|
SUMMARY: The Sulphur Herd Management area horses that are present as adopted horses in the Salt Lake City area appear to be of Spanish phenotype. The horses were reasonably uniform in phenotype, and most of the variation encountered could be explained by a Spanish origin of the population. That, coupled with the remoteness of the range and blood typing studies, suggests that these horses are indeed Spanish. As such they are an unique genetic resource, and should be managed to perpetuate this uniqueness. A variety of colors occurs in the herds, which needs to be maintained. Initial culling in favor of Spanish phenotype should be accomplished, and a long term plan for population numbers and culling strategies should be formulated. This is one population that should be kept free of introductions from other herd management areas, as it is Spanish in type and therefore more unique than horses of most other BLM management areas. BACKGROUND: Detailed historical background of the Sulphur herd management area horses is not available. The limited amount of history available points to this population being an old one, with limited or no introduction of outside horses since establishment of the population. The foundation of the herd is logically assumed to be Spanish, since this the only resource available at the time of foundation. Spanish type includes sloping croup low set tail, deep body, narrow chest, deep Roman nosed head from side view, broad forehead but narrow face and muzzle from front view, eyes place on side of head, small ears with inwardly hooked tips, small or absent rear chestnuts, small front chestnuts, potential of long hairs on stern area and chin. All colors are possible, although a high proportion of black and its derivatives are consistent with a Spanish origin. Line backed duns, roans, buckskin/palomino, sabino and overo paint, and the leopard complex are also usually Spanish in origin, and grey and tobiano can be. It is frequently the mix of colors and their relative frequency in the population that is more important than the presence of absence of any one color. PRESENT STATUS: The horses removed during the last few years from the Sulphur Herd management area are Spanish in type. Thirty four horses were inspected during my visit. Of these 10 were of excellent Spanish type, 10 were of good Spanish type, and 10 were only moderately Spanish in type (although some of these were excellent, if nonSpanish, horses), and four were clearly different from-generally acceptable Spanish type. The fact that the horses were so consistently Spanish type is evidence that these horses have a Spanish origin. Most of the inspected horses fit into the Spanish description. Those that deviated from it tended to have wider fronts than desire and somewhat broader or coarse heads. Roman noses were not prominent, though, and so some of these "atypical" animals still had very acceptable conformation as horses, but lacked the typical Spanish appearance desired. Some ears were long, and some lacked, the inward hooking tips. Chestnuts were usually moderate and not small; some were large. Black and grullo were common, with bay and zebra dun common as well. Chestnut and red dun were also present, but less common. This is consistent with a Spanish origin, although it would be interesting to determine if other colors occur in other parts Of the range. Gus Cothran has blood typed a small number of these horses, and is struck by the frequency of antigens known to be of Spanish origin. While further sampling would be useful, he is confident that this population will ultimately prove to be one of the more consistently Spanish of feral populations so far studied. RECOMMENDATIONS: The Sulphur herd management area horses are generally Spanish in type, and should be managed to enhance this characteristic. Other populations of feral horses that are Spanish in origin are very rare (Pryor Mountain MT, Marble Canyon AZ, and Kiger OR, although these last are varying from Spanish phenotype more than the others). Since the Spanish feral horses are the only feral horses of truly unique and irreplaceable genotypes, they should be manager as a genetic resource in addition to other BLM requirements. In the case of the Sulphur herd I recommend that target population levels be set that are consistent with this population being able to sustain itself without needing introductions of outside, non-Sulphur, horses. This maintenance would assure its continuation as an unique herd of Spanish horses. I also recommend that for the next several years the removal/adoption process concentrate on removal of the least typically Spanish and retention of the most typically Spanish horses. This process may be difficult for a few years, with removal of some older animals. It must be stressed that the broad front is not typically Spanish, while the deep body with narrow chest is. Following the first few years the removals should only have to involve