mustang

mus·tang

M0499800 (mŭs′tăng′)n. A small, hardy wild horse of the North American plains, descended from horses brought to America by Spanish explorers and European settlers.

[American Spanish mesteño, mestengo, stray animal, from Old Spanish, from mesta, association of livestock owners, from Medieval Latin (animālia) mixta, assorted (animals), from Latin, neuter pl. past participle of miscēre, to mix; see meik- in Indo-European roots.]

mustang

(ˈmʌstæŋ) n (Breeds) a small breed of horse, often wild or half wild, found in the southwestern US[C19: from Mexican Spanish mestengo, from mesta a group of stray animals]

mus•tang

(ˈmʌs tæŋ)

n. a small, hardy horse of the American plains, descended from Spanish stock. [1800–10, Amer.; < Sp mestengo stray beast: pertaining to a mixed lot of beasts]

Thesaurus

Noun

mustang - small hardy range horse of the western plains descended from horses brought by the Spanishpony - a range horse of the western United Statesbronc, broncho, bronco - an unbroken or imperfectly broken mustang

Translations

mustang

[Sp. mesteño=a stray], small feral horsehorse,
hoofed, herbivorous mammal now represented by a single extant genus, Equus. The term horse commonly refers only to the domestic Equus caballus and to the wild Przewalski's horse.
..... Click the link for more information. of the W United States. Mustangs are descended from escaped Native American horses, which in turn were descended from horses of North African blood, brought to the New World by the Spanish c.1500. Mustangs have evolved their own distinguishing traits: they are small, swift, hardy, and intelligent—well suited to plains conditions. As ranching expanded in North America, cowboys began rounding up mustangs for use as cow ponies. Hence, in the terminology of ranchers, mustang often refers to a cow pony of feral stock, and the term bronco is used for an untamed mustang. A cayuse (after the Cayuse of the NE United States) is a domestic Native American horse. Although the mustang, which has spent many generations in the wild, is somewhat different from the cayuse, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Cow ponies of mustang descent have been crossed with other breeds of horse, so that all horses of the W United States probably have mustang blood. In contemporary times, feral horses have overpopulated and overgrazed many public lands in the West, prospering in the absence of such predators as the wolf and puma and as a result of federal legislative protections. The mustang, a variety of Equus caballus, is classified in the phylum ChordataChordata
, phylum of animals having a notochord, or dorsal stiffening rod, as the chief internal skeletal support at some stage of their development. Most chordates are vertebrates (animals with backbones), but the phylum also includes some small marine invertebrate animals.
..... Click the link for more information. , subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Perissodactyla, family Equidae.

Mustang

a naturalized horse that was widespread on the prairies of North America. The local inhabitants—the Indians—hunted mustangs for meat and hides. In the 18th century the mustang population numbered 4 million. In the 20th century this figure has drastically declined to about 20,000 and continues to fall.

mustang

a small breed of horse, often wild or half wild, found in the southwestern US

mustang

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mustang

mus•tang

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Mustang

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Words related to mustang

noun small hardy range horse of the western plains descended from horses brought by the Spanish

Related Words