Badland Ponies

A herd of brood mares, used to raise bucking horses for Native American rodeos, traverses open ground on the Pine Ridge Reservation. “The horse, and the horse alone, accounts for much of the success of the Spanish explorers in the semi-arid region of the north and in the Great Plains… The horses of Spain were the horses of Arabia, of northern Africa, of the Moors; in short, they were the horses of the desert. This meant that they were hardy and tough, could live on scant food, on forage and grass, and did not depend entirely on grain. This Asiatic, Arabian, African-bred horse (and cattle of equal hardihood) flourished in semi-arid America”. Walter Prescott Webb “The Great Plains”