Home › Horse Breeds A–Z › Mustang

Mustang

Equus ferus caballus

Feral Mustang gelding standing on open range
Photo: Ealdgyth — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The free-roaming horse of the American West — tough, sure-footed and descended from Spanish colonial stock.

TypeLight / ridingBest asRiding & familyOriginAmericas

How to spot it

A hardy, medium horse of about 13 to 15 hands (132 to 152 cm), usually compact and strong-boned with notably hard, sound feet. Every colour occurs, as the herds mixed many types over the centuries.

Temperament

Intelligent, wary and highly self-reliant from life in the wild. A gentled Mustang can be an exceptionally loyal, level-headed riding horse, but it needs patient, knowledgeable handling to start.

What it's bred for

Not bred to a standard at all — it is a feral horse shaped by natural selection from horses brought by the Spanish. Adopted Mustangs make durable trail, ranch and endurance mounts.

Care & upkeep

Extremely low-maintenance: it holds weight on poor forage, rarely needs shoes and copes with hard country. In the United States the BLM manages herd numbers through adoption.

Health & lifespan

Robust and long-lived — often 25 to 30 years thanks to the hybrid vigour of a wild gene pool and few of the inherited faults of closed studbooks.

Dog Breeds A–Z →Popular and Indian native dog breeds, with pictures.Animals A–Z →Well-known wild animals and India's own wildlife.Animals for sale →Horses and other animals listed by owners near you.
← Back to all horse breeds