Mustangs | Spirit of the Shrinking West, National Geographic magazine: Wild Horse Survives in Winter Snow Landscape

Harsh, cold weather means survival of the fittest. As night falls, a lone horse paws through deep snows in the Ochoco National Forest in search of something to eat.  Depending on the horse’s body condition, a healthy horse can go quite a long time without eating—a month or so—provided he already had a great amount of stored body fat. The horses eat snow for a water source.

The horses in the Ochoco are remnants of the Indian and settlers’ horses that roam the Big Summit Horse Territory in the mountains of eastern Oregon.

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