What do mustangs do

They can be found roaming free across the western United States but are also kept by humans in captivity and ridden like other horses.

Mustangs have muscular bodies and hard hooves, which makes them suitable for scouting and trail riding, according to Horse Canada , a government-run equine website. Horses belong to the genus Equus , which evolved in North America about 4 million years ago, before spreading out to the rest of the world. The last truly wild horses of America died out about 10, years ago, likely due to climate change and interactions with humans, Live Science previously reported.

Related: 10 extinct giants that once roamed North America. Mustangs, which like other horses, are typically measured in hands, typically stand 14 to 15 hands tall.

This measurement equals 56 inches to 60 inches to centimeters. They weigh around pounds kilograms , according to the America's Mustang program. Mustangs can be a wide variety of different colors and, according to Oklahoma State University , their coats show the entire range of colors found in all horses.

Usually, they are bay, which is a reddish-brown, or sorrel, which is a chestnut color. They can also have a variety of patches, spots and stripes.

Mustangs live in the grassland areas of the western U. The U. They have a straight or convex profile, long ears, and a narrow chest. This old-style Mustang is very intelligent and is notable for endurance races. Since very few of these horses remain today, they all come under protection from various Associations, especially the BLM Bureau of Land Management. The temperament of mustangs varies greatly. For example, Mustangs breeds like Kigers have especially proven themselves to be affectionate and trustworthy companions.

Generally, Mustangs are smart and headstrong animals, and unlike other domesticate-raised horses, they heavily relied on instincts to survive in the wild. Mustangs have a genuinely wild temperament, but you can mold them into lovable companions with firm handling and consistent patient training.

Many Mustangs have a rebellious streak in them. They can turn out to be feisty, and that is why you must establish a clear pecking order and hierarchy when training. As with any horse breed, training a younger Mustang is a lot easier than training an older one.

Wild horses can be dangerous if they are not socialized to humans. They will perceive a human as a threat, and that could make them dangerous. With proper training and socialization, one can train a Mustang to be an affectionate herd mate that respects and trusts its humans.

Many horse trainers specialize in training Mustangs. This is an important government initiative that protects areas where wild Mustangs roam free. Additionally, they typically have well-proportioned bodies, not too lanky or overly stout. Members of this breed vary in size, but typically stand between 14 and 15 hands tall from the shoulder or withers to the ground.

This translates to roughly 56 to 60 in. This popular horse has a number of unique traits and characteristics. Learn more about what makes them unique, below. The first self-sustaining populations of Spanish horses established in the arid regions of Mexico. These regions consist primarily of desert and mountainous habitats. They also utilize grassland and prairie habitats with plenty of vegetation for them to feed on. Spanish conquistadors established breeding populations that would become feral Mustangs in Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico.

The Native American people quickly adopted use of the horses, and the populations eventually spread throughout western North America, with feral populations becoming established. Nowadays, you can find these horses in specialized Herd Management Areas that protect and manage the populations. As is the case with all horses, this breed has herbivorous feeding habits.

I tucked my chin against my chest and folded my arms. The ever restless Wyoming wind was loaded with winter intentions, and the water in the troughs in the corrals below had frozen inches thick. A helicopter pilot contracted by the BLM swept out across the plains, herding groups of horses into a canyon below us.

The canyon shrank into a camouflaged burlap chase, at the mouth of which a "Judas" horse was released, leading its wild cousins into a metal corral, where yesterday's wild horse catch was already waiting. At the gate, the pilot tipped his blades at a few balking horses, which shocked forward into the cloud of dust.

The gate was slammed shut, and a handful of young cowboys, quick as cats, spilled over the fences into the midst of the herd. The helicopter went back out for more horses. Inside the corral the cowboys separated the stallions from the mares, the foals from all the others. Within an hour 40 to 50 horses had been skillfully processed. The horses' panic subsided to what looked to be anxious resignation.

A vet hovered near the corrals, inspecting each horse. A few had sustained superficial injuries, but none appeared seriously hurt, although wild horses are sometimes injured or killed during gathers. Every year 40 to 60 gathers remove between 5, and 10, wild horses from the western range. Some would be trained by inmates for auction later in the season; others would await adoption or removal to long-term sanctuaries.

They're flat-out inhumane. Firstly, it's genetically irresponsible to be constantly pulling off young horses whose genes will never get expressed; secondly, every time you pull horses out, the reproductive efficiency of the horses that remain increases.

And thirdly, the behavioral consequences for the horses are profound. Jay D'Ewart, a BLM wild horse specialist in Rock Springs, Wyoming, said he doesn't like to see the mustangs rounded up either, but that his agency is responsible not only for the welfare of the horses but also of the range.

We have a duty to ensure balance. So we gather with helicopters, as quietly and quickly as we can. Limited by the carrying capacity of the land and tugged between the demands of ranchers, miners, and hunters on the one hand and the indignation of wild horse advocacy groups on the other, the BLM has settled on keeping 30, horses in permanent captivity about as many as exist in the wild at an average daily cost of more than two dollars each.

This arrangement soaks up funds and provides, at best, a stopgap solution to the animals' tendencies toward prolific breeding. Every year thousands more horses are rounded up, and every year thousands more end up in long-term holding. Last year the agency said it might have to euthanize horses to reduce costs which prompted Madeleine Pickens, T.

Boone Pickens's wife, to offer to adopt many, if not all, of the BLM's captive mustangs. Meantime the scenario for the horses is just awful. If you arbitrarily pull horses out of that group, the consequences can be devastating for the remaining family members. Kathrens is a documentary filmmaker who has been observing wild horses for more than a decade in the Pryor Mountains. She's made two films about these horses and was working on a third.

It was a raw spring day, and we settled down with our backs to the wind and watched. A pale stallion named Cloud was keeping half an eye on his mares as they grazed the range on top of this rocky ridge and half an eye on us. Kathrens said that a stallion will fight—sometimes to the death—for the right to own mares, which he must then continue to defend from interloping bachelors until old age makes it impossible for him to carry on. There was even a case of what might be called love—a solitary and now elderly couple that broke the rules of wild horse society to be together.

When the stallion that had won the mare let her out of his sight the night she was foaling, she escaped and sneaked back to her stallion of choice. He'll end up on his own, and I don't think it's too strong to say that some stallions succumb to a form of depression. Kirkpatrick said contraception offers a humane alternative to rounding up the animals, but that the BLM is resistant. He said the agency is spending too little studying fertility control and too much on helicopter roundups.

When he suggested to a BLM official that the agency inject the mares with the wildlife contraceptive vaccine porcine zona pellucida PZP , he recalled being told, "That's not how we do it out here. We do it with horses and ropes.

Kathrens is wary of any kind of human intervention to manage herd numbers. As we were speaking, a thin, charcoal-colored mare lay down next to her foal.

Kathrens explained that the mare had been vaccinated nearly seven years earlier with PZP. When it wore off six years later, she conceived out of season. The foal had been born in September, too close to the onset of winter to allow either animal to meet a cold, snowy spring in anything close to decent condition. Kathrens told me that out of season births have been a sad side effect of PZP on the Pryor mares, an observation adamantly rejected by Kirkpatrick, who says that there are always some out of season births, with or without PZP.