MUSTANGS

Where can you find mustangs? 1. Canada 2. United States America 3. Australia

Walking 4 MPH, Trot 8– 12 MPH, Canter 12 – 15 MPH, Gallop 25 – 30 MPHSpeed

ProblemsWolves and coyotes do not have the size and strength to attack and kill a healthy, full-grown horse. Mountain lions and black bear are the only predators capable of bringing down a wild horse. But they cannot match their speed. Nevertheless, these predators will keep watch at the fringes of a herd, awaiting an aged or injured horse or a weak foal. Predators can pose a serious threat to the long-term survival of the band if they repeatedly prey on the newborn and weakened foals.

Herding and speed help the wild horse escape from predators. Their main protective instinct is flight. Sure-footed and fleet, they spend the majority of their waking hours grazing, searching for food, or traveling to water. In good times and bad, the band wanders over vast acreage in search of food. The constant travel by wild horses, often over hard and rocky terrain, keeps them strong and any older and infirm horses. Weak horses perish because of this constant travel. Another benefit of this constant travel is that it naturally keeps their hooves trimmed.

Life style

Size

Stallions can reach 15 hands and weigh up to 1,000 pounds. However, the average wild horse is 13 to 14.2 hands high.Weight varies with height, but most are around 700 to 800 pounds. Quarter Horse type, another area may have wild horses with the characteristics of a Thoroughbred, Standard, draft, Morgan, Arabian, or true Mustang type.

The wild appaloosa has descended from spotted Spanish horses that were further developed by the Nez Perce. Many herds also include horses of palomino coloring, a breed also originating from Spain. Wild paints, also known as pintos, are also common. Paints were a favorite mount of the Plains Indians because of their natural camouflage coloring. About half of all wild horses are reddish brown in color. Others are grey, black, white, greyish-brown , and palomino colored. The final word, wild horses come in all colors. Quarter Horse type, another area may have wild horses with the characteristics of a Thoroughbred, Standard, draft, Morgan, Arabian, or true Mustang type.

Characteristics

Wild horses eat grass or roughage and drink water from seeps, springs, streams, or lakes. Adults eat about 5 to 6 pounds of plant food each day. Wild horses are able to process dry and course grasses and other vegetation. When grass is scant, they well eat anything that grows; leaves, goose bushes, young twigs, even tree bark. They drink twice a day and also seek out needed mineral salt deposits.

Food

Wild horses lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the vast semiarid reaches of the West. They may roam over a few to several hundred, even a thousand or more, square miles, depending on the lushness of vegetation and the availability of water and shelter. They do not camp at their watering sites as do cattle and sheep, probably due to a survival instinct. Historically, wild horses have been removed, displaced from more productive rangelands with good water. Moreover, western lands continued to deteriorate because of overgrazing by cattle. Today, the habitat of most wild horses are public lands. In the west, these are desert scrublands with low rainfall and few water sources.

Habitat

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Mustang

Pryor Mountain herd in Montana

This has Colonial Spanish American heritage. This tough little horse, derived from the horses of Portugal and Spain, has been present in this rugged mountain area for nearly 200 years.

Over the last two weeks to round up horses of the Pryor Mountain herd in Montana. Their goal was to round up most of the 188 horses in the area, and to remove all of the 39 horses outside the horse range, living in Custer National Park, as well as 31 additional horses. I have followed this herd for 6 years photographing them 2 – 3 times a year.

The Sulphur Herd in Utah

Western Utah's Mountain Home Range. This wild horse became known as the "Sulphur Springs Mustang", as around the Sulphur Springs is where these horses can be found. There is a harsh, mountainous environment with pine forests, steep hillsides, rough country, and although grazing has been improved over the last decade or so, it still takes a very tough horse to survive in those mountains. The Sulphur Springs mustang has great stamina.

Kiger herd in OregonThe Kiger Mustang found on Steen's Mountain in southeastern Oregon. The Kiger Mustangs possess many characteristics of the original Spanish Mustang.

The Spanish Mustang was a part of early American history, having roots in Native American history, and is the horse that helped settle the west. At one time it was thought to be extinct on the range.

Kiger Mustangs have the physical conformation of oriental hot-blooded horses from which the original Spanish Mustangs. They are indeed a unique breed of wild horse.

Cerbat/Marble Canyon herd in ArizonaThe Spanish Mustang is a recognized breed of horse. In current times, only a small group from the Cerbat (Marble Canyon area near Kingman, AZ).

