Centuries ago, when Spanish Conquistadors came across the Atlantic to the Americas, they brought horses with them – lots of horses.
For what is probably a wide variety of reasons, a bunch of those horses got away, so to speak, and joined the wild animal population in a large portion of western North America. They thrived and multiplied, and the name “mustangs” was eventually used to refer to this feral band of equine descendants.
Over time, man by necessity assumed the responsibility of overseeing mustangs’ well-being, as well as that of the territory they occupied. In the early 1970s, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) the government entity assigned to that responsibility is, which also performs other tasks but is perhaps best known as a mustang protection agency. One of the ways the BLM manages the mustang herd in the U.S. is by helping citizens to adopt many of them by conducting adoption events at locations around the nation.
One such event took place last week in Texas County in conjunction with a major, week-long horsemanship convention known as the Mustang Family Reunion Ride at Golden Hills Trail Rides and Resort at Raymondville. I had the pleasure of meeting and working with a few BLM representatives during the event, primarily Steve Meyer, supervisory program specialist for the northeastern states district.
Meyer and his crew work out of an office in Milwaukee that is basically mustang central for a 20-state area.
“This is one of those, ‘it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it’ sort of things,” he said.
Tough indeed.
Pretty much every month from March to November, Meyer and his crew set out on adoption treks within their giant geographic zone. Along with dozens of wild horses and donkeys gathered from BLM-managed ranges in many western states, they take with them big-rigs loaded with a myriad of parts and gear used to erect impressive metal temporary holding facilities for the animals.
Meyer and his traveling mustang show were at Golden Hills for an entire week, but usually get in and out of a given venue much quicker than that.
“We typically set up on a Wednesday and leave out on Saturday,” he said. “So being here so long is kind of nice.”
One of Meyer’s workers, New Jersey native Kristen Fontaine, made several good points about the importance of the BLM’s mustang program with regard to preserving ecosystems where the horses roam free. She said that left alone, the herd would double every few years and mustangs would ultimately wreak havoc on the land.
“They would keep eating until there was nothing left to eat and kill themselves off in the process,” Fontaine said, “along with all the other animals that live in the area and eat the same foods.”
Translation: Managing mustangs goes hand-in-hand with protecting the environment. Viewed in those terms, what the BLM does takes on a whole new meaning.
The adoption event in Texas County became a reality through a connection with Laura Scott Dawson (of Lexington, Texas), co-founder and organizer of the Mustang Family Reunion Ride, along with her husband Eric Dawson. Her background includes several years working for the Mustang Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Georgetown, Texas, dedicated to helping promote the BLM’s wild horse and burro program and help increase the number of successful adoptions.
Dawson said it’s unfortunate that mustangs are often perceived in the “elite horse world” as sub-par animals, or even labeled as “trash horses.”
“That’s just not true,” she said. “Given the right situation, they can become just as good as any other horse.”
The two Mustang Family Reunion Ride events the Dawsons have put on at Golden Hills are attended by many mustang owners and enthusiasts and highlighted by instruction from numerous renowned trainers (or “clinicians”), many who own mustangs themselves and actually use them in their clinics and as their daily riders. While Dawson likes to stress she’s not against anyone owning or using any type of horse, the fact that mustangs are integral part of the work of several well-known horsemanship trainers says volumes.
“They can do anything any other horse can do and can be whatever a person wants them to be,” she said.
The saga of the American mustang isn’t often on the minds of many people in the Ozarks. But it’s apparent that mustangs get a fair share of attention elsewhere, and that would seem to be a good thing.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.