By: Peggy L. Henderson
Early forms
of wild horses roamed the North American plains for millions of years. Ancenstors
of the modern genus Equus migrated over the Bering Land Bridge into Asia and
Europe, and the horse died out completely in North America about 10,000-12,000
years ago. This may have been due to climate change, or impact from human
hunters.
Horses were re-introduced
to North America by Spanish Conquistdors, starting with Columbus. He imported
horses to the West Indies in 1493. When Cortes reached the mainland in 1519, he brought domesticated
horses with him.
The first
mustangs on the North American plains are descendant from Iberian horses that
were brought to Mexico and Flordia. They were mostly of Andalusian, Barb, and
Arab ancestry. Some of these horses escaped into the wild, or were captured by
Native Americans. From there, they spread quickly throughout the western United
States.
The plains
Indians quickly adopted the horses as a primary means of transportation, and
they replaced dogs to pull travois. By becoming horsemen, the Indians had a
great advantage in warfare with other tribes, used horses in trade, and for
hunting bison.
Some horses
that belonged to ranchers, settlers, and explorers in the 1800’s escaped to mix
their genes with the early Spanish-descended wild horses. Ranchers also
commonly released their stock in winter to forage on their own, and recaptured
them in the spring, which by then usually included a few wild mustangs.
By 1900,
there were an estimated 2 million free-roaming horses in the United States.
This number has been greatly reduced, as horses were being captured by the
military and for slaughter.
In 1971, the
Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed by Congress to protect
certain established wild herds. Mustangs were officially recognized as “living
symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West.” These herds are
managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The feral population is now estimated
at around 33,000 horses and 4700 burros, with more than half of these in
Nevada. The BLM holds annual roundups and adoption of wild Mustangs to
qualified individuals who must meet certain criteria.
Mustangs
have many outstanding characteristics. They tend to have a sensible
disposition, agility, alertness, and hardiness. They range in size from 13.3
hand to 15 hands, and tend to have a very smooth gait, a high endurance level,
and strong hooves. Mustangs that live in colder climates are shaggy and small,
and desert mustangs can survive on remarkably small amounts of food and water.
In my
book, Come Home to Me, Jake Owens, a wagon train scout, rides a
mustang.
Here is a
brief excerpt:
Jake reined in his mare, and patted her on the neck. The
stout little mustang had to be the best trained horse he’d ever sat on. A
subtle shift of his seat backwards, and she stopped. If he leaned forward, she
stepped out. A slight turn of his shoulders in either direction, and her body
followed. At least the reverend had supplied him with a good mount, if nothing
else. He’d almost forgotten the exhilarating feeling of sitting astride a
horse, galloping across open country.
His eyes scanned far off into the distance. Open country was
right. After leaving the Missouri River a few hours ago, the wagon train
made its way west, first through sandy marshlands as they moved away from the
river and onto the uneven, rolling hills they entered now. In the distance, the
hills blended into steeply ridged sandy bluffs. Tall grasses swayed in tune
with the wind as far as the eye could see. At least there was food here for the
livestock. That might not be the case the further west they traveled.
Details about the wagon trains along the Oregon Trail,
information he’d thought long forgotten from many history classes, seemed to
come back to him now as if someone had implanted a computer chip in his brain.
This land was foreign to him, but he hoped to get a better feel for it once
they entered more familiar territory further west in Wyoming, or what would
someday be Wyoming.
Judging by the map the reverend had given him, Jake
guessed they were within an hour from a water source called Papillion Creek.
Hopefully, the wagon master would agree to stop there for the night. They
hadn’t covered much ground today, and after what happened earlier, Frank Wilson
was not going to be his buddy on this trip. Jake wanted to get to Oregon as
fast as possible, too, probably faster than the wagon master, but he couldn’t
afford to be careless. The reverend had made it pretty clear that the safety of
these people rested on Jake’s shoulders. He ran his hand through his hair.
Dried grit and sand scraped against his scalp from the muddy Missouri.
Getting all the wagons across the wide river had been
an exhausting undertaking. Jake absently rotated his shoulders, the muscles in
his arms sore and tight. They hadn’t lost any cattle as near as he could tell
during the crossing. Three men had volunteered to help him get the cattle and
mules through the river. Two of the men were bachelors, without families to
worry about.
Elijah Edwards heartily shook his hand once the entire train
was safely across the river and the mules and oxen were hitched to their
wagons. Beaming brightly, he had slapped Jake on the back, congratulating him
on a job well done, and that he had great confidence that this trek to Oregon
would go off without any trouble. He had invited Jake to eat supper at his
wagon that night. His wife, Harriet Edwards, had shot her husband a look of
outrage. Just to irritate the woman further, Jake wanted to accept the
invitation, but he wasn’t going to stand up Rachel a second time.
5 comments:
Mustangs are a hardy breed. But unfortunately there is becoming too much inbreeding because of the numbers and they are causing problems because with ranchers. The government not allowing wranglers to round them up has hurt the breed more than helped it. Before the government stepped in, the wranglers kept the population down to manageable numbers. What the government allows doesn't get enough of the horses off the range. And the hoops people have to go through to adopt is ridiculous.
Nice excerpt.
Agreed, Paty. And that's a whole 'nother blog topic.
Thanks, Peggy. I realized I didn't include enough info in my WIP about the hero's horse. Good insight into a character.
Great article, Peggy. I'll be interested in that other blog too.
Awesome info on the mustang. Love all the details in your excerpt.
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