The 30,760-acre Mount Tipton Wilderness is located in Mohave County, 25 miles north of Kingman, Arizona. Cerbat Mountains. Although Mount Tipton Peak, at 7,148 feet. The terrain in Mt. Tipton is extremely rugged. Water is relatively scarce in this part of the Cerbat Mountains. Following rainy weather, pothole water is available, but can dry up quickly.The summer climate in this area is harsh, with temperatures in the daytime often exceeding 100 degrees. Temperatures are more moderate between October and April. During winter months it can be quite cold and snow is possible at the higher elevations.

In Western Canada, settlement occurred later so horse populations once numbered in the millions. Also, there is clear evidence of horses until 12,000 years ago with isolated finds. Evidence shows that in 1776, herds of mustangs were kept in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. By 1790, Alberta tribes had acquired mustangs from Shoshoni and under two decades later, there were extensive herds in the Kootenai's, estimated at two million in total! Wild herds served as stock for Natives. There are four main herds of horses in Canada today: Sable Island in Nova Scotia, two herds in B.C.’s Brittany Triangle (Chilcotin), and one in the Siffleur Wilderness Area in Alberta. Herds in both B.C. and Alberta have shown evidence of Spanish blood, possibly from the “Spanish mustang trail” that came from Mexico up to the Canadian prairies.

Canadian Mustangs

Sable Island in Nova ScotiaThey descend from domestic horses who came to the Island in the late 1700s. The horses became wild and crossed with other horses which came in the 1800s and early 1900s. Today we surely know, that the bishop of Boston tried to settle down on Sable Island in 1738 and due to this he brought cattle and horses with him. His efforts failed: the cattle were stolen by the fisher and the horses ran away – and became the Sable Island wild horses.According to this until today nobody can define the origin of the horses. Wild horses like for example the Przewalkski Horse in Mongolia.

Two herds in B.C.’s Brittany Triangle Chilcotin

The Brittany Triangle itself is approximately 155,000 hectares, a visually stunning ecosystem pine forest extensively dotted with small lakes, streams and associated with spruce and aspen groves. And of course there are the horses! Wild horses in western Canada are found primarily in forested areas, typically lodge pole pine woodlands interspersed with pockets of dry grassland, shrub-land and sedge meadows, where they feed on a variety of grasses and sedges throughout the year. Most herds consist of 5-10 animals, although smaller and larger groups also occur. Horses are non-territorial, and home ranges of several herds may overlap. Although populations may increase under favorable conditions, high mortality rates due to starvation and to predation by cougars and wolves during severe winters are probably limiting factors. Since these horses arrived before European contact in the region, their origin was most likely from the Spanish stock which provided mounts for the plains Indians over 400 years ago. This was the most likely source of horses at that time. Given there have been wild horses in the Chilcotin District for 200 years, we have no reason to think they have not been in the Brittany Triangle just as long.

The Siffleur Wilderness Area in AlbertaIt is thought by historians that horses disappeared from the North American continent 8000 years ago. Some recent archaeological finds show that they might have still been here as little as 2000 years ago. However, before the incursion of the white man horses were extinct throughout the Americas. The first horses reintroduced, arrived with Columbus in 1493. As the Spaniards continued to explore and claim territory the range of the horse began to expand. The natives, then began to acquire these horses. Some of the horses escaped from the Conquistadors, some were stolen and others taken in battle. By the late 1500 hundreds horse had started to become an intricate part of the Plains Indian life. Around 1630 the first horse was brought back into what is now Alberta by the Blackfoot Indians. Through wars with other bands, these horses began to roam free throughout the prairies in ever increasing numbers. The Cree, from the foothills and north, the Kotenai, from south-eastern British Columbia also began to obtain horses through raids on the Blackfoot or capture of the wild horses. By the 1800 hundreds horses were a common sight and important part of the Native culture and that of the White man coming to explore and settle in this area. John McDougal, a missionary, in his journals, dated in the 1850’s, documents wild horses and moose being preyed upon by wolves in the areas between the North Saskatchewan and Oldman Rivers. The North West Mounted Police, upon coming to this area to bring law and order estimated there were thousands of wild horses in the areas that they settled.The horse became an important animal in helping settle and open this province. Our entire western culture and heritage focuses around horses and the chores that they performed for us. The horse broke the land, hauled produce and helped harvest our forests and crops. They helped the ranchers in the operation of their cattle ranches. They were an important part of the everyday life of the early Albertans being the only means of transportation.