08/01/2026
Chatting again about Mustang behavior the other day…
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Feral Factoids
For me, the term "feral" is akin to a burr beneath the saddle pad, in describing wild horses. It is often misused and has no place being used as a blanket statement in the world of wild horses. There are differences. Let's buck this out and jump right into it..
To illustrate simply, if a single horse is domesticated, and turned loose- reverting to natural behaviors, it is correct to say it is feral. If this horse now on an open range and un-owned had a foal which was born without the influence of human or harness, this foal and all its offspring, are wild. With our rich documented genetic knowledge and background of horse evolution, if a horse is born wild, it is wild... and generations of 'born wild horses' are just that- wild- never handled or owned by humans. "Domestication altered little biology" per Dr. Jay F Kirkpatrick. I must agree- human influence on a species is merely an insignificant moment in a magnificent amount of time. And we as humans, are misguided to believe we have so much influence genetically in a relative short amount of time.
Horses originated in North America- no longer a dispute with all the fossil evidence. “But... but the modern horse looks nothing like those old little fossils!” I often hear and read in disputes .. my reply is that from a scientific evolutionary standpoint, neither do we look like our early ancestors- but we're related and they started it all. It's the laws of evolution where optimal survival allows for change to improve livability and survival for a specific organism- it's ever changing. In old school thinking it used to be believed that horses died out in this region but science is not stagnant and always dynamic- as said, ever-changing as we continue unearthing new evidence. For some it may be more difficult than others to let go of old beliefs when there is evidence of the contrary. While indeed, other equids crossed the Bering Land Bridge to our north and into Europe and Asia putting horse types onto other continents, but further interesting is learning of those which remained... There is compelling evidence that horses remained, as illustrated by hard evidence on cave dwelling art/petroglyphs and pictographs post Ice Age suggest. The ice shelf didn't cover the southern portion of North America, allowing for horses to continue (see illustration https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=312045106948201&set=p.312045106948201&type=3 ). Finding evidence of their existence has been issue due to lack of fossil preservation in those environments... though (fossils) not seen, their existence is evident from the stories etched into rock walls prior to early explorers. There are ancient cave and rock images (both pictograph and petroglyph) of both riderless horses, and horses with riders on cave/rock art dated to the late Pueblo II through the 'Pueblo III periods, AD 1050-1300 (Hayes 1964:88), as well as the Utes which span 1,000 years, from the Christian era. Great reading (pages of interest:) riderless horses page 102/135 (or report page 80), 122/135; 105.. .. just one such example of an isolated area. Sources- BLM/Western Colorado Petroglyphs (Archaeological):http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/Planning_and_Renewable_Resources/coop_agencies/new_documents/co3.Par.28150.File.dat/mckern.pdf
The early explorers indeed re-introduced some horses back to north America hundreds of years ago, but along with those still and already here. In the long scheme of things, horses have been on this continent for 55- 60 MILLION years, while man has been here a merely few tens of thousands comparatively. Puts things in an interesting perspective, doesn’t it- http://chem.tufts.edu/science/evolution/HorseEvolution.htm . The evolution through DNA and fossil records is now scientific-based fact as to horse origination, and no longer a debate in the scientific community. Fossil record of early horse (directly related to modern horse- not the famous “cousin” - Perzwalski's Horse”) is found primarily in North America- from the NE corner of the continent to the SW, and places in between. A few thousand years of domestication make little difference- and a mere "blip" on the evolutionary scale. Once again... once born wild- horses are wild, reverting back to natural behaviors and social dynamics long ingrained from their ancient past. As said... if a horse is turned loose in the wilderness, and then reverts to untamed behavior, is what becomes a "feral" horse- different from those "born wild".
"The issue of feralization and the use of the word "feral" is a human construct that has little biological meaning except in transitory behavior, usually forced on the animal in some manner. Native status for wild horses would place these animals, under law, within a new category for management considerations. As a form of wildlife, embedded with wildness, ancient behavioral patterns, and the morphology and biology of a sensitive prey species, they may finally be released from the "livestock ‐gone‐loose" appellation." ~Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D http://wildhorsepreservation.org/wild-horses-native-north-american-wildlife
The title of the 1971 Act, reads "Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act", it says nothing about feral or domestically engineered farm horses gone loose.... feral is a human construct repeatedly used loosely to downgrade the mustang. The WH&B Act was implemented to protect the wild horses and burros, and it is the people which were its catapult, and it is the people which will ensure the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act is restored to the original intent to continue to protect mustangs and burros from those with special interests on these- the people's public range lands. By not referencing them loosely as "feral" by those wielding a pen on paper from their ergonomic patent leather seats in DC, but rather continue to label them correctly as wild horses and burros, will also allow wild ones greater protection from those who have other and specific agendas.
Together we will work to "Protect to Preserve".
Other reading or visuals
Horses in the Americas Before Columbus https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=279337446885634&set=a.10158717834863956
The Re-Introduced & Native Species of North America https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10158836829813956&set=a.10158717834863956
Illustration of Ice Shelf during the Ice Age at 10k https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=312045106948201&set=p.312045106948201&type=3
More recent discovery (NY Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/us/las-vegas-horse-fossil.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR17miHy0wVrM8PgCIe-RG9zjVVqpkf8MmDm8wR56-_h9w4fNFM18_Q4Yyw
Video: The Shaman of Steens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRRIrgx8K3o&t=23s
Keeping the WILD in our West ~ and our WEST WILD!
Mustang Meg
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About the photo: the mighty Steens band stallion- Domino- displaying his might to another nearby stallion (May 2018).
See more of Domino on my website
