The History and Future of Mustang Horses
I can remember being a little kid and listening to stories my Grandpa and Great Grandpa told about the mustangs that used to be around the Black Canyon. They used to tell stories about when they would put their mares out with the mustangs during the winter to get bred. Then they would go out in the spring and catch their mares. They told stories of the times they had to chase the mustangs from the fields during the winter so the cattle could eat. They told of when they would go and capture the colts from the herd to keep for themselves. I can even remember the last one they ever had. He was at least 25 years old when I saw him. The last I knew of the mustangs Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rounded the herd up and that is all I ever heard.
The name Mustang comes from the Spanish word "mesteno" or "monstenco", meaning wild or stray. Most mustangs descended from Arabian and Barb horses brought by the Spanish around 1519. Other breeds were brought in later by settlers.
The first horses were forced to hang in slings under the deck of ships all the way across the sea to the New World. The explorers brought only the toughest and best horses to the New World. They were bringing so many horses that soon the Spanish Government restricted how many horses could be brought to the New World. There were already enough horses in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santa Domings to start breeding farms. Soon after the farms were established, they started on the main land, and that is where the mustangs got their start.
These were the horses that changed the lives of the Native Americans living in or near the Great Plains. By the middle of the nineteenth century there were an estimated two million wild horses in the United States. Herds of wild horses from the eastern United States were forced west by civilization and eventually crossed the Mississippi River and joined the western herds.
The large herds of horses did not pose a particular problem until the western United States became settled and cattle and other grazing animals were added to the native range. The arid lands of the west could not support large population of grazing animals, so it became policy to shoot Mustangs.
The horse made all aspects of Native American life easier, including traveling, hunting, raiding, and waging war. The more convenient life did not come without a price, however. The horse created a competition for resources in the region, but the greatest price was allowing a greater level of violence to enter the plains. The horse allowed the Apache to dominate the region prior to the arrival of American settlers. When American settlers arrived, a clash of worldviews occurred. The differing worldviews facilitated violence that was made possible because of the introduction of the
The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.
Estimates are that at the turn of the twentieth century over two million wild horses roamed free in the western United States. However, having no protection from their primary predator, man, by the 1970’s there numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand. In 1971, after a massive public uproar, Congress by a unanimous vote enacted the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act” (Act) that characterizes wild horses and burros as national treasures and provides for their protection.
The student body at Kent State numbered about 20,000 and had been considered conservative, but not overly political. In fact they were thought of as rather passive politically. The shootings were a culmination of four days of demonstrations by members of the student body. The students were protesting the invasion of Cambodia by American forces.
What happened at Kent State University? This is a question that many Americans were asking following the crisis on the Kent campus. In the days preceding May 4, 1970, protests, disruption, and violence erupted on the university grounds. These acts were the students’ reaction to President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia. The events surround the deaths of four students in Kent, Ohio are disorderly and violent. In the government’s investigation after the shootings, the officials made several recommendations to students of the future. As the massacre is looked back upon, there are several key events that set the tragic day into motion.
On March 10, 1892 the Billings Gazette reported, “The opening of spring may be more red than green for the horse thieves and cattle thieves of Johnson County” (Brash, 143). The writer of the article could little have known how truthful their premonition would prove to be. The late 1800’s were turbulent times in the West. Large tracts of publicly held range ground would be at the center of Wyoming’s very own civil war. Gil Bollinger, author and western researcher, reports that by the 1870’s and 1880’s fencing of land to enclose both crops and water sources was common (Bollinger, 81). This practice, however, was still illegal according to the federal government. In 1877, the United States Government sued Swan Land and Cattle Company, in an effort to set an example that all fences on open range must come down (Bollinger, 81). The fencing of lands was a major problem, as agricultural producers needed open access to the limited resources, especially water. Johnson County, in northern Wyoming, was an agricultural nucleus for cattle and sheep producers who knew the lush grass and good water supply would greatly benefit their operations. Since fencing was illegal, these resources were available to everyone. Cattle operators, large and small alike, ran their livestock loose and participated in large roundups once a year where all the cattle were branded. Slick calves, called mavericks, were often unrightfully claimed. Lack of fencing made any free ranging livestock available to whoever was devious enough to take them (Smith, 25).
