As the American West was settled, the wild herds were thinned to make way for cattle grazing. Mustangs were rounded up and used as rodeo roughstock, broken for use in general ranchwork, or slaughtered for human and dog food.
In 1957, The Spanish Mustang Registry, Inc. was formed to help preserve these beautiful creatures. Today, Mustangs are still rounded up for adoption; unfortunately, many of them are still sent to slaughterhouses.Mustangs are descendants of the horses brought by Cortez from Spain to the Americas. Native American Indians had not seen horses before and thought these four-legged animals with human riders were gods.
Breeding camps were established in the Americas, but many of these horses escaped captivity or were stolen by the Indians. Horses that migrated south were called Crillos, and those that headed north onto the Great Plaines were called Mustangs. By the 1800's, these horses had joined up with other feral horses from other explorers, colonists and settlers. As the horses' bloodlines mixed, different types of coat colors began to emerge. These included dun, grulla, pinto, and spotted.
BRULE
The horse at the upper right of this page is an original finish black pinto Hartland Rearing Mustang.
SPARE CHANGE
Spare Change is a customized Breyer #87 semi-rearing Mustang. He was remade into a slide stop and painted grulla by Darian Buckles. Spare Change qualified for the North American Nationals at his first live show by placing second in Roping and Other Western Events (Calf Penning). He was also named Customized Other Breed Champ at this show.
D's SANTA FE
This horse is a resin casting of an original sculpture, "D's Spin Doctor," a spinning horse created by DeeAnn Kjelshus. He will be shown as a bay roan Mustang and will be making his live show debut soon. For a more realistic look, DeeAnn used colored pencils to draw individual "hairs" on his coat!
PARALLAX
Parallax is a special run Breyer #174 Indian Pony mare. Her color is described as red dun.
Photos and text Copyright 1998-2003 by Keri Krause. Please do not use this material without my permission. Thank you.
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