FAQ

Is the Mustang Really a Wild Horse?

2008-04-24 17:00:00 - by Horsetype

Wild mustangs, Utah (USA) Photo: Jaime Jackson (licence)	Zoom

[ ORIGIN ] The mustang is more a free roaming animal than a wild horse, but this small horse of the American North-West was not always free. It is told that the first ancestors of the mustangs were domesticated horses that escaped, in 1518, from the conquistadors. American Indians would have captured these horses thereafter. However, we also call mustangs, all the horses that ranch owners set free during the hard winters to avoid having to feed them. Some of these horses were captured again in spring, sometimes even by another ranch owner.

Until 1900, the mustangs represent an interesting resource for people. They are captured and sold, often to the army, or captured for their meat to feed the domestic animals. Unfortunately, the mustang population of more than a million decreases quickly after 1900. The mustang is not perceived any more solely like a resource, but also like a nuisance: it competes with the cattle for fodder. It is estimated today that there are from 40.000 to 100.000 mustangs alive, half of them in Nevada. In Canada, a hundred wild mustangs still live in Alberta and British-Colombia.

In theory, the mustang is now protected. It is illegal to kill or poison one. However, in 2005, a program to control the population of mustangs is modified to allow the capture for meat of horses more than 10 years old.

The word mustang comes from Spanish and means wandering. Let us hope that the mustang will wander free for a long time.

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