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| American Mustang |
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Show white on forehead, more than below |
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The word "Mustang" describes all feral horses in the
United States. The American Mustang is found in the southwest and
descends from Spanish-bred horses. They come in all
sizes, shapes, colors and types of build. Average size is 14.2 hands
but it is not uncommon to see one as short as 13 hands or as tall as
16 hands. The most common color seen is sorrel and bay, but any
color is possible. The flashier colors such as Paints, Appalossas,
Palominos, B |
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Between 1600 and 1850, mass herds of
mustangs ranged from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
Their number was constantly added to by domesticated horses that
escaped their owners or were turned loose. Native Americans, who had
been introduced to the horse in Spanish frontier settlements,
learned to break and ride the wild horses. By the late eighteenth
century, these horses formed the basis of the Plains Indians'
warrior and buffalo-hunting cultures.
As settlements increased, grazing land
became smaller. The wild herds were primarily controlled by
ranchers and “Mustangers.” Mustangers hunted or gathered the wild
horses for sale to bronco strings or ranchers. Some wild horses
were hunted, killed and sold in large masses for the manufacturing
of pet food.
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.The word "Mustang" comes from the Spanish
word, mesteno, meaning "stray or ownerless" horse. This term
aptly describes all wild horses in the United States.
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| free-roaming
horse
of the
North American west, descended primarily from horses brought to
the Americas by the Spanish
conquistadores. Because of the image of the wild horse of the
west as possessing hardiness, grace, speed, and independence, the
name "Mustang" is popular for high-performance products and for
sports
mascots. The English word "mustang" comes from the
Mexican Spanish word mestengo, which was derived from the
Spanish mesteño, meaning "stray" or "feral animal". The
Spanish word in turn has its origin in the
Medieval Latin word mixta, from the old
Latin
mixtus, past participle of miscere, "to mix". This
derivation indicates one of the essential characteristics attributed
to escaped domestic animals, including mustang horses: their
propensity to breed without regard to the careful rules of
pastoralists and ranchers.
In 1971, the
United States Congress recognized Mustangs as “living symbols of
the historic and pioneer spirit of the West [...] that [...]
contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and
enrich the lives of the American people.”
Mustangs are often referred to as "wild horses" in the press and
in daily usage. However, because all free-roaming horses in America
descended from horses that were originally domesticated, the proper
term is
feral horses.
[1] Today, the only true
wild horse is the
Przewalski's Horse, native to
Asia.
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| Tens of thousands of the Spanish-bred horses
were herded to the Rio Grande and turned loose in a 200-year period.
These horses soon met up with draft horses and cowboy ponies that
escaped from the ranchers and farmers arriving from the East. Their
numbers exceeded two million by the year 1900. Ranchers took to
killing these horses to protect the range-land for their cattle.
Fewer than 17,000 horses remained by the year 1970. Stating that
Mustangs were "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of
the West," Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act
in 1971. An estimated 41,000 Mustangs roam public range today, but
few if any have much original Spanish blood.
Mustangs come in all sizes, shapes, colors
and types of build. Average size is 14.2 hands but it is not
uncommon to see one as short as 13 hands or as tall as 16 hands. The
most common color seen is sorrel and bay, but any color is possible.
The flashier colors such as Paints, Appalossas, Palominos, Buckskins
and black seem to have been bred out of the breed over the years,
but again, it is not uncommon to see those colors. |
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