younger animals that are of less Spanish appearance. The long term management should quickly develop into the removal of younger animals that are surplus to the population, but these should all be of Spanish type as the population becomes more uniform for this type. Given the remarkable uniformity of the population already, this process should not take very long. The Sulphur herd is minimally variable for color, and this variation should be maintained. I only saw bay, black, chestnut and the line-backed modifications of these (zebra dun, grullo, and red dun). I suspect that on some portions of the range other colors persist since they are mentioned in the herd management plan. It is important to not cull these. The preference for the line-backed colors is based on myth, and these colors do not imply that the horses are more Spanish than those lacking these colors. The same is true of the white marks: they are perfectly allowable. While the appeal of the line-backed colors is undeniable, the other colors should be maintained at levels that prevent their extinction. The Sulphur Herd Management Area brochure is good and informative, but I would recommend a few changes1. First, late additions to the herd are only speculative, and since the herd is so consistently Spanish in type I would concentrate on that. Also, I would point out that various colors (not just the line- backed ones) are consistent with a Spanish origin. I like the stripes, but they can be overemphasized to the point that people equate them with Spanishness, which is inaccurate. Another technicality is that there really is no such thing as a "Spanish Barb". The Spanish Colonial type horse is the foundation of these mustangs. The Barb is a North African horse, descended originally from Iberian horses. Finally, some conformational details on the drawing2 could be more Spanish (narrower front, finer face/muzzle, sloping croup). These points are picky, but the brochures do a great job of educating, and accurate details will help in the education process even more. |
|
|
| |
|
LIST OF SULPHUR MANAGEMENT HORSES INSPECTED, August, 1993 by Sponenberg and Roubidoux. Excellent = top third, Good = middle third. Horses listed in the order in which they were seen, check with Ron for names of owners. First stop.- dun filly: good; grulla filly: somewhat coarse, bottom third; chestnut filly: good, but has big chestnuts; black foal: good, difficult to be certain due to age. T**** stallion - bottom third. Roached back, head somewhat coarse. bay gelding - not typical. grulla gelding - good, well conformed and Spanish in appearance. grulla mare and foal - good, typical red dun J**** mare - excellent in type. grulla T**** filly - excellent, finely made, Front is good. grulla foal - good to excellent, depending on how facial width develops. chestnut mare - very wild, appears to be in bottom third. Large chestnuts. J**** dun stallion - good, head lacks definition (as I remember) One stop, (I forget the guy's name): black colt: bottom third, largely due to broad face; sorrel filly: somewhat better than colt; but still bottom third; bay stallion: excellent, the best roman profile, and a very assured, classy animal. He is one of the best overall animals. G**** - grullo stallion: common head, bottom third. Lack of stallion attitude. D**** animals - dun stallion: bottom third, wide front; grullo stallion: good, but head could be more typical; dun filly: excellent, very typical; black filly: good. H**** animals - red dun gelding: bottom third, high croup; black colt: excellent, very typical; grullo colt: excellent, very typical. R**** - bay female, bottom third (wide front, the most common fault); red dun female, bottom third; red dun stallion, too wild to evaluate; R**** - dun stallion: stocky, but excellent; grulla mare: excellent; grulla filly: excellent; grulla foal (filly): excellent; bay mare: poor, large, wide, and wide faced; dun older filly from bay dam: bottom third or lower; younger filly from bay dam: better, but still bottom third. OVERALL: These horses cluster very nicely as a Spanish type population. They are generally soundly conformed, in addition to the Spanish type. The most common of the deviations from Spanish type are the wide fronts, wide facial areas, long ears, and large chestnuts. These horses that are not typically Spanish are still well conformed on average. This should make them very adoptable and serviceable. Basically, even the non-Spanish horses in the group are good horses, just of the non-Spanish type. Webmaster's notes: 1The brochure was first printed in 1993, shortly before this report, and was revised in 1999. The new brochure is below. 2The drawing Sponenberg is refering to is the not one at the right, but one drawn by Rowland Cheney for the Kiger herd. Although the BLM had permission to use the drawing, I've chosen not to depict it here. It can be seen on the original SHR site (scroll to the bottom of the page). |
 |
 |
 |