Mustangs of the Dakotas

Great photos! Thanks for sharing!

At another forum, she commented that last fall, the drought had been so bad that many of the horses went into the winter looking pretty bad and she was surprised that they look as good as they do this spring. She is expecting the spring grasses to start growing and the horses should be able to put on some good weight.
She also commented that she met a naturalist?/biologist? who is studying/documenting the herd and she got a lot of information about many of the horses she has observed for the last four years. The n/b also told her the organization that manages the herds will be doing a round up to remove/auction the younger horses and implementing a birth control program to reduce the number of foals born on the range/park.

I really liked the red roan and I thought the b/w with the dark lips looked interesting.

The roan looks like a draft!

yeh the roan looks like it has some heavy breeding in there somewhere

[color=#8000BF][b]AWESOME pics!! Just beautiful!![/b][/color]

I love this sort of picture and I really admire the people that do this sort of work,,,not sure of the auction bit, personally I would be taking out the "culls" and euthanising.
If you take out horse to auction you will always be looking at the "adoptable" ones (that actually often go straight into a life of living hell) and thus taking the best.
If you are looking at euthanasia you take the [i]worst,[/i]which is what nature would do.
Years of people taking the best is the reason for the standards now being so poor.
If they were to limit themselves to a few good colts, leaving most of the good colts, and a handful of good fillies, then take the stragglers and euthanize them quietly, the standards would go up.
This sort of controlled breeding is what is now happening with the Forest ponies on the New Forest, they now control rigorously the standards of the stallions, only licensing so many stallions to run on the Forest every year, the rest have to be removed.
It does not matter if your stallion (that is the best thing, ALL these ponies are owned!!) is completely wild and has never been off the Forest, if he loses his license he has to be removed.....
If only the Mustang people could just agree what is best for the herd...they are your Heritage, all and everyone of you, you should be proud of your heritage, and protect it.
If the horses actually were beautiful , or at least well conformed, people would value them more.......
The B/W Pinto is interesting...I see Frame and Splash and also, possibly Tobiano ...what do you think???

[quote="rabbitsfizz"]
If only the Mustang people could just agree what is best for the herd...they are your Heritage, all and everyone of you, you should be proud of your heritage, and protect it.
If the horses actually were beautiful , or at least well conformed, people would value them more.......[/quote]
Oh, we're protecting them all right. Unfortunately, the "we" doing the "protecting" are a bunch of uninformed namby-pambies who would SCREAM at even the [i]hint[/i] of *GASP!* culling!
I wish the BLM would do it the way you suggested.

That red roan is a draft cross if I've ver seen one. Lovely photos, interesting horses.
I'm not sure about the euthanisia (maybe if there were no other route), but taking out the culls would be very beneficial.

OK, by "euthanasia" I do actually mean a quiet, dignified death.....if, and it is a big "IF" the carcasses can then be processed for dog food or whatever, OK, I have no problem with that, but I am not, for one second, suggesting that wild horses should be by any means, anywhere.
If injection were used the meat would be useless but a rendering plant could still use them.
There are, I accept, large numbers of useless unadoptable horses of poor conformation (that's the fault of the humans BTW) roaming around annoying farmers.
If there were smaller bands of pretty, well conformed horses, of whom they were allowed to take, by license perhaps, a number of colts each year for their own purposes, then they might become worth something.
Just a thought.

In the old days thoroughbred and draft stallions where often released with the wild herds to improve the herds. In fact most of the mustangs that remain on the ranges are in fact descended from culls. The best of them where rounded up and domesticated for use by the US Calvary and also by the old cowboys for use on ranches.

[quote="admin"]In the old days thoroughbred and draft stallions where often released with the wild herds to improve the herds. In fact most of the mustangs that remain on the ranges are in fact descended from culls. The best of them where rounded up and domesticated for use by the US Calvary and also by the old cowboys for use on ranches.[/quote]

There are also old stories (there used to be a great book online about a gaited mustang stallion) where the studs would steal quality mares from ranches. I would be *livid* it that happened to my mare, or course, but with enough mares, you'd be talking breed betterment for sure. :lol:
On the other hand. They are wild. It goes a bit far for me to mess with wild animals conformation. :oops: What's next? Breed standards for wolves and coyotes? :mrgreen:

I have a difficult time thinking of them as "wild". I think of them more as 'feral', because they were domesticated horses that had to survive on their own. I think "mustang" symbolizes that very nicely, but I don't fool myself into thinking they are a true 'wild' and 'indigenous' species. They were introduced, much like the cats in Australia, which are causing a problem for their ecosystems. The mustangs of today may have a larger impact on the areas they run in due to decreasing habitat they must share with other herbivores and the serious decrease of large predators to regularly prey upon them and keep them culled in a more aggressive manner.

I have never liked reffering to mustangs as wild. I'm of the belief that the only wild horse left is the przewalski (sp?). It wasn't long ago that we lost another wild breed, the tarpan. Mustangs aren't wild horses, they are domesticated horses gone wild. I may be stubborn about it, but I've felt that way since the first grade. I never liked mustangs, I thought they were ugly. I didn't get their mystique. When I was a little girl and all my friends dreamed of mustangs, apps, and paints, I dreamed of lippizanners, dutch warmbloods, and selle francis. Looking back, lippis actually resemble their tarpan roots as far as their heads are concerned, lol!

[quote="Krickette"]Looking back, lippis actually resemble their tarpan roots as far as their heads are concerned, lol![/quote]

:evil:

[quote="lipigirl"][quote="Krickette"]Looking back, lippis actually resemble their tarpan roots as far as their heads are concerned, lol![/quote]

:evil:[/quote]
Now now lipigirl, you can't deny their cute roman noses! ;)
They're one of the few breeds that I actually love roman noses on! :mrgreen:

yeah, I don't think it was meant as an insult. :)

LOL !!! I was only joking !!!! :lol:

It's all personal choice anyway and no horse could have as large a Roman nose as Mateo !!?? But that was not what I was thinking about, Koniks actually have quite coarse heads whereas Lipis have roman noses but have a delicate muzzle too. :D

[quote="Krickette"]I have never liked reffering to mustangs as wild. I'm of the belief that the only wild horse left is the przewalski (sp?). It wasn't long ago that we lost another wild breed, the tarpan. Mustangs aren't wild horses, they are domesticated horses gone wild. I may be stubborn about it, but I've felt that way since the first grade. I never liked mustangs, I thought they were ugly. I didn't get their mystique. When I was a little girl and all my friends dreamed of mustangs, apps, and paints, I dreamed of lippizanners, dutch warmbloods, and selle francis. Looking back, lippis actually resemble their tarpan roots as far as their heads are concerned, lol![/quote]

To be technical, they're not wild, they're feral, so you are entirely correct!

They are such beautiful horses!