Our Breeding Program & Goals

Interest in the original American Horse started for Sandra Claypool, founder of Monero Mustangs, when her family acquired, quite by accident, the last two wild horses in the Virgin Islands. There would be no more, for both were stallions, and both were gelded at capture. One horse was donated to the Virgin Islands National Park, the other kept by her family who lived on the island of St. John. Her little brother named him “Charley” and the natives quickly dubbed him “Charley-Horse”. It was in the Caribbean that the horse, as we know it, came to the Americas. Columbus, on his second voyage, left 20 horses on what is now the island of Santo Domingo. The Caribbean is one of the bases where it all started for the horse in the new world.

When Don Juan de Onate, in 1598, brought colonists to the new world, (New Mexico in the young United States), he had over 1000 horses. He settled these colonists up and down the Rio Grande and made Santa Fe the capital of Nuevo Mexico. This Rio Grande Valley is where the horse as we know it today first came back into our nation and the west.

Now, in the mountains out of El Rito, New Mexico, there is a pocket of wild horses in an area known as Lajarita Mesa. U. S. Forest Service set aside this region as a wild horse territory in the 1970’s. They are now finally protected, but for a quarter century, when they should have been protected, they were in reality, chased and captured often in very inhumane ways. Many were sold for slaughter, often for human consumption overseas. A viable gene pool no longer exists in the wild, A few of these horses have been rescued, most of these are held by Monero Mustangs in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, not far from where the horse was first brought into our country.

The principal purpose of Monero Mustangs is to reproduce as genetically pure descendents of the horse as possible, as it appeared at the time the Spaniards, under Cortez, invaded and conquered Mexico, and the horse that Onate brought to New Mexico. The same horse revered by the Native Americans, after this horse made them mobile. The same horse that rapidly spread through out the country, and was instrumental in creating our wild west culture.

Research is in progress to establish guidelines in identifying the breed. Excavations for horse bones in historic sites, and confirmation by carbon dating, has established a DNA base. While DNA is of top priority, the visual aspect, (confirmation, size, color, even disposition, etc.), is also a major part in identifying these horses. There are descriptions in old journals and records. Artists capturing lifestyles of western Native Americans in the early 19th century left us a priceless legacy of the horse of the time, this before the horse was diluted by cross-breeding. Gatlin and Bodmin, especially, left some remarkable portraits of mustangs, even the curly-haired ones. Accuracy is taking the combined researches of many scholars and institutions.

Onate and his successors kept a tight rein of containment on the horse as they subdued the pueblos along the Rio Grande. Few horses escaped the Spanish vigilance. This was changed by the Pueblo uprising in 1680. The horse was set free. Within two decades Toas, New Mexico, was the horse trading capital of North America.

Monero Mustangs believes that El Rito horses are true descendents of Onate’s introduction, and has been working hard on researching this. We know that the gene pool is very weak, that we have to strengthen this , and yet still maintain the unique qualities of this distinctly Spanish horse. Visual qualifications come first, then DNA, and also included is doing research on the background and history of the area they come from. All this is needed for final determination of breeding. At this time Monero Mustangs has thirty horses in the project. A board member has several more in private ownership. More horses will need to be added to strengthen and make a more viable gene pool.

Monero Mustangs members consist  of one Native American, one Hispanic, one Anglo/Native American, and two Anglo/Hispanics. This was not planned, but each member came aboard because of their interest in keeping these horses and their history going. With the history of these horses, it is wonderful to have descendents of different ethnicity’s whose cultures were so involved with these horses, now involved in preserving some of the few that are left.