Feral horses are
free-roaming, untamed horses who are descended from domesticated
horses that strayed or escaped into the wild. They are not the
"true" wild horses, which are ones that have never had domesticated
ancestors. All feral horses are descended from domestic horses
Most feral horses, if captured young and handled properly, can be
re-domesticated. All North American feral horses are called
mustangs. However, there are different breeds.
Spanish Mustang
The true Spanish Mustang is a direct descendant of the horses
brought to the New World by the early Spaniards. Many
were stolen by the Apaches, who traded them to other tribes.
Many escaped and survived in the wild. Eventually they
numbered into the hundreds of thousands..
The Native Americas of the great plains and
the west have long been associated with horses, but they had only
had them for only a few generations when they were met by the
American settlers moving west. The Native American first acquired
horses from the Spanish in the 1500s. By the early 1600s, they
were in southern Texas and Californian. From there they spread north
and east.
