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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature: Feral Horses


Based upon data from an aerial population survey conducted in June 2010, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  have determined approximately 3,057 wild horses remain on the Bureau of Land Management public lands in northwest Nevada, northeast California and south central Oregon and approximately 1,258 feral horses and burros remain on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managed lands within the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

North America was the original home of the horse species. They evolved here, and thrived here for over 57 million years. The plant and animal communities of North American ecology evolved with horses playing an integral role. About 8,000 - 10,000 years ago, for reasons not yet fully understood (meteors, climate change, pandemic, and human hunting pressures are among the possibilities), horses are believed to have become extinct in the land of their origin. Luckily by that time they had migrated to Asia, where they spread into Europe and North Africa.
Many feral horses in California are protected in herd management areas For many pre-historic people throughout Asia, Europe and Northern Africa, horses were first a prey species hunted for meat. Somewhere along the line a wide-ranging variety of human cultures in various parts of the world and different time periods, discovered that the horse had talents and usefulness far beyond "what's for dinner", and the horse became one of the most valuable of all species.

The Spanish Conquerors brought over the best horses they could find. These included every conceivable color and many breed types. Eventually the demand for horses outgrew their ability to import from Spain. So they set up breeding colonies on islands in the Caribbean and Atlantic coastal areas, and from there, horses were distributed throughout North, Central and South America, eventually contributing to the development of many new breeds on both continents. When the Spanish explorers brought horses to the continent, the horses were returning home. When given the opportunity, the horses simply took up residence in the landscape their ancestors had helped to form.
France began bringing sending horses to Quebec as early as 1665. These were large, heavily-muscled work horses related to today's Canadian and Percheron breeds. The French in Canada generally maintained good trade relations with the native people, and the Northern Indian tribes quickly acquired horses from the French. Horses from England began arriving in New England in 1629.

Although there were no doubt earlier instances in which horses escaped or were abandoned and became feral, it was the Great Pueblo Revolt of 1680, in which thousands of horses were released from the mission ranches, that gave birth to the vast wild horse herds of the Great Plains, Great Basin, and western Mountain regions. Horses also spread out to the East, where they are nearly all gone now, and up into the Great Basin, where they thrived and continue to live today.

The Revolt, in addition to driving the Spaniards from the Santa Fe-Albuquerque region for more than a decade, also provided the Pueblo Indians with several thousand horses. Almost immediately, they started breeding larger herds, with the intention of selling horses to the Apache and Comanche Indians.
feral or wild horses still thrive in California nature The widespread use of the horse revolutionized Indian life. While mounted Indians found that buffalo were much easier to kill, some tribes, such as the Comanche, met with great success when they used the horse for warfare. he Native American "Indian Pony" breeds were developed by highly skilled Native American people. Those in the North used horses of both Spanish and French horse ancestry (including the Percheron and Canadien) to develop their animals, including the best-known Native breed, the Appaloosa. Native Horsemen in the more Southern regions had more access to pure Spanish horses, so their horses were smaller, quicker, and very athletic.

Plains Indian people considered the Medicine Hat pinto to have special powers. Indian horses were of every color and color pattern, but many groups did have a special preference for pintos.

Horses came into California from Baja and Mexico, being brought along "El Camino Real" to the Spanish missions and upward into Northern California. Records indicate that Spanish Barb horses continued to be imported into California, Oregon, & Nevada in the mid and late 1880's, to be used as range breeding stock.

 Populations of both wild horses and burros still exist in California. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in California manages 15.2 million acres of public land, with an additional 1.6 million acres in Northwestern Nevada. The Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro population covers 7.1 acres of this land with an additional 2.3 million acres of non-BLM land. When the appropriate management level is reached there will be 1,746 horses and 453 burros on the California ranges.

Herd Areas (HAs) are those geographic areas where wild horses and/or burros were found at the passage of the Wild Horse and Burros Act in 1971. Herd Management Areas (HMAs) are those areas within Herd Areas where the decision has been mad, through Land Use Plans, to manage for populations of wild horses and/or burros. There are 33 Herd Areas and 22 Herd Management Areas within California. Each Herd Management Area has an Appropriate Management Level (AML) that states the minimum and maximum number of animals that can inhabit an area.
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