their horses with them on the long and often rough voyage across the ocean. Many horses did not survive these trips, but those who did helped found the American Mustang. Inevitably, some of the Spanish horses were traded or escaped from their owners. It was these equines that were the first bands of roaming wild horses.
Just as America became a melting pot for humans, so it was for the mustangs. As more and more people settled in America, the equine gene pool diversified. Ranch horses, draft horses, racehorses who escaped or were deliberately let loose added their own DNA.
Regional Influences
How today’s mustangs look is largely dependent on what their individual ancestry is. Some of the mustangs involved in this challenge are from herds where cavalry horses added a lot of influence; some look like quarter horses, others like draft crosses; still others have the delicate, refined look of a thoroughbred, and a few have nearly pure Spanish heritage.
Just A Cool Kat came from Coppersmith in the northern part of California. Though Kat is often said to look like an Andalusian, this herd of mustangs is thought to be the descendents of cavalry remounts.
Nevada has arguably the greatest number of both mustangs and Herd Management Areas. Both Vayda and Mariah once called Nevada home. Vayda is from a small, secluded band from the Tobin Range, near Winnemucca. Mariah is from Warm Springs in the southern part of the state. Mustangs in this area coexist with the car traffic along the roads near their grazing lands.
Dolce is from the Palomino Buttes region in south central Oregon. This area is named for its high concentration of golden colored -- or palomino -- horses. However, as Dolce illustrates, a variety of coat colors can be found.
Pest
Though they were once admired for their hardiness and free spirits, mustangs eventually came to be thought of as pests. Once, mustangs outnumbered human settlers, but the ranchers and their cattle soon evened the score. Once, men let their horses loose to deliberately cross with the mustangs, but that changed.
More ranchers led to more cattle, which needed more pastures to graze in, which left the mustangs with less room. Naturally, the mustangs continued to roam the areas where they had always lived. Soon, farmers and ranchers alike were putting up barbed-wire fences to keep the mustangs out.
The unclaimed lands were not enough to support the large mustang population. According to The American Mustang Guidebook, in the early 1900’s mustangs were shot and sold to rendering plants for dog food. The next fifty years were the dark ages for the American Mustang.
National Treasures
Then came a woman whose story would become so intertwined with that of the mustangs that she would become irrevocably part of the mustang legend. When people recount the history of the mustang, Velma Johnston, or “Mustang Annie” as she became known, is inevitably mentioned.
One day while driving, as the legend goes, Johnston saw a truck crammed full of half-dead mustangs on their way to slaughter. Johnston saw this as a travesty and campaigned tirelessly to redefine the public’s opinion about wild horses and how they deserved to be treated.
Johnston was instrumental in the passage of a number of laws dealing with mustangs, including the Wild Horse Annie Act, which was adopted in 1959 and prohibited the hunting of mustangs by plane or car on state land. The Wild-Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 followed. The act stipulates that wild horses and burros be “protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death” on public lands. In addition, mustangs were named “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West.”
Modern Day Mustang
Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rounds up mustangs in “gathers” to maintain a balance between herd size and available land. Approximately 12,000 mustangs and burros are gathered each year. These animals then go into various holding facilities around the country to live where the majority will live out their days unless they are adopted, although some may go to privately owned cattle ranches that receive government money to keep mustangs on their lands.
Once the mustangs are rounded up, they are given shots, gelded if needed and freeze branded. This involves taking a rod made extremely cold by liquid nitrogen and applying it to the left side of the mustang’s neck. This process damages the cells in the hair that produce pigment so that the hair grows back white. The mustangs are branded using the alpha angle system. The first symbol shows that the Mustang was registered by the U.S. government. The next two symbols, one above the other, show what year the mustang was born. The last six symbols are that mustang’s identification number.
The gathering process is often controversial, with detractors claiming that humane methods are not used in the round-ups, that some of the horses are sold to “kill buyers” and that the genetic diversity of the mustangs is suffering. The BLM denies such accusations and maintains that not only are round-ups necessary for the ecosystem, but they are as humane as possible.
Recently, the BLM has been looking into other ways to control herd population size. One method is to give the mares an injection that makes them infertile for a period of time but has no lasting effect on their reproductive health. Another recent development is the effort put forth by Madeline Pickens, wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, to create a mustang sanctuary where visitors can view around 1,000 wild mustangs.
In the meantime, the Mustang Heritage Foundation continues to organize several Extreme Mustang Makeover competitions across the U.S. throughout the year. In addition to the event at the Midwest Horse Fair, the Mustang Heritage Foundation co-ordinates the Trainer Incentive Program (TIP) and the Youth and Yearling competition, all with the goal of getting mustangs into new, forever homes.