HOW LONG HAVE HORSES BEEN IN THE PRYOR MOUNTAINS and where did they come from? With a history as rich as America’s own, the Pryor Mountain mustangs’ true origins may never be completely uncovered.
Equine evolution began more than 57 million years ago amid the lush vegetation of what was to become North America. Between 3.4 and 3.9 million years ago, early horses emerged, and over time, some wandered across the Bering Land Bridge into Asia. Between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago — shortly after man appeared in North America — many large species vanished from the continent, including the modern horse.
In the late fifteenth century, Spanish explorers returned the horse to its native land. Conquistadors arrived astride horses known as jennets, compactly built with a deep chest, an arched, somewhat heavy neck, a strong back, and a rounded croup that sloped to a low-set tail. The mane and tail were long, full, and a bit wavy. The facial profile was either straight or convex, with a broad forehead and deep-set, prominent eyes.
As settlers spread through North America, so did horses, many escaping to freedom. At their peak, wild horses were estimated to number in the millions. Horses may have run wild around the Pryor Mountains for more than 200 years. Crow tradition first places horses nearby around 1725 when a war party brought a horse back from another tribe. By 1743, Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader Louis-Joseph Laverendrie was awed by multitudes of fine Crow horses. Could the Pryor Mustangs be the remnants of Crow herds?
Over the years, trappers, explorers, traders, travelers, warriors, and settlers have surrendered horses to this high, wild frontier. In more recent times, horses abandoned by homesteaders due to drought and depression mingled with the wild herds. Few domestic horses, however, survived the rigors of this environment.
Twentieth-century DNA testing proved that many Pryor Mountain Mustangs share a common ancestry with the Conquistadors’ steeds. Perhaps even more precious is the tremendous genetic diversity this testing revealed, although already half their rare genes have disappeared as horses die or are removed from the Range.
WHERE THESE HORSES came from may prove to be less of a mystery than where they are headed in the future.
SPANISH HERITAGE is unmistakable in some horses: the classic Iberian-Barb head, delicate features, small ears, long sloping nose, and sensitive, almost almond-shaped eyes that reflect a solemn serenity.
WATER-HOLE RITUALS highlight the complex social order of wild horses. Alert and wary, band members enforce their established hierarchy. The lowest in the pecking order (left) approaches cautiously.
CLASSIC IBERIAN FEATURES mingle with feathered fetlocks that suggest draft ancestry.
MEMBERS OF CONQUISTADOR’S BAND are considered permanent trespassers for roaming the territory of their ancestors. Unbeknownst to them, it falls outside the Range.
RUNNING WILD AND FREE as Nature intended, this group disappears over a ridge along the lower plateaus of the Pryor Mountains.
A TRUE COYOTE DUN, Jackson’s coat bears the sooty shadows for which the color is named.
“I am a drinker of the wind I am the one who never tires I love my freedom more than all these things. The Conquistador, Comanche and the cowboy — I carried them to glory. I am La Primera — Spanish mustang hear my story ….
“High in the Pryor Mountains first light of dawn Coyote Dun walks beneath the morning star.
He became an outlaw … his blood was watered some, but the flame still burns into the new millennium.”
— From “La Primera” by Ian Tyson
THE HEALTH AND VIGOR OF THE HORSES reflects their natural suitability to the habitat. Here, a stallion, Looking Glass, and his mare, Sequoia, relax amid the abundance of summer.
