Spanish Horses
Spaniards cared more for horses than for men, they were well cared for and documented. Only mares were brought over at first because you don’t bring over studs and mares together, and mares are easier to use and manage on ship.
Secular reasoning is all American horses came from the Pueblo revolt of 1680 where some Spanish horses finally escaped. Cortez did give horses to some natives, but after a year they were all dead.
1492 – Columbus arrives
1493 – Columbus brought horses
1511 – Cortez arrives
1567 – Sonora Valley – Horse Sighting of “half a million horses”
1590 – Kiowa and Pawnee – owned horses
1669 – Virginia reports menace of many wild horses eating crops and destroying property
1680 – Pueblo revolt – horses finally escaped Spanish control
48 years to get from Columbus to the northern Mexico desert and populate the continent. Wild horses triple in population once every 50 years.
American Indians
Horses were part of their culture
How many horses were found in the Sonoran Valley?
Half a million is too many, but let’s say there were more than 10,000, and that was mistaken for 500,000.