In 1970 the nation was in its highest state of controversy. The generation gap that had begun to form in the sixties was now more of a ravine. The youth of America was finally standing up and raising their voices in protest against all the problems that plagued the country they would have control of in years to come. There were many events that helped in feeding the flame in the hearts of Americans. One such event was the Kent State University incident. It is an event that touched the nation and made such a profound mark, and yet it only lasted for thirteen seconds. In the thirteen seconds the Ohio National Guard, along with the rest of government by association, established themselves as the new enemy. All eyes were on them, scrutinizing their every move, pointing out every mistake they made. Interestingly enough, most don’t even really know exactly what went on in those thirteen seconds, but they knew that it left four students dead and nine injured at the hand of the National Guard, so that was enough to strike the hearts on millions. Still today, twenty-nine years later, we still don’t really know what went on. Who fired the first shot, and were they provoked? Was it necessary for the National Guard to be present on this typically calm college campus in the first place? And why did it have to end in such tragedy? There are so many questions, and so many misconceptions about this incident, and like any controversial issue, there are always two sides to the story.
Altogether, between 1866 and 1888, some six million head of cattle were driven up from Texas to winter on the high plains of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The cattle boom reached its height in 1885, when the range became too heavily pastured to support the long drive, and was beginning to be crisscrossed by railroads. Not far behind the rancher creaked the covered wagons of the farmers bringing their families, their draft horses, cows and pigs. Under the Homestead Act they staked their claims and fenced them with a new invention, barbed wire. Ranchers were ousted from lands they had roamed without legal title. Soon the romantic "Wild West" had ceased to be.
Each year, more than 200,000 children and youth under the age of 20 are killed and injured by firearms in the United States. Peers, family members and even policemen shoot thousands of young people. Countless young children and youth are survivors of gun violence and become scarred by the effects of such violence in their homes. Gun violence happens very often in America where young children and teens kill other people. It is very rare to find a shooting where the police kill their own people. On April 30 1970, President Richard M. Nixon, announced that the United States of America and South Vietnamese forces were organizing a violent attack against enemy targets in Cambodia. Almost instantly, anti-war protests erupted. One of these countless protests was at the Kent State University located in Kent, Ohio. After several days of protesting things got out of control, leading to the death of four college students and the injury of nine others. The outcomes of Kent state shooting, otherwise known as the May 4 Massacre, went beyond those who physically suffered. The accidents on campus reformed the way millions of Americans though about the war in Vietnam and the anti-war movement. Most students, across the universities and campuses of America, were heavily against the growth of war into Cambodia. It is almost certain that the death of the four students and wounding of nine others ignited revolution across the nation’s universities, colleges and high schools. However, this revolution was short-lived as school terms were brought to an end. The controversial roles of the United States of America in Vietnam filled students with resentment, which led to a tragedy at the Kent state university and eventually to a social change.
For centuries, the wild horses have roamed the Colorado Plateau and they should be able to continue living in the park. The horse population of Colorado has dropped ninety-eight percent since the 1800s. This is mainly because the BLM has rounded up many of the herds from the Mesa Verde area. Contrary to many people's beliefs, horses are not a nuisance to the park because they are a native species. The horses are in the park to get the food and water they need to survive in a
The Wild West was a period of great change in North America. After 1775, the American Colonies began to expand westward in search of more land. This expansion was led mostly by cattle ranchers in need of new pastures for their herds. Over time, people gradually left their homes and friends on the East coast, and moved into little townships in the west. This would be a very difficult decision for them, since they generally didn’t know whether they would be able to support themselves at their new place. Many Wild West movies are set in the latter half of the 1900s.
Unfortunately, today the true history of the West has become a nothing more than a myth. History was replaced by fiction, and these falsehoods are perceived by today's society as facts. The true American cowboy, white or black, no longer exists in the minds of Americans. It is only as one delves deeper into the facts that the unperceived truth arises. The success of settling the West can be contributed to men such as Nat Love, but one can certainly not omit the hardworking cowboys who did not live such a glamorous life. The Negro cowboys of this era played a crucial role in facilitating any work on America's new frontier. The Black cowboys were essential to the United States during the late 1800's, in a time when any Negro needed great perseverance against prejudice. For their valiant efforts the Black cowboys should be given great honor and prestige.
...ured to support the long drive and it was beginning to be criss-crossed by railroads. Not far behind the rancher creaked the prairie schooner of the farmers bringing their womenfolk and children, their draft horses, cows, and pigs. Under the Homestead Act they staked off their claims and fenced them in with barbed wire, ousting the ranch men from lands they had possessed without legal title. During the two terrible winters of 1886 and 1887, herds were annihilated in the open ranges by the freezing weather.
Agile software development is a group of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change.
Were there any impacts of the equine revolution on humans? This is one of the many questions that some people normally do not think about. The uses of equines have changed tremendously over their existence. Horseback riding has evolved in many ways. Today, using horses for transportation has declined, however leisure and rehabilitative activities have increased. To understand horseback riding, it is essential to look at the history of equines, the sport of horseback riding, and how to take care of a horse.