BFS Loc: Queen City, MO

Some shots of a small group of the wild horse in the Jacks Fork River/Current River area of south Missouri.

More snapshots than master pieces but hopefully you can and will enjoy them.

Late evening check-in guest at the lodge of Echo Buffs Missouri State Park. These is a few of the wild horses of the area. 3rd or 4th generation of wild horses turned out in the 1930's when farmers of the area could not afford to feed them during the

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Wild horses Echo Bluffs Missouri State Park. Well we found shade, now if only those flies would leave us alone we could get some rest. I have no idea as what kind of little gnat was biting everyone and everything but they were bad. I had on shorts an

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Ok who's out there trying to sneak up on me

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Giddy-up Go, Maybe if I run those flies can't bite me

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Zooman 1

Not true wild horses, but feral ones.

BFS Loc: Queen City, MO

The question would be at what point does a feral animal turn from being a domestic animal to being wild? In my mind feral is a domestic animal turn out to fend for its self. These horses were turned loose in the 30's and those horses have long died and are gone. What is the life of a horse living on its own? My guess 20 to 30 years at most. If they were turned loose in the 30's that's almost 90 years, these horses has to be 3rd generation away from domestic animal.

If a domestic animal can not become wild then I question 'IF' there are any wild horses in the United States. My understanding is that horses were bought here by the early settlers of New found lands. So all horses were domestic that are here at one time or another.

But yes the Missouri State Park Com when it bought the land for the State Park wanted to get rid of the horses. (They also were calling them feral animals). After a big rucks between them and the local area people the US Government (President Clinton) signed a bill giving the horse a right to be there with a limit of 50 horses.

Zooman 1

Feral is the term for domestic animals that for one reason or another have returned to a wild state. No matter how long this situation exist they will always be feral animals. There is only one true wild horse left on the planet, that is the Mongolian wild horse. The wild horse that at one time was in what we now call The New World became extinct after humans arrive, maybe 10-12 thousand years ago.