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For more information about the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program, please call (866) 4MUSTANGS or Click HERE

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America’s Heritage: Wild Horses Also See: Wild Horses as Native_North American Wildlife Click here for Nevada BLM'S "MUSTANG COUNTRY" booklet - chock full of info for mustang buffs, including wild horse history, visitor tips and camping info. Did you know that horses originated in North America?

A SHORT HISTORY OF HORSES IN AMERICA

"If I had more time, I would have written less" - Mark Twain

MAIN TOPICS ON THIS PAGE:

• PREHISTORY OF THE HORSE

• THE GENUS EQUUS

• HORSE HARDWIRING

• HORSES RETURN TO AMERICA

• HORSE HISTORY BY THE NON-WINNERS

• WILD HERD ORIGINS & SPREAD

• THE WILD HORSE AS AN ECONOMIC RESOURCE

• THE WILD HORSE PROTECTION MOVEMENT

• MODERN-DAY WILD HORSES

• WILD HORSES AS NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES

PRE-HISTORY OF THE HORSE:

North America was the original home of the horse species. They evolved here, and thrived here for over 57 million years. The plant and animal communities of North American ecology evolved with horses playing an integral role. About 8,000 - 10,000 years ago they are believed to have become extinct in the land of their origin, although luckily by that time they had migrated to Asia, where they spread into Europe and North Africa.

The picture above is a pictograph discovered in Anubis Cave Number Two in Colorado along with Ogam inscriptions and is taken from the book In Plain Sight Old World Records in Ancient America, by Gloria Farley 1994		Here are some examples of cave drawings  (left and below) found in the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin areas of the United States, showing people riding horses a long time ago. What we don't know is exactly how old these drawings are.
		Arches National Park, Utah	Canyonlands National Park, Utah
		Lona Patton sent me this photo (left, with detail above) of a cave pictograph located in a remote area of Wyoming.
It was long believed that the pre-extinction American horse was a more primitive form and not the true horse of today, perhaps closer to Eohippus (a 5-toed progenitor of the horse) than Equus Caballus. But that changed in September of 1993, when some placer miners in the Yukon uncovered a horse and paleontologists were called in. Well preserved in the permafrost layer, the  brownish red horse didn't look different from any other horse that had died and been buried in the mud. In fact, when archeologist Ruth Gotthardt went to investigate, she first thought the carcass might be the remains of a horse that had died during the Yukon Gold Rush about 100 years before. Even the stomach contents were still in the gut, and the flaxen mane hung over the neck of the hide covered skeleton. Nevertheless, she sent the carcass to Dr. Richard Harington, a paleontologist and Curator of Quaternary Zoology at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, and a bone sample to Miami for radiocarbon dating.  Analysis revealed it was about 25,000 years old! proving that the horse is a true native species. At first it was declared an extinct species, Equus lambeii, but DNA analysis (not to mention the obvious physical resemblance) proved it to be in all respects the same as the modern horse, equus caballus. Here are some more links about it:

• The Yukon Horse  (scroll down to "Yukon Horse")
• America's Gift to the World
• "Hoofprints" - Natural History Magazine
• http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0030241
• WILD HORSES AS NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES
• ABORIGINAL NORTH AMERICAN HORSE?

