The Feral Mustang Horse

 

Mustang horses are quite familiar to and even beloved by many because of the popularity it gained from representing automobiles and sports teams.  It is apt that this horse is a mascot for such because it exudes freedom, strength and independence.  In fact, the English term for this breed comes from a Spanish word that means stray. This is very fitting since they are the very manifestation of the Spirit of the West.

 

Background

These horses are descendants of the Spanish horse which can further be traced back from the oldest breed of horse, the Iberian.  It was introduced to the New World by the Spanish conquistadors.  These horses are wild and free to roam in areas like in southwestern United States. Despite this fact, this horse cannot be loosely called wild because they have once been domesticated horses.  Therefore, the appropriate term to use to refer to them is feral.  There can only be on purely wild horse on earth and that is the Przewalski’s Horse in Mongolia.

 

During the early stages of the 1990s in the United States, there were more or less 2 million feral horses in the location.  They were mainly caught and tamed only to be sold, slaughtered for pet food, or used as soldier horses.  Although it is not as severe as in the past, this still happens to Mustangs of a particular age.  Today, only about 25,000 of these horses are left and most of them are found in Montana, Nevada and Oregon. There are now breeders from the country and protection acts that protect and preserve this spirited horse.  There are even organizations and agencies that offer adopting services for these horses.

 

Features

The physical features of Mustang Horses are similar to that of Spanish Horses.  Their coats are commonly in bay, black, chestnut, palomino (light tan) or roan.  Although savage and therefore stubborn, these horses are actually intelligent in nature and are able to adapt to human and animal environments.