Legend of the Wild Horses - Urban Legends and Superstitions on Waymarking.com

Hundreds of drivers traveling on busy I-90, near the Vantage Bridge over the Columbia River, have seen the rusted steel, life-size sculpture of fifteen wild horses (1989) on a ridge above the Columbia River. The 200-foot line of life-size charging horses by artist David Govedare of Chewelah, Washington captures a mystical spirit from a time when real wild horses roamed the steppes.

According to “The Dictionary of Misinformation” c. 1975 by Tom Burnam, there is a colorful and persistent legend to the effect that by 1600 the Great Plains were well stocked with herds of wild horses, which the Plains Indians had only to catch and tame. These horses, according to the legend, were descendants of horses brought to the Texas plains by Hernando De Soto and Francisco Vazquez de Coronado in the year of 1540.

However, De Soto’s horses did not include any mares. The five male horses that were released were killed by Indians the same day, and there is no record of any of the other horses surviving. The records of the Coronado expedition do include the listing of two or three mares, but there is no indication that they were taken eastward into buffalo country.

The source of the Indians’ horses was undoubtedly the Spanish colonies in now New Mexico just to the west of Texas. There were 25 mission farms surrounding wealthy Don Juan de Oñate’s colony. There Indian boys learned to work with, ride and handle Spanish horses. It was Oñate's Spanish horses that sired the original domestic stock and mustangs that created the foundation of Western horse culture and would have a profound impact on the culture of the Plains Indians.

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