Mustang, Unbroken Painting

Free-roaming horses populate much of the arid western US and have become the center of a multifaceted controversy. Interestingly, because they are descended from domesticated horses, these horses are technically feral, not wild. The horse evolved in North America 55 million years ago. They migrated across the Bering Strait and spread across Asia, Europe, and Africa before going extinct in the Americas. They were then reintroduced to the West with Columbus, Cortés, and the conquistadors. Since 1959 the US has passed laws protecting free-roaming horses, recognizing them as a "living symbol of the pioneer spirit of the West". They have been managed by the BLM (rather poorly) and are increasingly overpopulated, sterilized, confined, auctioned, and involved in grazing-related land disputes. It is estimated there are over 110k feral horses in the US, a third of them in holding facilities. It can cost taxpayers up to $50k/horse for long-term holding and use billions of gallons of water annually to feed them. What do you think? Are they an invasive species? A reintroduced-native? Livestock to be managed? A taxpayer burden? A symbol of the Wild West? This just scratches the surface of the issue. It's not clear what to do with them, but the consequences to the ecosystem can be dramatic. Hopefully we can all learn to be more aware of our actions as members in a vast ecological community rather than above it. "Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television." ~ Aldo Leopold

Painting:Acrylic on Wood

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:20 W x 24 H x 0.5 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.