Pinglaggette t1_jdi1ks3 wrote
Reply to comment by CaliBigWill in TIL the US federal government captures and sells excess wild horses to the public by MoistCoyote
You’re misunderstanding what I’m saying. Yes, there were horses in the US in earlier times, introduced by early Europeans (and yes, they were European horses. American horses went extinct 12,000 years or so ago). Native peoples started buying and breeding their own shorter stature ponies ideal for the region. But the massive overpopulation (and the reason that this is such an issue) came from the release of union cavalry. That would be why the current “wild” horses all resemble mustangs and not the sturdy, shorter stature ponies raised and used by the natives in these regions.
CaliBigWill t1_jdi6ng1 wrote
Scientists are questioning whether wild horses populations in the Americas went extinct and some Native Americans will tell you they didnt. Native Americans did not buy and breed.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/04/27/native-horses-indigenous-history
There was no mass release of horses at the end of the Civil War. Horses died by the millions in that war and at the end they needed to obtain more horses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Remount_Service
The US Cavalry still existed (and does exist) and still had to function (American Indian Wars)
The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish.
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