Photos: A chance discovery revives hopes for rare Choctaw horses
Six foals sired by a cream-colored Choctaw breed stallion called DeSoto scamper across a pasture in southwest Mississippi. Choctaw horses, one strain in a breed called Colonial Spanish horses, often referred to by the misleading term “Spanish mustang”, were thought to be long gone from this region, disappearing when their Native American owners who held them as prized economic and spiritual possessions were expelled from the US Southeast by the government. But the surprise discovery of DeSoto on a farm in Poplarville 13 years ago led to a plan to help the dwindling strain survive.
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A Pine Tacky Choctaw cross stud colt is seen on Bill Frank Brown’s farm in Poplarville, Mississippi. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (Gerald Herbert / AP)
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A Choctaw mare with a filly are seen on Bill Frank Brown’s farm. Choctaw horses are descended from those brought to the United States in the 1500s and later by Spanish explorers and colonists, said Dr. Phillip Sponenberg of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. (Gerald Herbert / AP)
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Bill Frank Brown walks to feed his horses on his farm. The farm has been in Brown’s family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Choctaw horses are one strain in a breed called Colonial Spanish horses, often misleadingly referred to as “Spanish mustang.” These horses are among the world’s few genetically unique horse breeds. (Gerald Herbert / AP)
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Bill Frank Brown points out an ancestral photo from a trade magazine on his farm in Poplarville. Brown was 14 when he inherited the farm. The farm had three stallions when Sponenberg visited it in 2005, including DeSoto. (Gerald Herbert / AP)
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