Even though the horse is native, horses in North America are considered feral, not truly wild, because they were brought here by European settlers.
The earliest ancestor of the horse appeared around 55 million years ago and was the size of a small dog or large cat. Rather than hooves, it had multiple toes: four on its front feet and three on its back feet. These ancient horses browsed in the forest, and migrated all over North America, Siberia, Asia and Europe. They were prey for many of the larger predators and birds, but had spots and stripes that worked as camouflage in the forest.
The Mesohippus and Miohippus appeared around 30 million years ago. These horses were larger than previous ancestors and now had three toes on all of their feet. As the climate had changed, they became grazers and were able to survive on grassy plains. Many of these horses lived on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming.
By 14 million years ago, the Parahippus was living in North America. The size of large dogs, they were starting to develop normal horse behaviors and lived in bands, with a lead mare and stallion protecting the herd.
Ten million years ago, horse ancestors were pony-sized and still lived in North America. These prairie dwellers relied on speed to escape predators. The first one-toed horse appeared at about this time and started developing longer legs.
These horses continued to evolve, and eventually only a few species of the family Equus survived. Until about 12,000 years ago, the horse was living in North America. It died off with the other mega-fauna such as the woolly mammoth. The remaining species of Equus - Zebras, Donkeys and horses (Equus Caballus) - still were living in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Humans had been hunting these species of horses for food for more than 30,000 years. Horses, however, were not domesticated or used for riding or driving until about 5,600 years ago. Horses were reintroduced to North America by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage to the “new world.”
The wild mustangs which now roam the western United States are ancestors of the horses brought here by the Spanish and other colonists. Horses would escape or be turned loose and eventually formed the herds we see today.
These horses also have no natural predators in North America, so it is up to us to control the damage they do to the environment - because we reintroduced them to the continent.
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