Book Review: Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West

Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West
by Deanne Stillman
(available on Amazon)

First things first: this was not the book I thought it was. I picked it up out of curiosity - it had quite a few accolades on the cover, was by a talented writer, and in all honesty I began it with a sinking heart. For some years now, I have had in mind the project of researching and writing a book about the place the mustang holds in the American imagination.

This was not that book. This was not even close to that book. In fact? This was not really a book about mustangs at all, save for perhaps the last 1/4 of it.

That's not to say it was a bad book, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was quite a good book: well-written, thoughtful, far-ranging, and a good read. Here was my biggest problem: this book made no attempt to define or distinguish the "mustang," which is to say the distinctly wild (or feral) horse that lives without human interaction or mediation in the American west.

Stillman's title and subtitle imply that she will write a history of those horses. That's not what she did. Instead, this book is more accurately a history of the horse in general in the American west. Which is fine! She does a nice light nonfiction job of that, telling stories about the horses belonging to early conquistadors, about cavalry horses, about cow ponies and cattle drives, about the horses in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, about movie horses. She clearly (despite her personal history) doesn't know a whole lot about horses, but she does know a whole lot about people, and does a really nice job in telling her stories.

So while I spent the first 3/4 of the book annoyed at her lack of distinction (mustang != any horse out west != free-roaming stock horses != any horse that she has decided fits a certain physical type), when I forced myself to step back and think "this is really about horses as companions in creating the history of the west" I liked the book much much better.

And then when she spends the last 1/4 actually talking about mustangs, actually parsing out the history of the wild/feral horses in the west in the mid to latter part of the 20th century? She does a really good job. Instead of an enjoyable but not gripping read it became a gripping and depressing and involved read. I couldn't put down the last 80 pages. It took me 2 weeks to read the first 240.

And in the end? I'm glad she didn't write the book I wanted to write, because that means it's still out there for me to tackle.

Longeing after a few days off

The cold snap has broken here in the great white north. Yesterday, it was up to 20F. Today, it will go up to 30F. I haven't even buttoned up my winter work coat or worn gloves in the last two days. Our furnace is occasionally turning off and not working overtime in a desperate attempt to keep the apartment marginally warm. It's amazing.

Last night, I headed to the barn. I'd spent all day thinking about what kind of ride I wanted to plan after a week and a half off. Sure, he'd walked around for about 45 minutes on Monday, but he hadn't had any proper work in 10 days.

The more I thought about that, the more I re-thought the idea of riding at all. I decided to longe. As it turned out: good decision!

I started with a good hard curry all over to loosen his muscles and dig in to his coat, since I hadn't been grooming him much in his time off either - the barn picks his feet out 2-3x a day so I knew he wasn't exactly suffering, plus I felt bad pulling his blanket just to groom him for 10 minutes. (There's no logic there, I know.)

Then I put on his surcingle and the chambon, twisted the reins of his bridle up into the cheekpiece to get them out of the way, and we headed into the ring. Almost immediately, I was very glad I had longed! He was a bit keyed up and antsy while I was attaching the longe line, but I attributed that to the fact that I'd pulled him from his stall just as the other horses were getting their grain, the poor baby.

I sent him out on the longe line, and before I even had time to bring up the whip to point at his hindquarters, he exploded. Buck, fart, crowhop, take off, you name it. Two whole circles around me! I know, some of you with very "up" horses are laughing at me right now but this is Tristan. Any bucking exuberance is extraordinary. I have to admit when he first took off I was laughing too hard to really pull him back, but he eased up nicely when I asked him too.

He was clearly a bit stiff all around, and I was glad both that I'd grabbed the chambon and that I was longeing. He clearly relaxed and came through bit by bit through the whole session, which lasted about 25 minutes. He still had some energy at the end, but I hadn't been looking to burn energy, just to loosen him up, and he was coming through quite beautifully in both directions at the walk and the trot. He even made some attempts to stretch in the canter, something we've been working on a lot.

He was generally saucy through the whole session, and would occasionally stop and turn in. When I sent him back out in the direction I wanted him he would snort and let fly with his back feet and prance around a few strides before settling in. Nothing really naughty, more playful and just a touch uncooperative and spunky.

Tonight, I'll get back on him and do a more thorough ride, probably incorporating poles.

In a horsekeeping note, after a three-round botulism vaccine (!), all the barn horses are now on round bales. Tris is very, very happy. The barn manager mentioned that she was a teensy bit worried about Tris - thought he looked a little bloated when he came in - but he laid down and took a nap and then pooped a lot. So...just a pig.

Equine Nutrition on Coursera

Thanks to those who recommended the Coursera class on "Equine Nutrition" from the University of Edinburgh. I've signed up and will start a bit late but dig right into the first week over the weekend.

