Randy Baroda, age 12, of Visalia, Calif., for his question:

What is a mustang?

The story of the mustang could be called return of a native.  His ancestors were the small, wild horses that roamed over North America millions of years ago.  Their descendants reached perfection in the Old World, and some of them were brought here again by the Spanish who conquered the New World.  Some of these Spanish horses escaped and ran wild in the native home of their forefathers.

When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the New World, they found no wild or native horses.  The Indians had never seen a horse.  They were agog when they saw the Spanish riders, and at first they thought that horse and man together were one strange animal.  No one at that time knew that the horse was no stranger to the New World.

Later, as Scientists explored the fossil bones of the New World, they discovered that the noble horse was cradled in North America.  Here is where his family got its start.  Bit by bit, the story unfolded until science was able to trace back the family tree of the horse for 50 million years.  The dawn horses of these ancient days were dog sized animals with graceful backs and flowing manes.

The fossil bones reveal the growth and dsvElo10nent of the ancestors of the modern horse  and their native hone was North America.  Some of them strayed to the Old.  World, perhaps across a land bridge from Alaska to Asia. Their children thrived and finally became domesticated.  These splendid animals have been the friends and co-workers of the human family since before the dawn of history.

But, meantime, the native horses of North America.  Became extinct  and no one knows what cruel fate wiped them out.  When the Spanish riders arrived in the New World, there were no horses in the native hinterland of the horse.  But even the best of horses tend to stray, and many of the Spanish horses strayed or escaped to live the wild life of their remote ancestors.  They became sturdy, excellent characters determined to run free. Those that lived in the prairies and rocky uplands of our Southwest were named mustangs from a Spanish word meaning a strayed horse.

The Indians Stole some of the Spanish horses and captured some of the strays.  The descendants of these animals are the pintos and Indian Ponies.  But herds of horses still run wild in our western mountains.  Some are called mustangs.  When captured, a wild horse may refuse to be tamed.  The bucking bronco of the rodeo is often a mustang still fighting fiercely for his freedom.