| A Short HISTORY of W.H.O.A. |
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The horse originated on the North American continent, beginning with Eohippus ( asmall, horse-like animal) as early as 60 million years ago. The modern horse (scientific name, equus caballus) came on the scene four million years, and thrived for almost that amount of time. (See http://www.pbs.org/wildhorses/wh_origin/wh_origin.html ) During this vast time period, the horse also spread, via land bridges available during Ice Ages, to Asia, and from Asia to Europe and Africa.
Until about 1 million years ago, there were Equus species all over Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, in enormous migrating herds that must easily have equalled the great North American bison herds, or the huge wildebeest migrations in Africa. (from http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/horses/horse_evol.html#part9 )
About 8000 years ago (a mere blink of the eye in geologic time) the horse disappeared from its land of origin. We don't really know why. Over-hunting by the continent's latest arrival, homo sapiens, almost certainly played a role. (See http://www.crystalinks.com/horses.html ) An increase in volcanic activity, disease epidemic, and climatic change may also have contributed. We may never know the whole story.
Horses returned to North America in about 1500 AD, with the arrival of the Spanish explorers and conquerors. The "Age of Exploration" might better have been called "The Age of the Spanish Horse" because without the Iberian barbs and jennets, Spanish penetration into the continent would have been impossible.
But perhaps the most interesting thing the horse did in America, it did for itself: It took its Freedom. Escaping human domination whether by choice or by abandonment, the horse easily took up residence in the landscape it had helped to form. Once the conquistadors destroyed the Aztecs and other Indian peoples, many Spanish horses escaped or were turned loose and became feral or wild. The Spanish horses were from the finest strains and were regarded as the best in Europe. They formed the nucleus of the great herds of wild horses that spread upward from Mexico into the United States and the western plains country.
The horse completely transformed Native American cultures, with many Plains and Great Basin groups becoming expert horsemen and horse breeders. Conquered Native Americans were enslaved and forced to work on the Spanish rancheros. While there, they acquired horses for themselves, and learned horsemanship skills which they soon put to good use against their captors. Native peoples generally managed their horses somewhat loosely by European standards, allowing the horses considerable freedom. This management style augmented the growing wild herds.
Wild horses were variously called "mustangs," "mestenos," broncos, chapos (meaning short and chunky), Cayuse (after one Native group who raised them), Indian Ponies, and Spanish Mustangs.
MORE HISTORY
On December 15, 1971, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act (PL 92-195) to implement laws relating to wild horses and burros on public lands.
The objective of the regulations was to provide criteria and procedures for protecting, managing, and controlling wild horses and burros as a "recognized component" of the public land environment. This meant that wild horses and burros now had a legal right to live on the public lands. The horses and burros would share this right with native wildlife such as deer and privately owned domestic cattle, whose owners leased the public lands from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service.
The law gave the responsibility for the management and protection of these animals to the U.S. Department of the Interior to be administered by the BLM and to the Department of Agriculture to be administered by the Forest Service.
From 1971 until the BLM took over the adoption program in 1976, Wild Horse Organized Assistance (WHOA) under the direction of Wild Horse Annie, International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros under the direction of Ms. Helen Reilly and NOAH under the direction of Ron Zaidlich, DVM, adopted out approximately 10,000 wild horses.
Horses and burros rounded up on lands not protected by the law were adopted by hands-on groups such as the LIFE Foundation under the direction of Ms. Barbara Eustis-Cross.
In 1978, with the passage of the Public Rangelands Improvement Act (PL95-154), the U.S. government was permitted to transfer ownership of up to four animals each year to individual adopters who had given the animals one year of humane care and treatment.
Wild Horse Organized Assistance - W.H.O.A. a 501-c3 non-profit organization WHOA This website designed & maintained by Nancy Kerson |
