# Wild Horses



## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

I was just thinking today about all the stuff we do to keep our horses safe and healthy. Vaccinate them, check for soundness, put shoes on their feet, clip their hooves, give them supplements for bad feet and joints, float their teeth, worm them, groom/bathe them, feed and give them water, so on and so forth. 

After thinking of all the stuff we do for domestic horses, how do wild horses survive? I know they eat a ton of grass, but how do they get by without all of the stuff I mentioned above? Does anyone have any ideas?


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## Citrus (Feb 26, 2010)

I know their hooves chip off as they grow longer.... and clearly the one with the strongest immune systems survive so they have an immunity to diseases......


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## TheRoughrider21 (Aug 25, 2009)

Thier hooves wear down on the different surfaces they walk/run on. They are also born with an immunity that is esstentail(sp?)for horses that live in the wild. Since they haven't been introduced to vaccinations, deworming, etc...they can live without cause their bodies can handle it. At least...that's what I'm going with.


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## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

Interesting, haha I didn't know that. But how do they 'take care' of their teeth?


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## corinowalk (Apr 26, 2010)

They eat a rougher forage than your average domesticated animal. Also, most of the problems we encounter with horses teeth are only problems because we ride with bits.


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## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

Oh wow that's interesting. It makes me feel bad about riding now :/


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## corinowalk (Apr 26, 2010)

It shouldnt! Wild horses live much shorter, less pampered lives than our pasture pal riding companions. All we ask in return is a nice ride. By taking care of the teeth, your taking care of your horse.


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## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

Haha thankyou  That actually does make sense.


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## Carleen (Jun 19, 2009)

As for keeping their feet trimmed - if you think about it, wild horses are all over many different types of soil including very hard ground all the time. Our horses are worked on a thick layer of nice soft sand/etc, so their feet do not get worn down as much. Hence why we have to trim them.

Vaccinations, supplements, etc are all for us to help prolong our horse's life. In the wild, it's the survival of the fittest and nothing more.


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## RedTree (Jan 20, 2010)

Their life span is probably shorter as well.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

The average lifespan of a domestic horse is 25-35 years, and even longer for ponies.

Compare that to an average lifespan of 10-15 years for a feral horse.

Feral horses get all the same diseases and physical ailments that plague domestic horses including founder, uneven wearing of their teeth, colic, etc.

The difference is that feral horses don't have humans to look after them, so either die of their ailments or get taken out by predators. That's how the myth of the feral horse being so much more 'hardy' and 'adaptable' has come about. 

It's also how the myth of them having such great feet got started, and a whole slew of charlatans and fanatics touting the 'mustang barefoot trim' way of life.

It's not that the feral horses don't ever have bad feet, it's that they don't live very long when their feet _do_ go bad.


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## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

Oh yeah, that's a good point. I never really knew about all this stuff, but it's good to know!


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## farley (May 23, 2010)

well mustangs do hav amazing feet iv seen alot of good mustangs feet get ruined because ppl start screwing with them i only trim my mustangs feet in the winter because i dont ride much but in the other seasons i wouldnt dream of having it done and i would also never ever put shoes on my mustang unless i see a problem accuring with out it. i ride enough that their feet dont need trimming mustangs feet also grow slower then demesticated horse not by much but alil and when horses get warms and other desieses they die or there body fights them off and bad genes like bad feet bad backs bad legs never make it to the next generations because those horses never survey long enough. thats why i love the mustang their a very clean breed their almost always going to have better feet then any demesticated horse and genetic flukes are rare youl hardly get a horse with medical issues and stuff like that cuase those bad genes are lost because the horses that carry those flukes usualy dont make it long enough to pass it along


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

Good heavens, it's called a _paragraph! _:shock:

I can't even read what you've written because of the one huge block of text, as well as the misspellings and horrible grammar. Paragraphs and punctuation are your friends.

I doubt very seriously if you're an adult, or have any farrier skills whatsoever.

The rest of that mess, I'm not even going to _try_ to decipher.


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## farley (May 23, 2010)

wel actually i am an adult and even if i wasnt theres no need to insult sommeone if they kno what their talking about age doesnt matter and so what if i shorten a word or block my paragraphs this isnt an english class. an i do have farrier experiance thank you very much not mention 10 years mustang experiance. so if you have a problem with the way i write somethin or the way i explain you could be nice about it an ask me to rephrase or write. 

* dont insult soemone for the way they type assuming they are unexperianced and childish please!*


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## TheRoughrider21 (Aug 25, 2009)

farley said:


> wel actually i am an adult and even if i wasnt theres no need to insult sommeone if they kno what their talking about age doesnt matter and so what if i shorten a word or block my paragraphs this isnt an english class. an i do have farrier experiance thank you very much not mention 10 years mustang experiance. so if you have a problem with the way i write somethin or the way i explain you could be nice about it an ask me to rephrase or write.
> 
> *dont insult soemone for the way they type assuming they are unexperianced and childish please!*


Ok, could you please use proper spelling and grammer? I'm a teenager and I don't even type like that...or understand half of it. I normally just give up after awhile cause trying to read something like that is not worth my time. Periods, commas, and other punctuation are our friends!

