Native Americans
and
Spanish Mustangs
Did Native Americans ride Spanish Mustangs?
​
No. The Spanish Mustang of today with its breed name did not exist before the first horses of Spanish colonial descent were located primarily in the Southwest. These were then brought together to form the foundation herds of the horses we have today. In 1957 they became an offical breed name with their own registry.
Compare and contrast the horses
in these two paintings.
'Chief Keokuk' by George Catlin (1796-1872) on the left and 'Lost in a Snowstorm' by Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) on the right
Did Native Americans ride horses
of Spanish colonial bloodlines?
​
Yes. For the most part across the Southwest to Southeast then the Northwest via migration and tribal trade routes and into Canada. Some traded horses would have ended up in the Midwest. Other tribes in the Northeast or on the Northwest coast did obtain other breeds and strains too. For example,northern European breeds crossing the North Atlantic or Russian breeds arriving across the Pacific with Russian traders on the Northwest coast.
Not every horse in America is of Spanish colonial descent.
Click here for the RESEARCH page
and the COLONIAL CABALLO project
Both artists painted figuratively, not just for pleasure but to capture a moment in history. Both immersed themselves into some of the regional tribes. For Catlin it was the Midwest and Eastern Woodlands, for Russell it was Montana, USA and Alberta, Canada that meet at the national border.
Chief Keokuk was of the Sauk tribe in the area today called Green Bay, Wisconsin in the Midwest.
Charles M, Russell lived in Alberta with the Blood [Kainai] tribe of the Blackfeet nation (in Montana too) and learned about the culture and people. He also lived and worked on ranches.
The paintings depict what each artist saw and although never as accurate as as a photograph, it is clear Catlin and Russell observed two quite different types of horse.
The Blackfeet nation did trade with tribes of the Southwest and in the Russell painting the horses are smaller with the convex noses that defines the Spanish Mustang's face as do the tails that are longer and denser.
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The horse in the Catlin painting is larger, has the concave face more akin to the Arab horse and the tail is shorter and thinner. The Arab horse shares with the Spanish colonial horses some of the desert bloodlines that came from north Africa but over the centuries conformations diverged.