 The History of Wild Horses in North America
In 1513, Ponce de Leon, searching for Bimini, an imaginary land that was said to be the site of the Fountain of Youth, landed in the region that is today the State of Florida. He claimed the region for Spain and named it Florida, perhaps in honor of Pascua Florida, Spanish for Easter Season. The first Spanish horses were put ashore on mainland Florida in 1521 with Ponce De Leon’s second voyage. In fact, the first horses of any kind. For those of you who have been involved in the study of the horse on this continent, I know that there is speculation over when the first horses arrived. Some are saying that the horse arrived here 25,000 years ago, and migrated from here to Asia. Some say that horses were here and hunted to extinction by early man. This has not been proven and probably never will be. If it could be proven, the horse would be native to North America and therefore have protection from Federal Fish and Wildlife. Knowing that it has not been proven, I will therefore, for the purposes of this writing, stick to what we know is fact.
The Spanish Horse that first came to North America did so by way of Florida and was descended from Arabian and Barb stock carried to Spain by the Moors. The Spanish added a touch of their own breeds to produce a breed called the “Jennet”. Europe recognized it as a “Superior” horse. I read not very long ago that the horses were brought to Florida from Mexico. Somebody just wrote some very bad history.
The Spanish exported so many Jennet horses to Florida and other parts of the “New World” that the Crown placed an embargo on them. Christopher Columbus and others started raising horses in Cuba and Puerto Rico as well as Hispaniola as early as late 1400’s and
early 1500’s.
Large numbers of wild horses began roaming the peninsula of Florida and other parts of the southeast. By the middle of the 17th century, the Chickasaw Indians already had developed a small but sturdy breed descended from Spanish “Jennet” horses brought to the Tampa Bay region by Narvaez in 1528. Two hundred of the Spanish “Jennet” horses were put ashore and left to run wild at what is now Port Charlotte, Florida as their boats were taking on too much water. The Spanish horses that were later called “Chickasaw pony” spread through the south and were much in demand as saddle stock. During the 1600’s the British settled North Carolina and Virginia and began importing English bred horses. They obtained “Chickasaw Ponies” from the Indians and bred them with English horses. This is said to be the beginning of the “Quarter Horse” in America according to the American Quarter Horse Assn. By 1763 there were large numbers of wild horses found in Florida by the British and came to be in great demand as military horses for the British Army during the short 20 years they controlled Florida. .
The British were the next to arrive in the United States after the Spanish but not until 1585 on the coast of North Carolina. From 1513 over the next 50 years the Spanish would bring in thousands of their horses. Many of these horses ran wild in Florida. Today our Florida Cracker Horses are direct descendants of these horses. One has to admit that these really were the first “mustangs”. Mustang comes from the Spanish word “mestengo” which is Spanish for wild horse. So, any of the Spanish horses that went into the wild were mustangs. The problem with this theory is they were not called mustangs at this time, at least not that we know of.
 Not until 1807, in Zebulon Pike’s journal does it state on June 20th of that year, as he crossed the Trinity River in southwest Texas, “Passed through several herds of Mustangs or wild horses”. This may have been the first time the word mustang was recorded. This is almost 300 years after the first Spanish landed in Florida. Zebulon Pike was an explorer of the early 19th century. Pike’s Peak in Colorado was named by him. It is not known for sure when they were first called Mustangs or who started it.
These small, strong horses in Florida were used by all Florida Indians as well as ranchers and farmers and were used almost exclusively by ranchers until the 1930’s. (The complete history can be found on line at Florida Cracker Horse* Assn) Thus began the real history of the wild horse in America. (*The horses became known as “Cracker Horses because of the cowboys cracking their whips while driving cattle.)
Where did Ponce de Leon get his horses? Surely he didn’t bring them all the way from Spain. Good question. In fact he didn’t.
In the 1400’s Columbus brought the first Spanish horses to the island of Hispaniola and started ranches to supply the conquistadors. You might say he was the first horse breeder in the new world. Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. By 1521 Columbus had quite a good number of horses at Hispaniola, as all this time new horses had been arriving from Spain. It is documented that he brought in both stallions and mares and began breeding them. So if a Spanish captain was going to explore around the new world he first stopped off at Christopher’s ranch and bought some horses. With all the exploring going on in those days I would think Columbus did a very good horse business. Both Ponce de Leon and Hernando De Soto did a lot of traveling in the Florida area and needed horses for them as well as their men. They and other conquistadores brought in a lot of horses but both men were killed by Indians. Other Spanish explorers in years to come would buy Spanish horses from the Spanish at Hispaniola (modern day Dominican Republic) and Cuba to bring them north.
Such was the case with the Shackleford Horses of the Shackleford Banks off the coast of North Carolina. They are still there today and thousands of people go there to see them every year. It is said they swam there off sinking boats in a storm when the Spanish tried to make a settlement on the Atlantic Coast north of Florida. Of course the British were in the picture at this time. The British and Spain did not get along, as history tells us, so the Spanish headed back to Florida. Besides, the Spanish wanted gold and there didn’t seem to be a very big supply in this part of the country. Indians seem to be winning all the battles and Spain lost some of their best explorers. It is interesting to note that the Indians of the East did not seem to be as terrified of the Spanish on their horses as were the Aztecs of Mexico.
