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The mustangs are the free-roaming horses of the North American west. They first descended from the horses brought to North America by the Spaniards. Most mustang aficionados refer to mustangs as wild horses. Those who consider the mustangs to be nothing more than pests introduced into the ecosystem after the disappearance of the true North American wild horse in the ice-age (Equus ferus ferus) call them feral, because they descended from horses once-domesticated, and also because they want the land and resources for domestic cattle. In every sense the mustangs have returned to their original wild state; however, as they can survive without the help or hindrance of man, who once drove them off cliffs, used them as a food source and discarded them on this continent once their use was no longer needed. They are a part of our history and in 1971, the United States Congress recognized Mustangs as the living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West that they are! The herds vary in the degree to which they can be traced to original Iberian horses brought to these shores by the Spanish, and some contain a stronger genetic make-up of ranch stock and other breeds, the species having interbred with either abandoned stock, or escaped domestic stock. Those herds in isolated locales are genetically closer to original Spanish Iberian stock. Mustangs are beautiful creatures whose future, although today still debatable, that have survived though abandonment, slaughter, and worse. However, in spite of everything they have managed to adapt and survive making them true ‘Comeback Kids.’ Enjoy the photographs of John D. Weigand and the poetry of award winning author, attorney and former teacher Penelope Dyan, investigate and then ask yourself whether the mustangs have restored an ecological balance interrupted by the ice age, or whether they do not belong here at all; and then ask yourself whether we belong here at all, having brought them here. Perhaps we are the feral pests and not the mustangs.