Sorry if I come off rude...this is my worst pet peeve.


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## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

OP- If they get sick or something, they either get better pretty quickly, or die. 
They can sometimes get chips in their hooves that actually hurt and make them limp... but they get better, or get eaten... but when somethings chasing you, usually you can still run. lol. 

I do believe that some wild breeds are tougher then some domestics, but thats just the breed. like the wild ponies (i cant remember their breed right now, URGH!) but they are tough little ******s, arabians arent that tough.... but it has a lot to do with where they live.


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## GraciesMom (Jun 17, 2010)

Speed Racer - I don't know about you. If you can't say something nice, DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL! If you don't like the way she types, don't read it!!


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## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

Ridergirl- you're right, it probably also probably has something to do with their body structure and how much bone, etc. they have also


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

Keep in mind that the vast majority of what we protect our horses from are man made elements. Our routine for our horses hinges almost entirely on the completely unnatural way we keep them, and actually, if you keep your horses in a more natural outdoor setting, you'd be surprised what you can get away with.

Horses that are left to graze normally have MUCH more normal wear patterns for their teeth. It's chewing grain and course hay that causes uneven wear patterns, and the necessity for domestic horses to have their teeth taken care of. If you compare the teeth of a domestic grazing horse and a domestic stable horse over the span of a couple years, the difference would be incredible.

Horses are wanderer; travellers. Have you ever watched your horse graze? Been on a pack trip? It's nothing for the horses to end up several miles away in one evening of grazing in hobbles. If we didn't ride horses, no they DON'T need their feet done - I actually know people who subscribe to the school of "let 'em knock it off!" We require farrier work done due to the intense unnatural exercise we ask of them. Your average horse wandering over thousands of miles of dirt, grass, rock and mountain will wear his own hooves down just fine to suit his needs.

Vaccinations are much the same - you can't catch something you're not exposed to. Most feral horses are never going to come into contact with viruses like influenza or sleeping sickness. These diseases NEED carriers, so unless they're roaming local farms, dying of these diseases is going to be extremely rare - rabies or tetanus would be much more likely, although still fairly rare.

Deworming, again, the same. Horses kept in conditions where they are eating off their own manure live in a constant state of required deworming. Get your horse into an open field where's he's eating grass and roaming and your infestation rates plummet. With extreme winters up here, we only deworm 2-3 times a year - and even now vets are saying if you do fecal counts you could get away with one. 

Feral horses don't typically suffer from things like colic or laminitis, not because of their "tough constitution", but because they don't have someone upseting their digestive system with unnatural food or allowing them to become obese or causing sugar spikes. You can find that exact same "tough constitution" on any horse that's been raised naturally - my grandpa fed my Arab mare half a bowl of spoiled cookie dough batter once and she didn't bat an eyelash. Her digestive system functions so well from a lifetime of grazing, she gets into things that would make a stabled horse colic just LOOKING at it!

Definitely Mustangs tend to be tougher, but tougher then what? Natural selection is going to ensure the strong get stronger because it weeds out the weak. What do we do with the weak? WE BREED 'EM! :lol:


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

GraciesMom said:


> Speed Racer - I don't know about you. If you can't say something nice, DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL! If you don't like the way she types, don't read it!!


Really? Then why don't you mind your_ own_ business and not say anything yourself, little girl?

If someone wants to be taken seriously, they need to be able to communicate clearly.

People who say the way they type, spell, use improper grammar, or don't use punctuation doesn't matter, are either lazy or just plain ignorant. 

Either way, nothing they have to say can be important if they can't show some respect to themselves and others to communicate it clearly.


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## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

Wow, MacabreMikolaj, that was a lot of info haha! But I read the whole thing and you're totally right! So if a horse was on grass turnout and nothing else, and only came in a stall to sleep for the night, would that be naturally raising it?


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## speedy da fish (May 7, 2009)

i wonder about thrush? because no one is going to pick their feet out.


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## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

On The Bright Side said:


> Wow, MacabreMikolaj, that was a lot of info haha! But I read the whole thing and you're totally right! So if a horse was on grass turnout and nothing else, and only came in a stall to sleep for the night, would that be naturally raising it?


 that might be more natural then some, but thats stil not natural, because they come in at night. and the pasture has to be HUGE if its going to be the most natural way of life for your horse. because they wander so much, lol.


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## On The Bright Side (Jul 18, 2010)

Oh yeah, I know what you mean haha


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