When the western artist George Catlin journeyed to the Southern Plains in 1834 the animal that caught his attention there was the wild horse, which covered the country in immense herds. Little known to Catlin, or to Thomas Jefferson, who longed to know about horses in their natural state, horses were so successful in the western wilds because they were original natives of North America. Eventually a trade in wild horses dominated the southern West the way the fur trade did in the North. Native people initiated the trade, Hispanics in Texas perfected the art of capture, and from 1790 into the 1850s independent American traders captured, traded for, and drove wild horses east to supply the advancing American frontier. Little known in western history because until the 1920s it lacked a corporate player, the wild horse trade was an unexpected success and mustangers a working-class phenomenon of the West. Thank you to our sponsor Velvet Buck: https://www.instagram.com/velvetbuckwine ---------------- Check out the gear the MeatEater Crew uses in the field here: https://store.themeateater.com Follow us: Web: https://www.themeateater.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/meateater Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater Chapters: 0:00 - The Deep Time Debate: Do Horses Belong in America? 5:15 - Camels in the American West: The Failed Experiment 8:45 - Philip Nolan: The Legendary Horse Trader 13:30 - How Native Tribes First Encountered Horses 18:15 - Why Modern Wild Horses Are Different 22:45 - Breaking Mustangs: The Lost Art of Speed Training