I'll blog about it as I proceed and try and share a bit of what I'm learning, and whether I'm finding it useful.

Thanks to those who offered other resources as well - I'll definitely be moving on to them once I get these basics down.

Here's the syllabus for anyone who would like to join me:

Course summary 

This course will cover many aspects of equine nutrition ranging from anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal tract to dietary management of horses/ponies affected with nutrition-related disorders. This course is designed to provide knowledge of equine digestion and nutrition for those with an interest in this area. The anatomy and physiology of the equine alimentary canal will be studied to provide students with a detailed understanding of the equine digestive system. Nutrient sources for horses will be discussed, with emphasis placed on the health and welfare issues surrounding the inclusion of various types of feedstuffs in equine diets. Students will also discuss recommendations on rations for horses and ponies performing various activities and will be able to make recommendations on rations for horses and ponies in health and disease. 

Course learning outcomes 

The intended learning outcomes on completion of this course are that you should be able to: 

1. Discuss the anatomy and physiology of the equine gastrointestinal tract and appraise its limitations in relation to nutrient digestion.

1. Explain the nutrient content of feedstuffs for horses and appreciate the different methods of evaluating this. 

1. Recognise and critically appraise nutrient sources for horses and ponies.

1. Describe the general nutrient requirements of horses and provide general guidance on rations. 

1. Discuss rations for horses with specific nutrition-related disorders. 

Course topics 

• Week 1: Anatomy and physiology

• Week 2: Feed Composition

• Week 3: Equine nutrient sources 

• Week 4: Equine dietary management

• Week 5: Equine clinical nutrition

Course assessment 

There will be multiple choice assessments (quizzes) at the end of each week course to test the knowledge you have gained during that section. This will be graded examinations that will each contribute 20 % to your overall course mark. You have three attempts at the each of the quizzes and the best score of the three will be used for your assessment. However, you can re-take the test as much as you want to review your learning. The quizzes will remain open for the full 5 weeks that the course is running - so you can complete them when you feel ready. The pass mark for each quiz is 60 %. 

There will also be weekly quizzes to test your knowledge that are not graded, but are there to aid your learning and prepare you for the graded quizzes. If you have any questions about the assessment process please post these on to the assessment discussion board for the course tutors. Again, whilst we can't answer individual questions we can pick up on commonly asked questions and address these in a general post to everyone on the course :)  

Statment of Accomplishment 

Students successfully completing all the assessment quizzes and gaining at least 60% in each quiz will qualify for a Statement of Accomplishment.  A link to this downloadable certificate will be provided to each successful student around one week after the end of the course.  Students interested in gaining a Verified Certificate should consider signing up for Signature Track during the first two weeks of the course - follow the links at the top of this page for more information and to sign up. 

How to Identify and Read a Bureau of Land Management Freeze Brand

When I introduce people to Tristan, they always seem surprised that he's a mustang. Fortunately, he has permanent proof of his ancestry in the form of a freeze brand on his neck. All mustangs that have been rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of an approved gather are given a freeze brand on the left side of their neck, just below the mane and about 6-12 inches below the ears.

What is freeze branding? Many people are familiar - from the movies, if nothing else - with hot branding: heating a piece of iron and then applying it to an animal's skin. The brand burns through hair and then into skin, creating an outline of scar tissue in whatever shape is necessary: a ranch's ID, for example, or a number. In horses, the most common are breed association brands. There's a good list of them on the NetPosse website. It's not a painless process, but it is relatively quick and very common.

In freeze branding, the iron is super-frozen using liquid nitrogen, dry ice, or some other chemical coolant. When held to an animal, instead of burning through to the skin, it kills the pigment-producing part of the animal's hair, and leaves the hair white in the shape of the brand. They are slower to work - you have to hold the brand on longer to get the desired result, and they don't appear immediately, but rather as the hair grows in. It's less painful (some resources say totally painless) but trickier: because you have to hold the iron for longer, there's a chance of smudging.

In America, only range-gathered BLM mustangs have a consistent system of freeze branding. (In Australia and New Zealand, Thoroughbreds & Standardbreds are marked with freeze brands.) This is not to say that if you see a horse with a freeze brand, it's automatically a BLM mustang. Some owners choose to freeze brand their horses (usually in different locations and with a different system). Some mustangs are never freeze branded (if they were born in captivity, for example).

BLM mustangs are freeze branded on the left side of their neck, about an inch or two below the crest, and about 6" below the ears. There's no precise measurement (Tristan's is further down than 6" for sure, and I've seen some much closer than 6"), but if you see a horse with a freeze brand near the crest on the left side of their neck, you're probably looking at a BLM horse.

