Conquistadors Brought Horses

Sun., Nov. 21, 1999

Spanish conquistadors brought horses to the New World 500 years ago, and the descendants of their mounts now roam across the West.

Wild horses can damage the environment and compete with bighorn sheep and other natives for forage. But no one is talking about eradicating them. Exotic or not, a mustang galloping the range is part of Western lore.

In 10 Western states, however, the Bureau of Land Management is rounding them up in hopes of reducing the herd by half, to about 23,000 horses.

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