No Water No Hay What This Means To The Mustang

This past year we have experienced extreme draughts in the Southwest and here in the Southeast while parts of the Midwest saw flooding. This means that the first cut of hay was missed in the Midwest and in the Southeast many farmers only got a first cut, missing the second and third cuts due to lack of growth. We have seen our hay costs tripling in the past twelve months. So how does this affect the horse? There has been an overpopulation of horses recently due in part to the number of baby boomers who have become horse owners and the breeding industry wanting to take advantage of the growing market. The Thoroughbred breeders have always kept their breeding mares pregnant in order to increase the number of foals they can sell for millions of dollars to syndicated buyers. If these horses don't produce income at the track, they are dumped on the market as well. Then you have ancilliary breeders associated with the Thoroughbred breeders. These breeders provide nurse mares to nurse the Thoroughbred foals while the Thoroughbred breeders start the impregnation process of their mares all over again. This leaves the nurse mare foals who happen to be lucky enough not to be lined up in front of a hole and shot, or sent off to pharmeceutical labs to be used as test animals on products such as fly spray, looking for someone to adopt them.
Now horse rescues are being inundated with requests to take in starving and unwanted horses. The equine community, always a fractious community, is pointing fingers at each other with some saying the closing of the two slaughter houses in America exacerated the problem while others blame greedy breeders. The fact remains we have a problem we have to fix.
So what does this mean to the Mustang? Well, beside the obvious that forage and water is a little more difficult to find in the habitat of these animals, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is having a difficult time in their attempts to find adopters. Why would someone adopt a wild horse for $125 when they can get a trained domestic horse for the same price? In general, people who end up adopting Mustangs don't have the disposable income to absorb the increased costs to feed these animals. Also, the reduction of water and forage on the Herd Management Areas (HMAs) will increase the pressure put on the BLM by livestock breeders to remove more Mustangs thus increasing the number of unwanted horses on the market. These HMAs(originally 303) were set aside specifically for the wild horses and burros by Congress in 1971 when they passed Public Law 92-195. When this law was passed, there were an estimated 50,000 wild horses and the BLM was put in charge of the welfare of these animals. And what has the BLM done in the ensuing 36 years? Well, they zeroed out 100 HMAs and reduced the number of wild horses to approximately 20,000. They have about that many in their holding corrals across the United States awaiting adoption costing American taxpayers in excess of $10 million a year. We don't need more unwanted horses on the market. We have to leave these horses in the wild.
One obvious step to alleviate the overpopulation of unwanted horses is for our Congress to hold the BLM accountable for their actions and make them leave the wild horses on our public lands as mandated by PL 92-195. The only way that will happen is for concerned citizens to contact their Congressmen and Senators and tell them to make the BLM to stop circumventing the intent of the law and leave the horses on their rightful HMAs.

The Mustang Horse

When asked if he could name the most significant animal on the American continent, Frank Hopkins, arguably the greatest horseman and winner of over 400 endurance rides ranging from 50 miles to over 3,000 miles, all on mustangs, replied: "The Mustang is the most significant animal in America. " Many would have to agree.
The Mustang was responsible for settling the West. Small in stature, big in heart, this little horse carried explorers through unchartered territory most times carrying a quarter of their weight on their backs.
Frank Hopkins, who participated in more endurance races than any other man in history spending over 60 years in the saddle, said that the Mustang has the qualities to make the ideal saddle horse. What are these qualities?
Well, first he said endurance. The mustang can keep going day in and day out. Frank quoted General George Cook: " ... if troops can't overtake a band of Indians in two hours, its better to give up the chase because they'll never in this green world catch them. Those wiry ponies of theirs can go ninety miles without food or water. They wear out all the cavalry horses we have on the frontier.
The second quality he listed was intelligence. "You can't beat Mustang intelligence in the entire equine race." The Mustang has had to fend for itself for generations. No body was going to look after them so they had to figure out how to survive and that took superior intelligence. The ones who are here survived through the evolutionary process of the survival of the fittest.
The third quality he mentions is economy. The Mustang can live where a stall fed animal would starve. The Mustang has learned how to pick his own food from the country and can live where a cow would starve. A Mustang knows how to take such good care of himself that he is always ready to go.
When Frank was listing qualities that made the Mustang superior to other horses, he failed to mention their feet. It is well know that due to the years they spend traveling 10-25 miles a day in the high desert country and the mountainous terrain, they have developed very tough hoof walls and soles. Terrain that would cause a domestic horse to pull up lame, hardly is noticed by the Mustang.
So why are so many people intent on destroying this exceptional horse? It is a long and complicated story that we will touch on in our next posting