Patricia Hoch, age 11, of Rochester, N. Y., for her question:

What is a mustang?

The Spanish brought horses to the New World and some of  these animals became lost or stolen. Some just ran away to live a wild life in the western mountains and deserts. After a few generations, these wild horses became small, hardy and very fleet, The Spaniards called them mustangs, meaning strayed or ownerless.

Later, the Spanish mustangs were joined by more stray and runaway horses and in a few generations these too became mustangs. Thousands of these wild horses have been captured and either tamed or slaughtered. A few still remain. The wild mustang is also called a pinto, a broomtail cayuse, an Indian pony and a bronco