THE SEVEN LIVING SPECIES OF THE EQUUS FAMILY During the Pleistocene Era, there were more than 50 species of equids in the Americas. Now there are, worldwide, only 7 (or 8, depending on how you classify Przewalski's. Some consider it a separate species, others say it is a subspecies of equus caballus)
Przewalski's Horse or Takhi www.takhi.org/cms/index.php Some hold Przewalski's to be a separate species from the domestic horse (Equus Caballus), the last remnant of the wild horse Equus ferus, others hold it is a subspecies of Equus caballus. Although the Przewalski's horse has 66 chromosomes, compared to 64 in a domestic horse, the Przewalski's horse and the domestic horse are the only equids that cross-breed and produce fertile offspring, possessing 65 chromosomes.[3] "The Przewalski horse can be crossed successfully with the domestic horse, producing offspring with 65 chromosomes. Unlike the offspring of a domestic horse and an animal such as a donkey or zebra, the offspring of a Przewalski/domestic horse is not sterile and can be crossed back to either species. If the offspring is crossed back to a domestic horse, the resulting animal will have 64 chromosomes and very few Przewalski characteristics." - WIKIPEDIA		Family Equidae "Equus"     Equus asinus: African wild ass     Equus burchellii: Plains zebra, Burchell's zebra     Equus caballus: Takhi, Przewalski's wild horse, & modern domestic horse     Equus grevyi: Grevy's zebra     Equus hemionus: Asiatic wild ass, kulan     Equus kiang: Kiang, Tibetan wild ass     Equus quagga Quagga     Equus zebra: Mountain zebra
		Modern Horse Equus Caballus
African Wild Ass		Nubian Wild Ass - as a Wild animal The progenitor of all modern donkeys, including the Burro of the western states and Mexico. It was first domesticated about 6000 years ago. The Nubian Wild Ass is most likely extinct in the wild since the 1950's. However, the IUCN Red List [1] still mentions it as critically endangered.  - Wikipedia
Tibetan Kiang		Asiatic wild ass/Onager
Grevy's zebra                           Mountain zebra                              Plains Zebra Zebras are horse or donkey-like animals with stripes. They are social animals and live in small harems or large herds. Zebras were the second modern equid to diverge from the earliest proto-horses, after the asses, around 4 million years ago. Grevy's zebra is believed to have been the first zebra species. The three existing zebra species differ to the human eye primarily in ear shape and stripe pattern. To each other, they differ in more fundamental ways. Although their territories overlap, they do not interbreed in the wild. In captivity, Plains Zebras have been successfully crossed with Mountain zebras. Attempts to breed a Grevy's zebra stallion to Mountain Zebra mares resulted in a high rate of miscarriage. In captivity, crosses between zebras and other (non-zebra) equines have produced several distinct hybrids, including the zebroid, zeedonk, zony, and zorse. Although it is popular currently to own a zebra and try to tame it, zebras resist domestication and so far have never been succesfully domesticated. (much of this is drawn from Wikipedia)
EQUUS SPECIES THAT HAVE BECOME EXTINCT WITHIN THE PAST 150 YEARS
Tarpan This is the only known photo of a live Tarpan, ''Equus ferus ferus''. This Tarpan stallion was caught in 1866 and purchased by the zoo of Moscow. Some dispute if it was a true Tarpan, due to the length of the mane. It is now thought that the domesticated horse, named Equus caballus by Linnaeus in 1758, is descended from the Tarpan; Many taxonomists consider them to belong to the same species. - Wikipedia		Quagga mare in London Zoo in 1870 Quagga The Quagga was native to desert areas of the African continent until it was exterminated in the wild in the 1870s. The last captive Quaggas died in Europe in the 1880s. The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied. Recent genetic research at the Smithsonian Institution has demonstrated that the Quagga was in fact not a separate species at all, but diverged from the extremely variable Plains Zebra, Equus burchelli, between 120,000 and 290,000 years ago, and suggests that it should be named Equus burchelli quagga. - Wikipedia

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THE NATURE OF HORSES, RELATING TO THEIR ABILITY TO BE DOMESTICATED:

Most species of animals lack the "hard-wiring" in their brains and nervous systems to become domesticated, despite humans' best efforts.

Throughout Human history, people have tried to domesticate almost every known species. Only a handful have made the successful transition to domesticity.

What do these successfully-domesticated species have in common?

• They are social animals, living in organized herds, packs, schools, etc, with leadership

• They are verstaile, able to live in a variety of habitats ans able to digest a variety of foodstuffs

The horse was able to be domesticated, due to its innate hard-wiring to accept leadership, and to live in a social unit, as well as its ability to adapt to a wide range of climatic and ecological conditions. It became valued for other purposes than a food source due to its size, non-predatory nature (not too many people want to ride a bear or mountain lion), and anatomical features that made it ride-able, plus its unique diegstive system, that allows it to eat fibrous foods and still "eat and run" (unlike the ruminants, who must take time to chew their cud).

Horses have anatomical features that people have been able to use to their advantage, such as the naturally occurring gap between front and back teeth, allowing placement of a bit for communication and direction. Their digestive system allows them to derive nutrition from poor-quality grasses and forage that other animals cannot digest. Ruminants can also digest fiber, but ruminants must stop, sit, and chew their cuds for hours in order to do break down the fiber. Horses can eat and run, which became useful to people who used horses for transportation.

The horse, along with the cat and perhaps the pig and parrot, is one of an even smaller handful of species that does equally well in domestic and wild situations, and in a wide variety of climates. It can live happily dependent upon human care, or it can sometimes shrug us off and live on its own in the wild.

Horses are also generalists, which makes them able to survive in changing conditions. Although strict vegetarians, they can eat a wide variety of plants, and their ability to derive nourishment from even rough, poor-quality fibrous foods such as desert grasses gives them an edge when things get tough. They can also thrive i a wide range of climate types, from hot dry desert to cold, wet Northern climates.

Emigrating out of North America, the horse spread across Asia, Europe, and Northern Africa. For many pre-historic people throughout Asia, Europe and Northern Africa, horses were first a prey species hunted for meat.

Somewhere along the line a wide-ranging variety of human cultures in various parts of the world and different time periods, discovered that the horse had talents and usefulness far beyond "what's for dinner", and the horse became one of the most valuable of all species.

