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| Saving the Spanish Mustang (Fall 2008) |
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By Dean Houghton
Dedicated enthusiasts preserve a rare and historic horse breed
Great herds of wild horses
roamed the American West
during the early 1800s. First
explorers described a "vast
sea" of highly colored horses
with flowing manes. These
mustangs were descendents of the Spanish
horse, a tough and agile equine that carried
the conquistadors into the New World,
and they were the first horses to set foot on
North America since the prehistoric horse
had vanished from this region's evolutionary
chain about 10,000 years earlier.
Preserve and promote. These horses, with their wits and their sinew sharpened by 400 years of living in the wild, flourished until the frontier was tamed. By the early 1900s, this genetic pool had nearly been drained, both because of the destruction of the Native American nations that depended on
these horses for their way of life, and because wild herds were increasingly being
crossed with a wide variety of European horses
brought from the east by settlers. In the 1920s,
Bob Brislawn and his family began to gather
remnants from wild herds of these Spanish
Mustangs, some from as far away as Mexico,
along with horses from the Cheyenne, Crow,
Shoshone, and Ute Indian herds. The Brislawns
helped form the Spanish Mustang Registry
in 1957, an association designed to protect
and promote this rare and historic breed.
History’s horse. "We wanted to preserve a breed that had preserved itself for the previous 400 years," says Emmett Brislawn, Bob's son, who continues to raise Spanish Mustangs on the family's Cayuse Ranch in northeast Wyoming, in the shadow of Devil's Tower. While it's still considered a rare breed by the American Rare Breeds Conservancy, the
Spanish Mustang can be found in a variety of
settings, from running free on the Blackfeet
Nation lands of Montana, to individual horses
owned by registry members across the nation
and in countries around the world. The Spanish
Mustang Registry has recorded more than
3,000 animals, helping to assure that no one
will forget the horse that history rode in on.
Many outstanding attributes are credited to the Spanish Mustang (not to be confused with the crossbred BLM mustangs that are gathered from wild herds today). The original mustang is famous for its stamina.
Known for its toughness and endurance,
today’s Spanish Mustangs can
compete with most any breed when
it comes to endurance and competitive
trail riding. The McSwain family
from Winona, Texas, has won
national titles in competitive trail riding with
their Spanish Mustangs. And Mac took off on
the 515-mile Great Santa Fe Horse Race last
year. Mac was injured during the race, but
his wife, Diane, got aboard to finish the race.
"Our Spanish Mustangs carried her to the
finish on the last day," Mac says. And they
competed shoulder-to-shoulder with Arabbred
endurance horses. "We like to compete against other breeds of horses, doing what
they do best," Mac continues. “We use our
mustangs for team penning, working cattle,
and roping. They have the agility and the ability
to do anything you might want to do."
The McSwains also have found that the
breed strong enough to build a nation is gentle
enough to carry a child. "Our daughter,
Leigh Ann, has been riding a Spanish Mustang
since she was 2 years old," Mac says.
"She’s now 14 years old and has grown up
with these horses. The Spanish Mustang can
be a great breed for young people to enjoy."
Horses of color. The Spanish Mustang also is known for its rugged beauty. Not only are the basic colors of bay, chestnut, and black represented in the breed, but an entire spectrum of colors are found, as well as Appaloosa and paint patterns. Photographer J.S. Hockensmith has traveled to remote locations and
has triggered more than 30,000 images in
documenting the breed for an upcoming book
expected to be released in the spring of 2009.
(To see some sample images and get details
about the book, visit www.finearteditions.net).
"These are horses with an amazing history," Hockensmith says. "There is such a
connection between this breed and the development
of the Native American culture over
the past 500 years or so. When I’m photographing
the remaining herds of Indian horses
running against the scenery of the American
West, it’s like photographing freedom."
Carrying these unique genetics into the future is the mission of the Spanish Mustang Registry
(www.spanishmustang.org). Members of the registry agree that, although the breed can find
a place in the modern world of horse ownership,
the genetic traits that have allowed this horse to survive under rugged conditions should not be bred out. "Breeders and owners can honestly state that the preservation of the Spanish Mustang has been accomplished without compromising the historic value or
unique features of the breed," Brislawn maintains. "This unique horse breed is among the
few that has not lost many of its characteristics
due to the whims of man."
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