What is a Feral Horse?

A feral horse is a domesticated horse that has gone back to the wild, they could have either run away or perhaps be descendant from domesticated horses. They are not true wild horses as they have come from domesticated horses at some point in their ancestry. It is possible to re-domesticate a feral horse if found young enough and given enough time. Many of these horses are genetically different than wild horses since there is a two chromosome difference between Wild Horses and Feral Horses. However they can still interbreed, and many view this as contamination of the natural wild horse stock, since it changed the behaviors and the overall communities of wild horses.

Feral horses usually live in groups called bands or herds, and sometimes mobs; they are usually a small group led by one dominant mare who is the leader of the group. The group is usually made up of mares, and their foal which are of both sexes. Immature horses who are not yet ready to go on their own also have both sexes mixed within the group. There are many types of feral horses that have arose from their escapes and breeding in the wild. They are the Mustang, the Brumby, the Sorraia, the Banker Horse, the Kaimanawa horse, the Sable Island horse, and quite a few others. For a feral population to remain genetically viable there must be between one hundred and fifty to two hundred feral horses within the environment. However often times there can be many more, such as the Mustang, who’s numbers nearly topped at two million, but due to abuse and hunting for pet food, have been reduced to twenty thousand or so. They are now a protected species in the United Stated, and harming one is a crime.

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