"The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was the single most successful act of resistance by Native Americans against a European invader. It established Indian independence in the pueblos for more than a decade, and even after Spanish domination was re-imposed, it forced the imperial authorities to observe religious tolerance." - http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-009b/summary/index.asp

The Revolt, in addition to driving the Spaniards from the Santa Fe-Albuquerque region for more than a decade, also provided the Pueblo Indians with several thousand horses. Almost immediately, they started breeding larger herds, with the intention of selling horses to the Apache and Comanche Indians.

The widespread use of the horse revolutionized Indian life. While mounted Indians found that buffalo were much easier to kill, some tribes – such as the Comanche – met with great success when they used the horse for warfare.
http://www.latinola.com/story.php?story=2093

See Mustang Origins Chart

See also: WIDESPREAD ORIGINS OF THE DOMESTIC HORSE

From 1680 to 1740, horses spread across the West, although historical records indicate that some of today's most prominent wild horse areas (such as much of Nevada's Great Basin) were not established until the mid-1800's. Or, at least, there is no historical record of horses being seen there.

By the mid-1740's the Native American Horsemen cultures were in full bloom. Many Native people dispute this theory, saying that they always had horses. See "History is written by the Winners," above) If this could ever be proven, it could greatly improve the wild horse's legal status among wildlife in America.

Granted, people are highly adaptable, and when something new comes onto the scene - let's say, for example, electricity, the internal combustion engine, the computer or the airplane - life can change rapidly. Still, it does seem remarkable that Native people could have developed such a widespread and highly skilled horse culture in just 60 years!

The American West at that time was somewhat less a desert than it is now. Gradual climatic change, combined with severe overgrazing by cattle and sheep throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, have permanently altered the arid Western ecosystems. Much of the land that is now desert was originally a short grass prairie, supporting large bison and pronghorn herds, and the horses found it most easy and natural to join them on their ancestral grounds. 

For the next 700 years, the wild horse herds became the haven for horses escaped from or abandoned by trappers, explorers, pioneers, miners, and ranchers.

When the Native Americans were subjugated and forced into reservations, thousands of their wonderful "Indian Ponies" were released into the wilderness.

THE WILD HORSE AS AN ECONOMIC RESOURCE TO EXPLOIT: Mid- 800's through mid-1900's:

CAVALRY REMOUNTS: During the Civil War through the World War I era, the US Cavalry released Morgan, Arabian, and Thoroughbred stallions into the wild herds, and then "harvested" some (but not all - the remaining ones are the ancestors of today's wild horse herds in many areas) of the offspring to use as Cavalry Remounts. Such foreign wars were the source of considerable profit for many Great Basin ranchers, who managed the wild herds for their own purposes and harvested the wild and semi-wild horses roaming near their ranches and sold them, during such times, at a hefty profit.

"In 1899 the Boer War in South Africa and later the Spanish-American War created a large demand for military mounts. Many wild horses were rounded up and shipped overseas.

During World War I, ranchers such as Harry Wilson went into business with the federal government raising horses for the Army. Wilson provided Standardbred mares acquired from the Miller and Lux ranches and the government furnished Thoroughbred studs.

Over 1,700 head of Wilson horses ran from High Rock Canyon north to the Oregon border, including all of the present day Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge." (from "MUSTANG COUNTRY)

An estimated 1 million captured and "broken" mustangs went to Europe and Africa during the later years of the Nineteenth Century and first half of the 20th Century, to fight various causes - usually European, occasionally American. None returned.

http://www.militaryhorse.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1995
Paul Scholtz photo of WWI-era Cavalry rider and horse in France

"Many of the wild horse herds originated as the result of large numbers of horses being imported into the area (Northwest Nevada) for the purpose of starting herds of high quality stock.

One of the earliest horse operations in northwest Nevada was in the Smoke Creek Desert. Reportedly, 500 head of Spanish-Barb horses were purchased for 50 cents a head in San Diego, trailed north to the Smoke Creek Desert and released in the early 1860s.

Ranchers and settlers also turned draft and saddle horses loose on the open range to pasture, gathering them as the need arose. Other horses escaped, were abandoned or were set loose when hard times made feed unaffordable. These horses commonly became referred to as "wild" horses or mustangs. Once the wild herds were established, it was common practice for ranchers to release high-grade stock to improve the quality of the herds." (from "MUSTANG COUNTRY)

WORKING RANCH STOCK: Ranchers living in unfenced rangelands typically allowed their ranch stock to run freely when not being used for ranch work. Most ranchers made use of the wild herds as an important resource, providing new ranch stock as needed. Since the original Spanish horses were the result of hundreds of years of selective breeding for ranch work in Spain, most of these horses were by nature "cowy" and adapted well to ranch work. Ranchers often took pride in importing stallions of top European bloodlines, and releasing them into their local wild herds, to "improve" the herds - usually for adding size, as the "Indian Ponies" and Spanish horses tended to be small for the tall Anglo Americans.

