Karen Kay here again. I want to thank Denna and Stacey Kayne for writing their comments and for sharing their stories with us this morning. Also I’d like to thank fellow authors Charlene and Linda Broday for sharing their comments with us this morning.
Okay, so the excerise is done — it was weights for me this morning — and as I sit here eating breakfast, I thought we’d talk some more about the hearty mustangs who so captured the heart of the West.
Of course we owe our thanks for these intelligent animals to the Spanish — the word mustang comes from the Spanish word mesteno, meaning wild. From Columbus to Hernando Cortez, every Spanish explorer or adventurer brought these animals to the New World.
It was Hernando Cortez who brought them to us in 1519 –he had only sixteen horses, but of them Bernal Diaz (who was with Cortez) writes: “For after God, we owed the victory to the horses.”
But where did the Spanish get these hardy friends to man?
Professor Walker D. Wyman writes: (the Oriental horse) is known to have come into Mesopotamia from Persia about 2500 B.C., to Egypt from there in about 1700 B.C. and thence it spread over North Africa.”
Known in Africia as the Barbs — meaning that they were from the Barbary Coast — these breeds mixed with the Arab breed when the Arabs conquered areas of Africa — this was in about 647 A.D.
It was around 711 A.D. that the Moors — who were descendants of the Moroccans and Moslem Arabs — came to Spain, and for almost 800 years, the Moors held Spain hostage. Now, when these Moors came to Spain, what were they riding?
You guessed it — the Barb-Arab mixed breed horse.
Okay, enough of ancient history. In my next post, let’s bring the subject closer to present time and discuss how the horse influenced Native America.
Hope to hear your comments on this and other things of interest, so please feel free to leave some comments, okay. To the left, by the way, is the art work for my latest novel, RED HAWK’S WOMAN, a June release of this year.
Isn’t he gorgeous? And does anyone know the name of this sexy young man?
Till later, then.
KAREN KAY aka GEN BAILEY is the multi-published author of American Indian Historical Romances. She has written for such prestigious publishers as AVON/HarperCollins, Berkley/Penguin/Putnam and Samhain Publishing. KAREN KAY’S great grandmother was Choctaw Indian and Kay is honored to be able to write about the American Indian Culture.
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Hi Kay, thanks for the good info. When I taught American Lit, we learned that the horse and the cannon (as well as smallpox etc.) supposedly tamed “the New World.” Some good, some bad there.
I am determined to learn how to ride yet! As for Red Hawk: sigh!
Hi Tanya!
Great to see you here on the blog. Yes, you’re right — some good, some bad — and in some ways (not all), it’s too bad the West was “tamed,” so to speak. Good that lawlessness was banished, but that wild streak, that freedom to be just who you are, and that feeling of openness — hope that never is “tamed.”
Thanks so much for your insights.
I am enjoying your posts on horses, Karen! For me part of the excitement of watching a western movie is seeing those magnificent animals on the run, manes and tails flying. My mother use to draw pencil sketches of horses, and had a collection of tiny china figurines.
Love the new website. I love reading about Cowboys, Indians and the wild west. I have learned things about the west I never knew before reading westerns.