Wild horses still roam freely in the Pryor Mountains outside of Lovell, Wyoming. This herd of horses is very special because of its Colonial Spanish American heritage. This tough little horse, derived from the horses of Portugal and Spain, has been present in this rugged mountain area for nearly 200 years. If lost, the herd cannot be restored; and so its biological viability, together with its history, must be preserved.
On September 11, 1968, the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range was established by established by the Secretary of Interior, Stuart Udall. This action came as the result of a group of local people who saw the importance of preserving the special group of horses that live just to the north of Lovell, Wyoming.
The Mustang Center evolved from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Association, a loosely knit group of local citizens who worked to save the wild horses in the mid-1960s.
Finally in 1968, Secretary Stewart Udall established the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana and Wyoming. This became the first public Wild Horse Range in America. Clyde Reynolds, then Mayor of Lovell, was named to the first Wild Horse National Advisory Board, which convened their first meeting in Lovell.
The Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center now serves as a permanent advocate group for the Pryor horses. The network of support for the Pryor Horses has grown from a local, to a national, to an international level. The Mustang Center serves as the local source for information and advocacy for the horses. Thousands of visitors from all over the United States and the world visit the Mustang Center each year. These visitors are provided information about the horses and where to find them in their mountain home.
Cortez once said “…Next to God, we owed the victory to the horses…” in discussing his conquest of the New World. The Pryor Mountain Wild Horses are the descendents of these important horses. They are truly horses with a heritage.
Early on, locals realized that there was something special about the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses due to their interesting characteristics. It wasn’t long until it was realized that the wild horses looked like Spanish horses. Since then, the herd has been extensively studied; and it has been confirmed that they are descended from Spanish horses. There are three main reasons this confirmation is based on: History, genetics, and phenotype.
The history of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses is not well known. There are accounts of the wild horses being present in the late 1800’s, and many people believe that there were wild horses in the Pryor Mountains in the early to mid-1700’s. At the Center, we believe the herd is descended from Spanish horses brought to the area by different Native American tribes, especially the Crow. Many other share this belief, though some other plausible explanations have also been proposed. Starting in the mid-1990’s, studies were done on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses to determine genetic traits of the herd, such as their level of inbreeding and what type of horse the herd was most genetically related to. From these studies, it was determined that the herd has high genetic diversity, meaning they have low levels of inbreeding. It was also determined that the herd has genetic traits consistent with Spanish horses and that the herd lacks genetic traits that would have originated in draft or thoroughbred ancestors. Around this same time, there were also studies on the phenotype of the herd. That is, these studies were concerned with determining if the wild horses looked like Spanish horses. These studies confirmed that the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses indeed had colors and conformation consistent with Spanish horses.
Because of the above reasons, many believe that the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses really are descendents of Spanish horses. They are a type of horse today known as the Colonial Spanish Horse or the Spanish Mustang, which is considered a rare and endangered breed.