Stanley - Wild Horses

To Uncle Hubbard, for giving me my first horse, and to my family, for all their love and support

G.E.S.

For Sue, Steven, and Julie and all at Wildlife Art Ltd.

M.L.R.

Special thanks to Dr. Patrick Thomas,

Mammal Department, the Bronx Zoo.

Scritch! Scratch! Scritch!

A caveman makes marks on a rock wall with a burnt stick. He is drawing a picturea picture of an animal he saw. The caveman looks at what hes done. He frowns. He adds more marks. Scritch! Scratch! Scritch! Scratch!

He steps back and looks again. Now it looks like the animal!

The caveman didnt know the name of what he had drawn. But fifteen thousand years later, French hikers found the cave. They knew what the animal was. The caveman had drawn a wild horse!

Long before people walked the earth, horses roamed here. But they didnt look the same as they do now. During the time of dinosaurs, horses looked like small dogs. Over millions of years, horses changed. Their legs got longer. Their heads got bigger. Their toes grew together into hooves.

Six million years ago, horses finally reached the size of most horses today. Back then, all horses were wild. But in time, people came along. At first, they probably hunted horses. Maybe they ate them for food. Maybe they made clothing from horse skin. After a while, people started to look at horses in a different way. Horses seemed smart. They could help.

The people in Asia were the first ones to tame horses. They used horses to pull chariots. The chariots carried soldiers into battle. Later on, people put saddles and bridles on horses. They rode horses where chariots couldnt go.

Soon, people in other parts of the world picked up the idea. They started taming horses. They started breeding them, too. These horses werent wild. They were raised to carry people.

But there were still wild horses all over the world. They never pulled a wagon. They never wore a saddle or a bridle. They never even felt the touch of a human being.

This is the story of those wild horses.

The marshes in the south of France are not an easy place to live. During summer, the sun bakes the earth until it cracks. During winter, a thin sheet of icy water covers the land. But in this harsh setting live the Camargue (kah-MARG). The Camargue are the wild white horses of France.

A Camargues coat is white and silky. It looks like sea foam. This horse may be beautiful, but its hardy, too. It eats mainly salt grasses and reeds. Most Camargue are still wild. But some are ridden by French cowboys.

French cowboys? Yes. These cowboys take care of the black cattle that live in this part of France.

French cowboys are called gardiens (gar-dee-YENZ). They use horsehair ropes and large three-pronged forks to keep the cattle in order.

Back in the 1800s, France owned Louisiana. Gardiens came to Louisiana to watch over the cattle. After Louisiana became part of the United States, some gardiens headed west. They used their skills to capture and tame the wild horses there.

Most people think of cowboys as American. But in a way, the first cowboys were actually French!

An island may seem like a funny place to find wild horses. After all, how does a horse get on an island? No one knows for sure. Some horses may have swum to islands from wrecked ships. Other horses may have been left behind by early explorers.

We do know how horses got to Assateague Island. They were stranded there. This island was once linked to the mainland by skinny strips of land. Then, in 1933, a fierce storm washed away the land. Assateague turned into an island.

Today, Assateague and its neighbor island, Chincoteague, are home to about two hundred horses. Most of them live on Assateague. Assateague is now a national park.

For many years, the horses lived without any help from people. But they werent very healthy. They drank salt water from the ocean. Sometimes they even ate poison ivy.

Things got worse for the horses in 1943. Part of Assateague was fenced off for wild birds. The horses lost a lot of the land where they grazed. They had to stay in only one section of the island. It was small. It was marshy. Thousands of biting insects bothered them all summer. And the horses had no way to get to the sea.

In 1947, Marguerite Henry wrote a book called Misty of Chincoteague. It was about two kids who earn money to buy Phantom, the wildest mare on Assateague Island, and her colt, Misty.

The book was a big success. Until then, hardly anyone outside Virginia knew about these wild horses. In 1961, a movie was made of the book. Soon, people all over America sent money to help the wild horses.

In 1962, there was another big storm. Because the horses were trapped on a small part of the island, many drowned. All the people who fell in love with the horses from the Misty book got angry. After that, the horses were no longer fenced off. The most famous wild horses in the world could run free again.

But the islands are not very big. They can support only a couple of hundred horses. So each July, the Chincoteague Fire Department has the horses swim from Assateague to Chincoteague.

Some of the extra foals and yearlings are sold to happy owners. The ponies can be trained for kids to ride. And the money from the sales helps take care of the rest of the herds.