Mustangs are horses that Columbus returned to America, taking them out of Spain in 1493. Primitive horses lived on the territory of North America and earlier. For some reason (possibly hunting or changes in climatic conditions), they ceased to exist on these lands.
Thus, the first mustang brought to Florida and Mexico is a horse, a descendant of Iberian horses, originating from Arab and Andalusian horses. Mustangs spread throughout the Americas as the first immigrants moved to the Mississippi lands. Some of them escaped from the herd being distilled, some were abducted by the Indians.
In later times of the colonization of America, immigrants from France and England also brought their horses. After 200-300 years living on the prairie and becoming a wild mustang - a horse that no longer had any resemblance to the brought Spanish horses, in addition to high endurance. Enterprising horse breeders began to catch wild horses - mustangs. They crossed them with Germanic breeds. Mustangs were crossed as a result of the fact that in winter the ranchers let all the horses free to feed and survive on their own, and when spring came, when they needed horsepower to cultivate the land and to move, they caught them capturing and wild young growth.
The life of the Indians dramatically changed the Mustang. They used the horse as a means of transportation, harnessed it to drags, used it in battles, in hunting wild bulls, in trade. The Indians exchanged, resold, stole them. Some Indians had herds of thousands of horses, and tribes had tens of thousands. By the beginning of the twentieth century, herds were walking in North America, a total of two million livestock. Hunting for them has become commonplace. Hunters caught horses for sale to the military or for meat - horse meat, from which they prepared sausages and bacon, as well as pet food.
In order to save cultivated agricultural fields from the invasion of herds, they were poisoned or shot directly from aircraft. As a result of this, after fifty years on the American continent, the Mustang has become a rarity. The horse needed protection, so laws were created to protect these animals. Today they live only in protected areas of the United States. But disputes are continuing in the country about the status of these animals, because not everyone agrees that they are the historical heritage of America.
Many Americans have a negative attitude toward wild horses, claiming that they reduce the amount of pet food, even noticing that wild herds live in arid areas where herds of cows and sheep cannot graze due to lack of water. The tough natural selection that the wild horses underwent adapted them to the most severe conditions. In search of food, they travel more than eighty kilometers a day.
Nowadays, if a wild herd grows very much, some horses are caught and given to citizens for an extra charge of $ 125 for each horse taken to a ranch (meaning a mustang). The future owner selects the horse, whose photo will be liked, and takes care of her for a year, and only then receives the promised award and full right to it.
