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a.k.a.: Feral Horse MUSTANG: (according to Webster’s Dictionary) the small hardy naturalized horse of the western plains directly descended from horses brought in by the Spaniards. MUSTANG: (according to Merriam Webster’s Elementary Dictionary – Word History) Mesteno - Long ago in Spain, stray cattle were rounded up each year and sold. The Spanish word for this roundup of strays came from a Latin phrase that meant mixed animals. From their word that meant roundup of strays, the Spanish made another word that meant stray animal. In Mexico this word was used for a kind of wild horse. That is where English Mustang came from. Feral: (according to Webster’s Dictionary) not domesticated or cultivated: Wild. In 1493, Columbus introduced the horse to the New World. The Spanish conqueror of Mexico, Hernando Cortez, credits himself as being the first to bring horses to the North American mainland.Animals escaped from expeditions and formed the basis of the continent’s first wild horse herds. The exact date and numbers of horses is unknown. 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. |