Some people have criticized the bid system because the best horses go to the people who can afford to pay the most. But studies show people do better if they can obtain a horse they really want, and the auction gives them that chance. Larger, highly colored horses usually go for the highest price. Many animals go for the minimum bid. Our wild herds originated from horses that escaped from or were turned loose by ranchers, the military, the Pony Express and American Indians.
Most mustangs are of mixed breed and are sorrels, bays or browns, although all colors occur.
Burros were brought to the West by Jesuit missionaries and were later used extensively by miners and sheepherders. Some of these animals were abandoned or escaped and formed the wild herds. Horses were native to North America during the last Ice Age, but became extinct more than 10,000 years ago. The Spanish brought horses from Europe in the 1500s and the American Indians quickly learned to care for and use the animals, helping spread them across the continent. Utah has one of the few wild horse herds in the U.S. that descended directly from the old Spanish Barb, the first horses brought to America by the Spanish explorers.