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Does half mustang mean anything?

5K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  WinstonH123 
#1 ·
As far as Mustangs go I think of them as being taken from the wild. I understand from threads they require a special knack of handling.

Questions then:

A captive bred Mustang to Mustang foal would still be a Mustang, but would it be a domesticated horse, or having been raised by a wild-born mare still retain the strong wild instincts?

Concerning though a foal born from a breeding of a registered APHA mare to a Mustang stallion. Would the foal be considered a Mustang at all?

I am looking at a 6 yr old gelding said to be sired by a Mustang. The sire was never seen by the owners of the mare, who bought the mare already in foal and were just 'told' she was bred to a Mustang.

Would this gelding just be an everyday grade gelding, or does the term half mustang have any merit?

Pictures of the gelding are in my post titled Possible project in the horse critique section. I will put only one here:

Horse Mammal Vertebrate Mane Mare
 
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#2 ·
Mustangs are domesticated. They are not wild animals, they are feral. HUGE difference. With training, they can be just as sound as bob the old quarter horse. Honestly, I would not even be a bit concerned about half mustang. He is still a domestic animal, and he is gorgeous! IMHO, mustangs tend to have good feet as well, but that's just me.
 
#4 ·
I think some people get carried away with the whole 'wild' thing
The mustang is a mix of all sorts originally - the Iberian and Sorraia ponies that the Spanish brought over, Friesians, draft horses, British native breeds, TB's - anything that somehow escaped or was released and went feral
If they've been rounded up and never seen humans - and had a bad experience in that first encounter then they will be less trusting but one they overcome that are just as trainable as any other horse
As a child in the UK most of our low priced ponies were ones that were rounded up off the New Forest, Dartmoor & Exmoor as 3 year olds and they were really solid reliable mounts despite having lived 'wild'
 
#5 ·
In your case, this horse being part mustang should contribute positively to the horse's structural soundness. Actual mustangs have "survival of the fittest" so if you don't have good feet or a good body, you are going to get eaten. So if he was sired by one, hopefully those good strong traits were passed along as well.

And I can see he's got very nice bone structure. Looks like he could handle just about any type of work!
 
#7 ·
Mustang is just a breed--one that happens to be out in the wild, but can be domesticated and trained like any other horse.

So if he is half Mustang... he is just that.

Honestly, I'm a little confused about what you're looking for x.x I think I may be reading the original post incorrectly xD
 
#8 ·
The OP is looking for traits of the breed. Such as:
--Arabians have great endurance
--Quarter Horses have speed bursts over short distances
--Thoroughbreds can sustain speed over long distances and jump well
--Draft horses can pull heavy loads
--Mustangs have good feet and strong bones
And so on.

Generalizations, yes. But I believe that is what the OP is looking for.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Mustangs are not a breed, they're a type of feral horse. Mustangs are a Heinz 57 variety of many different breeds. A purebred is an animal who breeds true. Mustangs don't, since they're an amalgamation of all sorts of varying traits.

Your horse is a grade, OP. Nice, solid looking gelding but 'mustang' means very little in terms of marketability and desirability. In fact, since his father really is an unknown and all you have to go on is hearsay, that's considered detrimental by many people who like to know bloodlines.
 
#10 ·
So first off, there are two types of mustangs, the Spanish mustang, which has a registry and traces its breeding back to the original Spanish horses brought to north America. they have a strong Spanish influence, and constitute a very small portion of the mustang population. The other type is the feral horse of north America. Some may still have some Spanish blood, but most are a mix of everything, draft, cavalry horses, farm horses, whatever escaped. What they all have in common is their ability to survive harsh conditions, live off very little and reproduce. They are very sound, with good bone and great feet, easy keepers that can cover a lot of ground, and typically on the smaller, lighter muscled side. The large hind ends, excessively muscled and very tall horses we often breed for are hindrances in the wild, so quickly get bred out in favor of more practical features. in essence, they are feral grade horses.

people talk about them being different to train just in the fact that they are wild. Wild horses, unlike domestic ones, have to be very alert, extremely in tune with their environment, quick to identify and react to danger. they also have to be very familiar with body language, to a far greater extent then domestic horses. A mustang will react to your body language much faster than a horse raised by people.

as far as half mustangs, no it doesn't have any merit, other than the fact that it may have inherited some of the hardiness and soundness common to mustangs. The only way a foal will inherit any of the "wild" characteristics is if it is raised in wild type terrain, by a wild mare.
 
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