Another well known herd of wild horses are on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. It appears they are mostly paints (brown and white or black and white) and have been traced to the time when Columbus raised horses in the Caribbean area. This would also account for paints later showing up in Mexico and later in the western United States. It is believed that these horses were shipwrecked and swam ashore as there is no record showing the Spanish used the island or occupied it at this time in history.
Columbus was breeding more than just horses. A supply ship to Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage brought the first donkeys or burros to the new world in 1495. Four jacks (male) and two jennies (female). Some of the jacks were used to breed female horses to provide mules for the conquistadors. Ten years after the Spanish defeated the Aztecs, burros started arriving in Mexico from Cuba. It is not clear when the first burros arrived in Florida but mules did arrive in the mid 1500’s to supply the explorers with pack animals. I would think a few burros came with them.
The Spanish held on to Florida until 1821 when it became a United States territory. That means the Spanish held Florida for 300 years except for a brief time the British held it from 1763 to 1784. The British didn’t keep it very long before Florida went back to the Spanish. During this time a lot of changes were taking place around the “new world” and Spanish horses were being scattered everywhere.
Now we need to look at what the Spanish explorers were doing during this time, especially from the early 1500’s to the early 1600’s. After all, Spain wanted gold and they found it in Mexico. Hernando Cortez sailed into Mexico in 1519 with 11 ships. Cortez defeated Aztec Indian armies with his horses and cannon. The Aztec Indians, having never seen men on horseback, thought they were gods out to destroy them. They did not understand why the gods were angry but here they were and they were the most fearsome things they had ever seen. I can imagine how the Spanish, dressed in their armor and mounted on horses must have frightened the Indians. Montezuma II, the Aztec emperor, was terrified of the god men on horses. To make a long story short, the Aztecs didn’t put up much of a fight. They soon gave up and turned Mexico over to the Spanish. Spanish Horses did not move north into what is now the United States until the early 1600’s.
When the war was over the Spanish began making rules. One of the rules was that everybody in Mexico had to become Roman Catholic. This did not please the Indians, but the Spanish threatened them with death if they did not take an oath to the church. I don’t think history has taught us that any people change their religion because of threats. The Indians were no different. A revolution was in the making.
One thing we must remember. Mexico was a lot bigger then than now. What is now New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California and a good part of Texas belonged to Mexico. We did not own this until we took it away from Mexico in the Mexican American War in the 1840’s even though Texas had declared independence about five years earlier. In this area in the 1600’s there was a lot of Indians. The Indians around New Mexico did not want to be Catholics. So they rebelled. The leader of that rebellion, named Hidalgo, was a big success and the Spanish retreated south.
When they rebelled they stole several thousand horses as they sent the Spanish packing. They had learned the value of the horse and in the 1600’s the Pueblo Indians (the main body of the rebelling force) started breeding and training horses to sell to other Indians. Over the next 100 years Spanish horses spread like wildfire across the continent all the way to Canada. Indians learned fast about the advantage of the horse in hunting and making war. In bad times when hunting wasn’t very good he could eat his horse and many did.
Many of the Spaniards lost horses or run them off and a lot were lost by Indians also. By the 1700’s it has been said that over 1,000,000 horses ran free in the west. As for the east, most horses were now domesticated except in Florida and the coastal islands of N. Carolina, where thousands still ran wild. The Seminole Indians rounded up wild horses in Florida for they too had learned that the horse was a good fighting machine. They soon were making trouble for people in Florida and raiding into Georgia and southern Alabama. Andrew Jackson attacked the Indians in 1817 which led to the United States taking over Florida in 1819. In 1821 Florida became a Territory, a state on March 3, 1845 and in 1855 in the third Seminole Indian war most of the Indians were run out of Florida to resettle in Oklahoma. The horses that were left ran wild and multiplied into many thousands. Wild horses ran free in Florida as late as the 1940’s in the Kissimmee River Valley.
By the 1700’s mustangs had a good hold in the west. The Indians had many, many horses and as the white man moved in to take over the land the Indian used his horse to try to stop him.
 Before the 1700’s the Mustang had to deal mostly with Indians in the Western States. The Indians put their horses to good use to serve their purpose and in many tribes wealth was measured by the number of horses one owned. These were always Mustangs. The horses were caught and trained by the Indians. It is an interesting study to learn how many ways they had of training. One thing is for sure. They usually did it the hard way. One of the ways that interests me is driving them into a river or lake and jumping on their back. The horse had two choices. Accept the rider or drown fighting him. If the horse drowned the Indian cared less as he thought the horse unworthy of his efforts. Anyway, there were a lot of horses to choose from. Other methods included tying up the horse so it could not move or several Indians literally throwing the horse down and holding it down. I would think a lot of Indians lost their front teeth this way.
