The mustang horses of Malaga

A mustang horse is a horse that lives in the wild but has domestic ancestors. These are descendants of domestic horses lost, escaped or deliberately released into the wild world and managed to survive and reproduce there.

The best examples of these mustang horses are the «wild» horses of the American West. When Europeans reintroduced horses in the Americas in the conquest of the fifteenth century, some horses escaped and formed the maroon herds known today as Mustangs (during the Pleistocene there were horses in America that later died out).

In Malaga we also have feral horses. Next, we will explain its origin and curious history

Four years ago, eight horses were abandoned by their owners on top of La Maroma. Today they are a dozen, graze in the area and live in total freedom. It is the only herd of wild horses in Andalusia.

After successive investigations and inquiries by the authorities, it has been impossible to locate and know for sure who are the people who abandoned them. At the time of abandonment they also removed the chip, making it difficult to find their owners.

The Rincón de la Victoria Mountain Club, El Refugio del Burrito, as well as the Seprona, activated together an operation that involved several climbs to the top to check the status of the animals, and subsequent decision making.

The specialists of the Refugio of the Burrito decided then that it was better to leave them there, in freedom. «It is an area with a lot of food, grass, water …», they have in the organization, from which it was considered that the horses would live in that environment in better conditions than in a stable.

In addition, the risk of causing problems was low: they are not dangerous animals and the roads in the area run many meters below, so the chances that they could cause an accident were virtually nil.

They are in good place, it is their territory. They are prepared for such areas because they evolved in the grasslands of Asia and Europe.