Would the horses and ponys survive in the wild?

Question

if you took 10 horses and 10 mares, and released them into a forest would they have enough survival; skills to live independantly. would they breed or would they die out from hunger. in other words do the domesticated horses depend on humans for their survival?

Answer 1

Actually, horses are the only animals that after being domesticated can return to the wild without any major problems. They revert right back to their natural instincts as if they never were touched by humans.

Now, there's always the exceptions to the rule. For example, the minature horses (exceptionally small horses that barely ever grow taller than a human's hip) would have trouble re-adjustng because their breed has a tendency to have foot problems. Still, if it weren't for those tiny feet of theirs, they'd still be able to successfully return to the wild.

Just so you know, there aren't as many as there used to be, but there still are wild horses/ponies in the world. Off the top of my head, I can think of the wild horses that range in Montana, on Sable Island in Canada, the Camarague horses of France, and the Asiatic horses (Prezwalski horses, I think). And that's just a few of them.

Answer 2

Horses like other animals were basically wild, domesticated and bred by human from personal use. They can easily go wild and survive there. Like a single man, married and divorced, he can live as single easily.

Answer 3

Probably not the domesticated ones we have today.  However, zebras are of the horse family and they survive perfectly well in the wild.  Ok well, perfectly except when they run a little slower than the lion.

Answer 4

It's important to distinguish between "wild" and "feral" animals.

The American Mustangs and the Australian Brumbies are "feral" horses, which are descendents of domestic horses, now living in the wild, without humans. I do not think they are found in forests.

There are also some species of ("wild") horses which have never been domesticated.  Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) and varieties of the onanger are examples. There are some which have become extinct relatively recently.

Horses do not usually form pair-bonds.  The more usual herd organization has a single stallion and a number of mares and their colts. As male colts mature, most are driven from the group by the dominant male, as long as he can maintain his dominance. Most of the 10 males are unnecessary to your experiment.