The name "Mustang" comes from the Spanish word, mesteno, meaning "stray or ownerless" horse. This term aptly describes all wild horses in the United States.

The Pueblo Indians learned to ride and passed this skill on to other Indians. In 1680, the Indians revolted against the Spanish rule and the Spaniards left thousands of horses behind in their hasty retreat. The Indians could have rounded up these horses, but chose to let them run wild. It was much easier to raid the Spanish settlements and steal horses. In an effort to stop the Indian raids, the Spanish government shipped a steady flow of mounts to the New World. It was hoped that the Indians would catch the "wild" horses and leave the Spaniards alone.

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.

Information supplied by the North American Mustang Association and Registry and the Bureau of Land Management

Spanish conquistadors came to the Americas in the early 1500s, bringing with them both domesticated horses and cattle to help them conquer the vast new world. The journey over the seas was often a grueling one for man and beast alike.
When a ship anchored off the coast of the New World, the horses that survived the voyage were brought out of their stalls in the ship's hold. In order to prevent the horses from panicking, they were blindfolded and carefully raised from below deck by hoists attached to slings surrounding the horses' bodies. In these early days before wharves were built, the horses were lowered into the water and made to swim ashore, led by men in row boats. The horse would become a central factor in the settlement of the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish also brought cattle that became the foundation stock for the great cattle industry that was to develop extensively during the 19^th century. Once the conquistadors destroyed the Aztecs and other Indian peoples, many Spanish horses escaped or were turned loose and became feral or wild. The Spanish horses, which we now describe as Andalusians, were from the finest strains and were regarded as the foremost breed in Europe. They formed the nucleus of the great herds of wild horses that spread upward from Mexico into the United States and the western plains country.

The North American Indians' astonishment at these "horse-men" contributed to their submission to the conquistadors. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who accompanied Cortes in his 1519 incursion into Mexico, wrote "The natives had never seen horses up to this time and thought the horse and rider were all one animal. " But over time, the Mexican Indians became the original cowboys. Enslaved by Spanish conquerors who put them to work tending herds on their vast rancheros, the Indians became highly skilled horseman, developing a close bond with this magnificent creature and the beginning America's long romance with wild horses

 In 1541, Viceroy Mendoza put allied Aztec chieftains on horses to better lead their tribesmen in the Mixton War of Central Mexico. This appears to have been the first time that horses were officially given to the Indians. Indians were seen to rub themselves with horse sweat, so that they might acquire the magic of the "big dog."

But the early relationship between Native Americans and horses was not always mutually beneficial. Indians, especially the Apaches, acquired a taste for roasted horse meat. After 1680, the Pueblo Indians forced the Spanish out of New Mexico. Many horses were left behind. The Pueblo learned to ride well but didn't live by the horse. They mainly valued the horse as food and as an item to trade with the Plains Indians for jerked buffalo meat and robes. Horses and horsemanship gradually spread from tribe to tribe until the Plains Indians became the great mounted buffalo hunters of the American West.

Plains Indian Horsemen
The alliance of the American Indians and the Spanish horse gave the Indians great mobility and changed their way of life. Tribes of horses were dominant over other tribes who relied on moving camp on foot. The plains Indians were great mounted buffalo hunters. They traded meat and buffalo hides for glass beads, metal tools, cloth and guns.

In many tribes, horses were the measure of wealth. So, horses were often the cause, as well as the means of waging war between alien tribes. The Indians' own pictographs often featured their most prized possession and companion - the horse

The Comanche became legendary horsemen, terrorizing their enemies, frightening away settlers, keeping the plains open and wild. By the late 1800's more than a million mustangs roamed the Texas frontier. So many mustangs that early maps of the region labeled the plains with just two words -- "Wild Horses."
 

By the end of the 19th century civilization had pushed the wild horse herds into the most desolate and rugged regions of the west. The Nevada desert became the true home of the wild horse. Interbreeding with the horses of ranchers, miners, and pioneers, wild horses belonged to no one and everyone.
 

In frontier days ranchers respected mustangs for their speed and their stamina. They captured the finest stallions and mares to breed with their domestic stock. But by the 1920s, tractors began replacing horses on American farms. No longer a resource, the wild horse became a pest and a nuisance of use to no one. In the 1930s the U.S. Government authorized the removal of wild horses from the public range. Wild horses were killed in large numbers.

Once two million mustangs roamed the American west. Soon there would be fewer than 17,000. Dawn Lappin laments the results,

"So they'd be gathered up and sent to slaughter and, of course, it made a lot of money. At the time the hanging weight of horses was somewhere around 10 cents a pound but if you gathered 2 or 300 horses at a time and took them to slaughter you could make yourself a tidy bit of change."

Few people knew or cared about the slaughter. But that was about to change with the crusade of a rancher's wife named Velma Johnston, whose father had taught her to love horses. In her later life the sight of reinforced corrals where horses were brutally treated saddened her eyes and aroused her anger. Her enemies derisively gave her a name she now proudly bears, "Wild Horse Annie."

In the 1950s America finally woke up to humane treatment of these animals thanks in part to "Wild Horse Annie," who took their cause to those who could make a difference. The mustangers long running brutality and disregard for humane treatment of the wild horses propelled a movement to protect the remaining wild horses. Annie changed national policy through inspiring a grassroots campaign.

When populations of wild horses, wild burros, or domestic livestock exceed the capabilities of their habitat, the environment begins to decline, and there is no longer a thriving natural ecological balance. Ranchers must remove excess livestock and state government officials must remove excess wildlife. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducts the removal of wild horses and burros from public lands. Their removal is based on years of monitoring the habitat and observations of the herd.

If the decline is prolonged, it leads to poor rangeland health and accelerates a decrease in the health of the animals. Therefore, the BLM annually monitors the condition of the animals and their habitat. The BLM will also periodically count the wild horses and burros. Resource specialists from other disciplines also monitor the rangelands. The BLM assesses the monitoring and census data and determines if and how many animals must be removed from the range. If this is not done, the consequences to the herds can be injury or death from starvation, dehydration, or susceptibility to the elements. When the BLM determines that there are too many wild horses or burros, a "gather plan" and environmental analysis is prepared, and the public is invited to comment.

Animals are normally gathered using helicopters and herded into portable traps. Excess animals may also be caught in traps using food or water as bait. To protect the animals, stallions are separated from the mares, and if need be, weaned foals are separated from the larger animals. The BLM maintains very strict requirements about the gathering of wild horses and burros. But what happens after they are gathered?

The dilemma facing policy makers and citizens is what to do when there are too many wild horses. Shrinking wilderness and encroaching urban space reduce habitat for horses. In this section, you'll explore some of the options.

Slaughter and the commercial use of horse meat
Although most Americans would not agree that this option is viable, unfortunately it is a realistic part of the wild horse story. For thousands of years, humans have eaten horse meat. Processing wild horses into chicken food in the 30's reached its peak, when nearly 30 million pounds of horse flesh were canned. In fact, for nearly 30 years federal policy was the unregulated exploitation of the wild horse herds.

Adoption
Soon after Congress passed the law protecting wild horses in 1971, their numbers began to increase. Twenty-five thousand became fifty thousand, with no end in sight. Ranchers and environmentalists joined in protest, claiming the horses were destroying fragile public land. In the heat of the controversy the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) came up with a solution: Three or four times a year the BLM rounds up thousands of excess horses, brands them and puts them up for adoption. Once charged with wiping out the mustang, the government now advertises the advantages of owning one.