The Spanish Mustang

A Short History of the Mustang in America
The horse, as we know it, was not native to the Americas.
There was a prehistoric horse, about the size of a large sheep that had three toes.
When Columbus left for Spain, after his 1492 exploratory voyage, he left a few Spanish
inhabitants on a Caribbean island, now known as Santo Domingo. On his return voyage
of 1494 he left Spain with 34 horses. Twenty of the horses survived the Atlantic
crossing and were left on Santo Domingo.
Spain was serious about conquering the New World.
In 1517 Hernando Cortez landed in Yucatan, Mexico with troops and 16 horses: ten
stallions, five mares, and a six-month-old foal. He re-embarked to Vera Cruz, losing
one or two horses en-route, then conquered Mexico with his men and remaining horses.
Spaniards introduced horses to South America
in 1532. By 1535, there were wild herds roaming the Pampas of Argentina. Juan De
Onate arrived in the area of Santa Fe, N.M., in 1598, with over a thousand horses,
cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, and chickens, plus colonists. Thus was established our
Hispanic Heritage of the Southwest.
The
first horses were small, 13 hands average, but were stocky, with strong legs and
bodies, able to carry heavy loads for long distances. They were easy keepers, which
enabled them to survive the long voyage over the Atlantic and adjust to their new
land. They certainly did adjust. They multiplied and many escaped to run wild, the
many became thousands, then millions.

The Spanish Mustang reached its peak in the
mid-1800’s with an estimated two million. After 1887, the Spanish horse began
to dwindle due to crossbreeding, slaughter, and castration.
As the Spaniard explored, conquered, and laid claim
to most of the Americas, the horse changed forever the lifestyle and culture of Native
Americans and the WILD WEST repute that extends from the Pampas of Argentina to the
vastness of the Great Plains of the United States and Canada to the deserts of the
west. In early days every voyage from Spain to the new world was ordered to carry
breeding animals.
New Mexico was the place
in North America where the horse, the cowboy, and the Wild West began. The role of
the Spanish horse on the cultures and history of the European emigrants is unquestionable.
The Crow, Comanche, Apache, Ute, Sioux, Kiowa,
Navajo, and others began acquiring horses in the 1600’s. Tribes traded and
bartered for horses, some organized raiding parties to steal them. The horses changed
their way of life forever. It established wealth, prestige, and honor. Horses became
the basis of trade for goods, guns, and wives, ETC.
Then
came the horse traders. The first were the Taos Pueblans. The Cayuse Tribe became
such excellent traders that the horse was nicknamed the CAYUSE. The Pawnees became
so adept as horse traders that their horses showed up on the Atlantic seaboard. Patrick
Henry bought several Spanish horses, through this trade routing, when he was governor
of Virginia.
The Nez Perce changed from, a fishing, to a hunting
society within one generation of obtaining horses. They became famed for the quality
and colors of their Appaloosas and Paints. When white settlers stole several hundred
of their horses the Nez Perce revolted. The cavalry came after them and by the time
they were captured they had jus one horse left out of the thousands they had before.
The Spanish horse was known to be ridden for
up to 90 miles without food or water. As a result of this mobility these horses gave
the Native Americans, the government began a campaign to eradicate the breed. The
cavalry was ordered to kill off the horses, but the soldiers, riding Thoroughbreds,
were unable to subdue or capture the more versatile animal. They did take the order
seriously and U.S. troops deliberately killed over a 1000 horses in an attack on
a Kiowa camp in the Texas Panhandle in 1874.
Today the Spanish Horse is almost extinct. They
no longer exist in Spain, and only in a few isolated locations in South and North
America. When located, the horses are few in number, usually less than 10. There
is barely a viable gene pool in all that have been found. Protected by Federal law
in the U.S., in reality they are shot, harassed by ATV’s and horseback riders,
even chased by helicopters and small planes. In some cases the mares are shot to
facilitate easier capture of the foals. Some lucky ones are adopted, many more are
sold for slaughter and human consumption overseas.
Fewer than 17,000 wild horses remained by
1970. In 1971, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to protect
the last of the Mustangs. Sadly, most of these are feral horses, few have Spanish
genes.
It is apparent, with today’s mobility,
these rare horses will not survive, unless they are protected with much more industry
than they have been in the past. |