Canyon Stallion

Mustangs descend from Spanish horses brought to the Americas in the sixteenth century. The word comes from the Spanish mesteño, meaning stray, and it fits: these are horses that went wild and stayed that way.

In the mid-twentieth century they were chased down with aircraft and trucks, and a woman named Velma Johnston, known as Wild Horse Annie, led a campaign against it that ended with a federal law in 1959. In 1971 Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which protects them as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." The Bureau of Land Management manages the herds along with the Forest Service.

The horse rears in silhouette, mane streaming left, forelegs folded. Inside the outline is a canyon at sunset: layered red mesas and spires, a river valley fading into haze. The head and neck fill with a blue sky edged in gold clouds. Around him the ground is a warm parchment tone with soft mottling.