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The Wild Horses, Part 1: The Mustang
J.L. Orchard, Cinch Magazine

 

Deep in the Pryor Mountains on the boarder of Wyoming and Montana, if you're lucky, you can still see the remnants of the Mustang that once numbered in the millions throughout America. Where herds of 50 to 75 horses once grazed alongside the antelope and the buffalo, eating the rough shoots that cattle turned away and opening the ground for finer green growth. These horses had made it possible for the Whiteman to advance through the New World and had quickly become the prize and hierarchy of the Indian chiefs and warriors. These horses populated much of America, were treasured by the cowboy and were considered by them to be the best cow pony there was.

Considerable evidence has connected the modern Mustang's ancestry to those horses of Spanish blood, brought over by explorers. In 1519 Cortés' voyage to Mexico would have brought some of the first horses that the North American Indians might have seen. The Indians were baffled and amazed by these new creatures. Unsure whether the animals were immortal gods or not, they captured and dissected some of the explorer's mounts, proving to themselves the horses' mortality. With the buffalo still a plentiful food supply, the Indians rarely ate their prized steeds and were quick to learn the art of breaking and riding, and how to obtain more horses. Over time, whether by horses having escaped from the explorers, or stolen by Indians, these horses made it into the lifestyle of the Native American, and from there--into the wild.

But among the white men, the wild mustang's popularity decreased. Accustomed to the elegance of the Andalusian and Arabian horses, the white man could see no use in the scruffy wild ponies.

Despite the ponies' smart-"know how", their sturdiness, and sweet, gentle demeanor, many white men considered them worthless. Horse-traders saw a need to crossbreed in order to obtain any profit from these wild Cayuses (named after the now-extinct Indian tribe, Cayuse, who were known to raise large amounts of horses). In the Southwest horsemen bred fast racehorses to the little wild pony. The outcome was a "good horse" that has become the foundation for today's Quarter Horse. Out West though, horse traders crossed heavy horses such as Clydesdales, Percherons and Normans with the Mustang to create a horse that's hooves were too big and clumsy for any cowboy. Despite the cowboy's having dubbed these cross-breds "Percheron Pudding Foot"s, many newcomers to America could be swayed by horse traders to pay the hefty sum of $50 to $100 dollars a horse, while easily believing that the wild horse was worthless.

The mustang became like a pest to many in America. It disrupted droves of cattle being herded across the range and many stockmen offered the cowboys they employed to herd the cattle $2 for every mustang killed. But despite the horses continual annoyance to the cowboy, the man loved his horse and couldn't be led to kill the ancestors of his own mount.

Before long the stockmen unintentionally stumbled upon a way to finish the mustang themselves. The stockmen, who worked for government organizations that systemized the sale of livestock, and undyingly served the cattle rancher above all others, were to be paid the income of all "maverick" animals sold. Any animal, whether cattle or horse, that did not wear a brand mark was considered a maverick, and in essence, the stockman owned them all. They now owned the wild mustang. No longer considered free-roaming horses, the mustangs could not be protected by law. Mustangers could hunt for their own purposes all unbranded horses on the range 12-months of the year, no license required.

'Twas a beautiful animal … a sorrel, with a jet black mane and tail. [sic] We could see the muscles quiver in his glossy limbs as he moved; and when, half playfully and half in fright, he tossed his flowing mane in the air, and flourished his long silky tail, our admiration knew no bounds, and we longed … hopelessly, vexatiously longed to possess him. Of all the brute creation the horse is the most admired by men. Combining beauty with usefulness, all countries and all ages yield it their admiration. But, though the finest specimen of its kind, a domestic horse will ever lack that magic and indescribable charm that beams like a halo around the simple name of freedom. The wild horse roving the prairie wilderness knows no master … has never felt the whip … never clasped in its teeth the bit to curb its native freedom, but gambols, unmolested over its grassy home where Nature has given it a bountiful supply of provender. Lordly man has never sat upon its back; the spur and the bridle are unknown to it, and when the Spaniard comes on his fleet trained steed, with noose in hand, to ensnare him, he bounds away, over the velvet carpet of the prairie, swift as the arrow of the Indian's bow, or even the lightning darting from the cloud. We might have shot him from where we stood, but had we been starving, we would scarcely have done it. He was free, and we loved him for the very possession of that liberty we longed to take from him … but we could not kill him.'
    -Matt Field's impassioned recollection of seeing a wild mustang along the Santa Fe Trail, 1839.

When pressure mounted on the Indians to raise or lease their pastures for livestock many Indians allowed companies to graze flocks on the reservations. When this was no longer good enough for the livestock companies who argued that the horses on these reserves grazed what should be fed to their sheep, they handed an ultimatum to the Indians, of whose land they were generously leased. In the 1900s when the Crow Indians turned down the Schneider Sheep Company's demand to have the horses removed from the reserve, the livestock company did it themselves. Through hiring automobiles and airplanes, the entire population of wild horses on the Crow's range was killed, all in one day.

Due to mass over-grazing by livestock on the Indian reserves, by the 1930s the land began to erode and the grass stopped growing. Of course this was blamed on the wild horses and in the end, through government subsidized roundups, tens of thousands of mustangs were massacred. 

The Indians on the other hand did not battle through this silently. One spokesman, Paul Bernal of the Pueblo Tribe is quoted as having said, "Only God can take these things from the Indians, and the white man is not God." But in the end, like they had been for generations, the Indians were ignored.

 It seems hard to believe that land once teeming with wildlife could erode so quickly under so few animals. The wild horse herds, like the Indians, once migrated with the seasons to where the food was most plentiful. While they were absent the land where they had grazed could be replenished and when they returned it would be ripe again. What grasses the antelope refused the horses would devour and vice versa. But as the world developed and fences went up, the wild horses' prairie diminished and the foraging cycle they once shared with the buffalo and could have shared in with the cattle and sheep, has been eradicated. The price it took to win the West.

Only 33,000 wild horses remain.

For further reading and resources see America's Last Wild Horses by Hope Ryden, © 1999, The Lyons Press. And the Bureau of Land Management website www.blm.gov.

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