Colorado Feral Horses

What are Colorado feral horses? Feral horses are horses that live in an untamed state but have ancestors who have been domesticated. This separates them from what are commonly known as “wild” horses. In fact, there are zero original wild horses from pre-domestication times that are in existence today. Therefore every horse living in the wild today are in all technicality feral.

The best-known examples of feral horses are the “wild” horses of the American west, including Colorado. When Europeans reintroduced many horse breeds to the Americas some horses escaped and formed feral herds. We call these herds “mustangs” today. For more information on feral horses in Colorado, contact Colorado Horse Property.

Feral Horses Around the World

In North America, feral horses are descendants of horses that were domesticated in Europe. Certain genes show similarities of both modern and fossil North American horses. However, they are not members of the same species. The west protects feral horses under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. But Colorado is not the only place where these horses can be found. You will find feral horses in parts of Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, and many other countries.

Australia has the largest population of feral horses in the world, with in excess of 400,000 horses. The Australian name equivalent to the ‘Mustang’ is the Brumby. English settlers brought these feral descendants of horses to Australia. More than 400 feral horses live in the foothills of Cincar mountain in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These animals, which descend from horses set free by their owners in the 1950s, enjoy a protected status since 2010.