The Wild Ones

When I say the word 'horse', your mind most likely goes to your favorite horse, most likely that's domestic*. Domestic horses are great, but wild horses are awesome too! They may be crazy because well, they are wild, but their ability to survive in nature; from the harshest droughts to raging Winter snowstorms, is really impressive. We should appreciate them and their characteristics just as much as domestic horses. After all, they are really cool.

Wild horses thrive in groups called herds. This means the group of horses, averaging from 20 to 25, migrate together, graze, and shelter together. Each herd has a lead mare and a stallion, and the rest of the horses don't have a specific title; they are just known as herd members. A lead mare leads the herd to grazing grounds, to water, and away from danger. She eats and drinks first, decides when the herd will move and to where. While the stallion usually brings up the rear and acts as a defender of the herd against predators and other stallions, in the situation where they battle for the ownership of areas of land.

Although herd life is amazing, it's not all rainbows and sunshine. Like I mentioned, wild horses are put to mother nature's test every single year. Horse herds face freezing winter temperatures, devastating heat and drought, and loss of food. In the harsh, cold winter wild horses can't just wait for their owner to lead them into their heated, insulated stalls. They have to withstand the frigid wrath of Winter. Just like humans, horses can have frostbite, but not usually as severe. A wild horses' ears are most vulnerable to this numbing condition. Thankfully, frostbite is fairly uncommon due to the coat of hair they are covered in. Another issue wild horses may run into in Winter is food loss. Most of a horses herd's main food sources are grasses. During the Winter months, these fields of grass are covered in snow, which makes salvaging foods 10 times more difficult than in other seasons. Some herds just paw through snow to reach the out-of-season-greens, but others eat wild roughage, such as bushes, leaves, tree bark or twigs.

Winter months isn't all a herd has to worry about. Droughts are a big problem in the scorching summertime. Some herds are resourceful enough to dig 'wells' up to six feet deep. Water is found in areas deep in the ground. Other herds race against thirst while migrating to a different area to consume water.

In conclusion, wild horses are just as awesome as your favorite tame horses. Thank you for reading this post today and I hope you join me for my next one. Always leave comments and any horse or blog questions in the comment system. There is so much to learn about these incredible creatures, so don't hesitate telling me what you want to know about horses, or what you want to see next post. Until next time!

*******************************************Definitions*************************************************************

1. *Domestic

An animal that has been tamed and kept by humans as a work animal, food source, or pet, especially a member of those species that have, through selective breeding, become notably different from their wild ancestors.