Every BLM freeze brand is unique. They're meant as a permanent identifier of an individual mustang. Knowing how to read them can tell you a lot about the animal you're looking at. There are three basic parts to any freeze brand. Here's a good breakdown:

"Registration Organization" in this case is always the same: US Government. That peculiar sort of LC at the beginning of this diagram is the government-specific ID. So that's another clue that you're looking at a BLM mustang. (There are ID marks for other breeds and states, by the way, but I've never seen one in person.) But what do the angles and lines mean - how are those translated into numbers?

The BLM uses something called the "International Identification System" which they all the "International Alpha Angle System." It was developed by Veterinary Cryobiologist (really!) R. Keith Farrell of Washington State University (along with a few others, such as an FBI agent and a few people from breed associations) and first published in the Journal of Forensic Science in January 1981. (Here's the abstract.) 

Basically, Professor Farrell was trying to promote an international system of identification for horses that could be registered and tracked in order to prevent crime. His argument was that commonly used identifiers such as color, whorls, chestnuts, and other markings were unscientific and imprecise. He proposed his alternate angle system as a way to get everyone on the same page. As you can guess, it hasn't really caught on widely in horse circles - have you ever seen a non-BLM horse with one? Kryo Kinetics USA LLC tries to carry on that work today, and will register your horse for you if you choose to have it freezebranded.

Anyway, enough history. What do the angles stand for? It's a very simple system.

So let's look again at the freeze brand above, this time deciphered using the angle system:

Ta-da! We're looking at a BLM mustang that was born in 1981 (the first year they began using the angle system, incidentally) with a registration number of 031987. There's one more step to learning more about this particular animal, though. The BLM assigns registration numbers according to the state the mustang was gathered from.

Arizona 80001-160000	California 160001-240000
Colorado 240001-320000	Idaho 320001-400000
Montana 400001-480000	Nevada 480001-640000
New Mexico 640001-720000	Oregon 0-80000
Utah 720001-800000	Wyoming 800001-880000
Eastern States 880001-880100

So, armed with that information we know we're looking at a BLM mustang that was born in 1981 and rounded up in Oregon. In theory, the BLM should also maintain a database of the horses they gather, and should be able to tell you when a particular horse was rounded up based on its registration number. In practice, good luck getting them to answer your phone calls. (I've generally found them unresponsive in the extreme.)

What does this look like on actual horses? Let's use my own wild pony as an example!

Yeah, not as easy, is it? I'll grant you that this photo doesn't help, but I'll also tell you that it's not that much easier to tell in person. In fact, since he was shipped to me, I haven't clipped down to the skin on his neck to get a good clear look at his brand. This photo was taken a few days after he arrived. You could argue that this is the best it will get. His roaning makes the numbers blur into the hair around them. Beyond maybe a flea-bitten gray horse, roans are the toughest on which to distinguish freezemarks.

The first few are easy. There's that government LC, right up front. Then the year, 95.

Then the next two are straightforward: 5 and 5. In better light, you can tell the next one, too: it's an 8.

After that? Honestly, the next two are kind of a blur to me, too. The last one is easy again: another 5.

I'll take a shortcut and tell you that his full, registered, identification number is 95558535. He was foaled in 1995, and rounded up in Nevada, per that 55 number which is smack in the middle of Nevada's range. (Some vast majority of all mustangs still wild in the west today are in Nevada, so Tris is a pretty typical example.)

That's all the freeze brand will tell you. You can, in theory, go back to the BLM and ask them for more information. If they're feeling generous they can look up more for you, like potentially the gather (or roundup) information, maybe the original title holder. Again - I've never been able to get much out of them. (I have more information on Tris that I'll share at a future date, but I have that because of the paperwork that came with him, not because of 

But this is a start. Let's look at one more freeze brand that's an easier read. (Taken from a random Google Image search; I don't know this horse personally.)

Much easier, huh?

So this one: 97 year of birth, followed by 566684. Another Nevada horse.

So now you know. Google Image search for "BLM freeze brand" to your heart's content and learn about the mustangs that come up, or impress horse people at cocktail parties, or maybe put that knowledge to good use someday when someone needs to know more about a horse they're looking at.

Any questions? Anything else I can shed light on?

Recommend an equine nutrition source to me

I have to finally face facts and realize that in 2014, Tristan turns 19. He's no longer a young horse. He's not quite a senior (in my eyes, anyway), and he's always been a healthy easy keeper. But that bit of scare with weight gain in late fall/early winter has made me think harder about his nutritional needs.

I'd like to learn more. I'm scouring the internet, but I think it's time for a purposeful study.

What resources do you use to learn about nutrition? Do you have a book, a website, an online class that you've found especially useful?

I'm most interested in balancing nutritional needs for the working sporthorse, but I'd like to learn a bit of everything.

Any suggestions appreciated!