Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-01-09
THE WILD HORSE
He Makes . Rover OF His Domesticated
Brethren When He Meets Them

From Goldthwaite's Geographieal MAGAZINE
Very young students, in their first attem pts
at composition, often informed us that the
horse is q useful animal This sweeping gen.
eralization is subject to important modiica-
tions before ii is accepted in all communities
There are many thousands OF horses that toll
not like their progenitors but 60 like the wind
where it liste:h, and are looked upon as in
tolerable nuisances in the civilized regions
they sometimes invade. Our Australian friends,
for instance. are no lovers Of tho horse in his
untamed state. and some Of the colonies set a
price upon. his head and do all they can to
stimulate movements for his destruction.
Several thousand wild horses were shot in New
South Wales alone in 1875. These rovers OF the
plains play the mischief with domesticatoa
animals when they come among them and the
colonlsts are very much disguised TO observe
that the noble horse. relapsng into barbGrism
aad forgetting his oats and the other comforts
OF civilization. runs off with his wild brethren
who have not enjoyed his superior advantages.
II must be confessed that our horses need
the restraints imposed upon them to prevent
them from 6isSracinS their ancestors, who were
certainly domesticated when they were intro
duced into this country. Years ago il used 10
be the custom in our southwestern territory 10
brand the young stock and even many work
animals and turn them loose TO shift for item
selves for a year or two. When they were
wanted they were always as wild as Mexican
mustangs. Mr.. Powell wrote a book on the best
method of tanning wild horses. The specimens
on which he exerted his talents as a tanner
were. for the most part. formerly domesticated
animals, who had forgotten all about their re-
straints while wandering over the plains OF our
southwestern TERRITORY.
Travellers in western territories are no longer
in danger Of such an eruption of horse flesh as
Murray described in his Travels in North
America He not only witnessed stampede
Of thousands of panic-stricken horses, but the
living torrent swept along toward and over his
camp, trampling skins aud dried meat into the
ground, knocking down Come OF the tents and
taking with them all its horses except his riding
mare, who vainly struggled 10 break her fast
enings. They still range. in much smaller herds
RADIO, but the wild horse, like the buffalo. has
practically disappeared before the advance Of
the white man.
In spite of the experience Of the Australians.
many peoples. chiefly savage, have been able
to turn the wild horse TO good account Hun
dreds Of thousands of Mexican mustangs have
been reduced to servitude. The wild horse of
the South American pampas, which three CEN
turtles ago, only fifteen years after the horse
was introduced from Europe, had spread to re-
glons as remote as Patagonia, has been tanned
by Thousands and has become the useful serv-
ant of Indian tribes.
Naturalists often discuss the question
whether there is now in the world such a crea-
ture as an aboriginal or truly wild horse. We
know very well that the wild horses of the
western hemisphere are all descendants of
domesticated animals. Where. then, is the
aboriginal wild horse to be found? The ques-
ton will probably never be settled. Mr.. J. III.
Steel. who recently read an interesting paper
on wild Horses" before the Bombay Natural
History Society, thinks the evidence is in favor
OF the existence of the wild horse in central
Asia. Gesner, the great authority on zoology
OF the sixteenth century, was of the same opin-
ion, but the fact has often been questioned, and
the assertion cannot positively be made that
the wild horse Of the great mountain region
which the Russians are now exploring and of
which they have secured some specimens is
not himself the descendant of ancient domestic
animals.
Another question OF importance as yet un-
solved is. whether two or three years run on the
pampas would rejuyenate the average street
car horse, develop the latent sayagery OF his
nature and maze wild horse OF him. If
equine liberty and freedom from human re-
straint could achieve such a miracle 1t would
be very interesting to know il.