Feral was Barefoot/Strasser/fads...

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

> Actually there is a minority, very small, who feels that there is a 
> chance > that the horse has been here all along and was not wiped out
and > the> reintroduced.

Would you believe I ran into my research paper from 1980 on that subject
*yesterday*?  The sources I had  used (I can get it back out if anyone is
interested) had detailed records form Spain on how many horses came with
each shipload of Conquistadors.  Take into account that about 3/4 of
those were stallions and there was a high attrition rate.  Many campaigns
recorded how few survived...many were eaten.  Then they had quotes from
early settlers on the huge herds of horses in the west when they arrived.
 The math didn't work out.  Also there was the fact that the Arabians &
Barbs weren't buckskin or dun, whereas large numbers in the herds were. 
Come to think of it, seems like they should have been about 2/3 gray if
they came from Arab stock. >g<  Granted, I was just going for a grade and
didn't try to find the dissenting opinion.  At that time the idea
appealed to me.  They did state that the early mustangs were considered
more aggressive towards domestic horses than present day "mustangs"
are...as is the Prewalski's (sp?) horse.

Angie
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