Mustang Vs Bronco, What Are The Differences Between Them?

When we talk about Mustang and Bronco, we refer to horses. But have you ever wondered what makes them different?

These two horses’ main difference is that one of them is a wild animal that has lived in the United States. At the same time, the Bronco is a horse that initially comes from Mexico, Canada, and the United States. One of them is not trained but can be easier to domesticate than the other.

Bronco

A bronco is a type of horse that is considered strong and more oversized than other horses. The word Bronco relates to the Spanish language. First, Spanish people used it as a meaning for rough and tough. But now, it is used for rodeo competitions.

For those of you that do not know what rodeo is. We can tell rodeo is a competition where you need to hold onto a horse seat for at least 8 seconds to win. Then you can imagine how strong the Broncos are when we use it as a name for competitions.

There was no exact date when this type of horse was first seen in the United States. However, if we can not provide you an exact age for this horse, we can give some facts you didn’t know about the Broncos. The facts consist of the following:

• These types of horses had a different part of the body and mutated during the years. These horses used to have three toes. The toes used to be padded the same as the dog’s paws.

• People think because a Bronco is rough, strong, and wild. But they could not be more than wrong about this animal. Broncos are not wild. In fact, these horses are descended from the originally domesticated horses in the United States.

• These horses are not part of any known scientific definition, so it is valid to say that Bronco is a nickname for a bucking horse. The term bronco was first used for the cowboys near the Mexico-United States border when they saw a rough and big horse.

• The first time a Bronco was seen in public was more than 150 years ago. It was seen in the state of Nebraska. The city of North Platte was the privileged place for first seeing the horse at a rodeo. After the participation in this event, the Broncos became very popular all across the United States.

• The horses are more than 10,000 years old. But based on history and research, we began to domesticate the Broncos no more than 4,500 years ago when we felt the need to find a better transportation method.

• Broncos, same as other horses, can sleep in 2 forms. The horse can sleep either sitting or standing. When horses are sleeping standing, this is the defense mechanism if they need to run when a predator is trying to hunt them.

• Modern Broncos are not wild, and they can be found at rodeos used for competitions. Based on their strength and roughness, these horses are great for this type of competition.

• It is one of the animals listed as the official symbol used for the Wyoming State.

Mustang

Mustangs are free-roaming horses brought by the Spanish from the European continent when they started to explore new areas. Mustang is wild and cannot be domesticated. The horses were brought around the 1400s-1500s in sailboats.

Mustangs have distinctive characteristics that can help us to differentiate. For example, let’s talk about different parts of the body.

Suppose we talk about size and body structure. The body of a mustang horse is very muscular and lean. Mustangs tend to have smaller backs and bigger chests.

Upper Body

The majority of these horses have the dominant eye color. Most of the Mustangs have brown eyes. Also, the Mustangs tend to have a wider upper body than other horses.

Lower Body

The mustangs tend to have a lot of strength in their legs. The strength and leg size comes from all the roads and gallops they go through in the rocky mountains in the wild.

The Mustang can hit a 35MPH speed and, in the best-case scenario, up to 45MPH.

Even if the horses can hit a 45 MPH speed, this is not the average. We can also find the different speeds the Mustangs can hit in various stages. The speed can start from 4MPH and get up to 30MPH. But best-case scenario 45MPH in some cases.

• Walk – 4.3PMH
• Trot – 8.1 MPH
• Canter – 10-17 MPH
• Gallop – 25-30 MPH

Horse Colors

There is not only one color of skin for the Mustangs. The horses can have a brown coat, black, white, and charcoal. It is the same correlation about eyes, and these horses can have any eyes.

Facts about the Mustang you did not know:

• Mustangs can be female or male. There is no defined gender to be a mustang.
• These horses were all over the place in the areas where no one lived. There are records that there were more than 1 million horses without an owner.
• The government of the United States created a law that protects the mustangs. The horses can not be killed or captured to protect them from extinction caused by humans. The law was created in 1972 and called the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Bruno Act.” This law also protected the landowners where these horses are.
• Mustangs can go from 60-80 inches tall, according to all records we have. Mustang’s weight can go from 800 points to 1600 pounds depending on the horse.
• Mustangs would fight other horses for their breed. Mustangs are not like humans when it comes to gestation. Mustangs can take up to 11 months to have a newborn in the family.
• Mustangs do not require a lot of food to survive. We do not need many studies to know that there is not a lot of food in the wild, but these horses manage to survive with a small amount of food. The amount of food the Mustang will need is 2-3 pounds before it begins to affect them negatively.
• Mustangs are considered very fast, and we are not talking about cars. But even if the mustangs are fast, not all of them develop the ability to gallop.
• Mustangs are the only horses considered wild, and we can still find them in some areas all across the United States territory.
• There are around 50,000 Mustangs alive in the protected areas in the United States, and it is against the law to touch them.

Conclusion

After reading all the characteristics of the Mustang and Bronco, we can ensure that both horses are very popular in American culture. They are so popular that even Ford made two cars after their names. It turns out to be 2 of the most famous cards in America.

But the main difference between both horses is that the Mustang is considered wild. On the other hand, the Bronco is considered a robust, solid, and rough horse that can be domesticated with no issues.

Both horses were brought by the Spanish people from the other side of the world as a form of transportation. These horses used to be the ride for the wars and became the preferred transportation for the cowboys in the western area of the United States.