Welcome Carter Mustang Fans
Enjoy the CRMI website, scroll down, click on the other pages, and learn about this incredible California wild horse herd struggling to survive in a modern world, a world that they helped to discover, create, and settle so many years ago.
Carter Reservoir Mustangs Inc is researching, studying, and recording the Carter Reservoir Mustangs & their genetic code to assure the preservation of these wild horses within the herd area they have roamed for hundreds of years.
Stripes, Stripes and MORE Stripes!
At first glance, the Carter Reservoir Mustangs appear to be herds of brownish, buckskins, bays, and grulla colored horses but look more carefully.
They have stripes! Stripes on their legs, backs, shoulders, bellies, and elsewhere. There are very few wild mustang herds within the United States that exhibit these fascinating primitive dun characteristics as strong as the Carter Reservoir wild horse herd.
Preservation is a must and protection of this wild horse herd is vital to the survival of their unusual coloration and the Spanish Iberian ancestry as found through CRMI's 2015 mitochondrial DNA testing.
See photos below showing some of the uncommon primitive dun characteristic markings.
The Carter Reservoir mustang horses exhibit physical color characteristics known as "dun factor," which was also common to a major portion of the horses the Spaniards reintroduced into North America in the 1600s. Color classification of the dun factor are: dun, red dun, grulla or grullo (mouse gray), buckskin, claybank and variations of these colors. Markings on horses having the dun characteristics may include dorsal stripes, herringbone stripes, zebra stripes on knees and hocks, chest, rib, and arm bands, outlined ears, top 1/3 of the ear on its backside darker than body color, fawn color inside of ears, multicolored mane and tail, cob webbing on face and face masks. An individual having the dun factor may have many, but not all of these markings, but to be considered a dun the horse must have a dorsal stripe that is visible down into the tail hairs, as seen above.