In today's urban world, we lose sight of the fact that horses are hard-wired by nature to accept human leadership. The old-timers knew this, and catching and "breaking" wild horses for ranch work was a daily fact of life - not the big deal we think it is today.

Regionally, wild herds today bear the unmistakable marks of both their original Spanish ancestors and the domestic breeds added to them. Some herds carry the genes of carriage horses, trotting and pacing horses, heavy Percherons and Shires and Belgian draft horses, the American Standardbred, etc. Others type similar to Thoroughbreds or Quarter Horses, still others show Morgan or Shire ancestry. 

SEE GALLERY OF HERD MANAGEMENT AREAS

DECLINE OF HORSE POWER: The coming of the automobile and motorized tractor, as well as the Depression era of this century resulted in many unwanted horses, particularly drafts and carriage horses, but also saddle horses, being abandoned from farms and ranches. Many, Many horses that were no longer needed went to slaughter during this historical period. But if a rancher had access to open space, he often opted to simply release the stock onto the range, to fend for themselves.

PET FOOD: Up until the 1970’s, wild horses were frequently slaughtered for pet food. The capture and slaughter processes were particularly cruel (The Marilyn Monroe flick "The Misfits" has some fairly accurate depictions of the process of "mustanging.") and numbers were decreasing toward a second extinction.

Here's an article from TIME magazine in 1939: Wild Horse Round-Up Monday, Feb. 20, 1939 Tens of thousands of "mustangs" and "fuzztails" — the wild descendants of horses that, have strayed from ranches — used to roam the vast sagebrush ranges of the U. S. Northwest. In wilder days, wild horse roundups were carried on periodically for the Portland, Ore. firm of Schlesser Bros., then the world's biggest packers of horsemeat. In five years (1925-30) the Schlessers slaughtered some 300,000 head of outlaws, salted their meat in 51 -gallon barrels, shipped most of it to Holland and Scandinavia. Hooves, ears, tails were sold for glue and oil; ground bones and scraps for chickenfeed ; hides for baseballs and shoes ; blood for fertilizer; casings for German sausage. Then the day of the wild horse began to wane, and the Schlessers turned to packing beef. As winter last week finally settled over the "horse heaven" country of central Washington, the weather-wise Yakima Indians had already finished their first wild horse round-up of the year, thus reducing by 200 the estimated 2,500 outlaws still remaining in Oregon and Washington. Whooping like their warrior ancestors, the Indians rode their own cayuses in hot pur suit of the outlaws, chased them out of deep canyons into trap corrals, where long fences led them into bottlenecks. Cattlemen and the U. S. Government have two principal reasons for desiring a clean-up of the remaining wild horses: it will save the range for livestock, remove the menace of the dread dourine (genital) diseases often found in wild horses. - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,760780,00.html

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THE WILD HORSE PROTECTION MOVEMENT INTERVENES

Tired of the cruelty and concerned about the possibility of wild horse extinction, Velma Johnson, aka "Wild Horse Annie" led a campaign of public awareness, and persuaded Congress to pass the Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act. Under the provisions of this law, wild horses and burros may not be captured for slaughter. Instead, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) is charged with protecting and managing the wild herds.

"In 1971, Congress introduced and passed The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. President Richard M. Nixon signed the new Act into law (Public Law 92-195) on December 15, 1971. The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act required the protection, management and control of wild free-roaming horses and burros. Local livestock operators now had to claim and permit their private horses and burros grazing on public lands or lose ownership of them. After a specified time period following passage of the Act, any remaining unbranded and unclaimed herds inhabiting BLM or Forest Service lands were declared "wild free-roaming horses and burros" and became the property of the federal government."  (from "MUSTANG COUNTRY)

Today most wild horse herds are restricted to far Northeast California, Eastern Oregon, Idaho, one small area of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. There are also a few isolated herds on the Eastern Seaboard islands, as well as a few pockets here and there in the Dakotas and the South. These last mentioned herds are not part of the BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program - just the ones in the western states.

Today’s wild horses are a true American Melting Pot of horses, and with the help of Natural Selection, they are intelligent, sound-minded, sure-footed, and strong. Mustangs normally have excellent feet that often do not require shoes, and strong, hardy constitutions. Having had the benefit of life within a functional natural social unit, they are well-socialized and savvy.

Once they overcome their natural fear of people, they can be trained to ride, drive, and perform, just like any other horse.

To maintain herd levels at numbers that are acceptable to local ranchers and hunters of the game that lives on the same lands, and to keep the herds from overpopulating the BLM periodically rounds up wild horses. After branding, worming, and being given their vaccinations, the captured wild horses are available at BLM Wild Horse Facilities for adoption for $125 each to whoever can provide a proper home and care for them.