Today there are some very good Indian horse trainers who “gentle train” horses. These modern day trainers can work miracles with both wild and domestic horses. I might add at this point that we humans have come a long way in learning to train horses both wild and domestic. There is no longer a reason to train a horse with pain. In fact pain only distracts the horse from what you are trying to teach him. There are a great number of good books in print about training horses.
During the 1600’s and 1700’s the wild horses multiplied and spread north. By 1770 they were in Canada and east into what is now known as the plains states as far north as North Dakota. It is safe to say that if you traveled west of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers wild horses could be found in abundance as did Lewis and Clark crossing the continent in 1804 – 1806.
From 1600 to the mid 1700’s the mustang or wild horse was mostly a horse for the Indians. The mustang that we know today started emerging as Indians started breeding other breeds with the Spanish horses. (Most of the modern day mustangs have very little Spanish horse blood but are the product of many breeds. However, they are by far still the most enduring of any horse). By this time a few brave souls from the east and Canada were venturing into the wild and untamed territory west of the Mississippi and the Indians captured or found escaped horses that they brought in. Thus the feral wild horses that we see today began. However, it would be many years before the true Spanish breed began to disappear. Many of today’s wild horses carry the genes of their Spanish ancestors. These genes show in many of our own herd.
So began the wild horse or “Mustang” in North America. I have spent many hours studying the history and dates of the Spanish activity in the early 1500’s and am convinced, as far as “wild horses” are concerned, that first they came to Florida, then to Mexico, then north to Canada. I am convinced that the American Indians can be credited with the spread of wild horses on the American Continent. In later years the white man would, by turning loose other stock into the wild from ranches, the U S Cavalry, wagon trains, etc, produce the wild horses of today.
From the early 1700’s to the early 1900’s the Mustangs played a very large part in developing this country. They were and still are known for their endurance in racing, cattle working, Pony Express, fighting Indians or any other job that required sure footedness and stamina. They fought in the Revolution for Independence, the Indian Wars, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War and World War I as well as being sold to foreign countries to fight their wars of which none returned back to the United States. Trained wild horses were the main means of transportation for both civilian and military personnel from the early 1840’s to the turn of the century. In 1846 General Grant, then Lt U.S. Grant, rode a mustang into the Mexican War having only paid three dollars for him. Three weeks earlier the horse had been running wild. Teddy Roosevelt rode a Mustang named “Little Texas” up San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War in July 1898. They helped us build a country and yet we have been their biggest enemy. Large ranchers, not wanting them competing with their cattle for grass shot them, drove them into the sea to drown, drove them over cliffs or rounded them up and sold them to slaughter plants to be made into dog and cat food. By the 1950’s they were in danger of disappearing altogether. The efforts of one lady would save them. Because of her efforts “The Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971” was passed in congress.
Her name was Velma B. Johnston from Nevada. She would later become known as “Wild Horse Annie”. Many people, me included, think of this lady as the one person who saved the American Mustang single handed.
One day in the 1950’s she was following a truck load of Mustangs on their way to a slaughter house. Seeing a trail of blood coming from the truck, she decided to do something about it and do something she did. She began a campaign that not only reached around this country but around the world. Part of the campaign included letters from school children to congress. There were so many in fact that congress was overwhelmed.
In 1959, Nevada Congressman Walter Baring introduced a bill prohibiting the use of motorized vehicles to hunt wild horses and burros on all public lands. Wild Horse Annie lead a grass roots campaign that outraged some of the public, especially those involved in the horse killing, and ultimately got them fully engaged in the issue. Newspapers published articles about the exploitation of wild horses and burros and as noted in a July 15, 1959 Associated Press article, “Seldom has an issue touched such a responsive chord.” The House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill which became known as the “Wild Horse Annie Act.” The bill became Public Law 86-234 on September 8, 1959; however it did not include Annie’s recommendation that Congress initiate a program to protect, manage and control wild horses and burros. That did not deter Annie. She continued the fight and in 1960, with help from others, formed the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB) located on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. They formed a non-profit 501 corp. and she was elected the first president.
Public interest and concern continued to mount, and with it came realization that federal management, protection and control of wild horses and burros was essential. By 1971 the population of wild horses and burros had diminished drastically due to the encroachment of man and the killing off by mustangers, ranchers and hunter’s elimination of them. In response to public outcry, members of both the Senate and the House introduced a bill in the ninety second Congress to provide for the necessary management, protection and control of the wild horses and burros. The Senate unanimously passed the bill on June 19, 1971. After making some revisions and adding a few amendments, the House also passed the bill by unanimous vote. Former President Richard M. Nixon signed the bill into law December 15, 1971. The new law became Public Law 92-195, The Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a division of The Department of Interior, was assigned the task of carrying out the wishes of congress. The horses and burros were safe at last. Or so it seemed at the time. In November of 2004 congress would act again and place thousands of wild horses in danger again. That battle still goes on today.
Written by
Larry Jones
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