Horses in the United States

Horses have been an important component of American life and culture since before the founding of the nation. In 2023, there were an estimated 6.65 million horses in the United States,^[1] with 1.5 million horse owners, 25 million citizens that participate in horse related activities, 12 million citizens that spectate at horse events, and 4.6 million citizens involved in businesses related to horses.^[1][2] There are an estimated 82,000^[3] feral horses that roam freely in the wild in certain parts of the country, mostly in the Western United States.

While genus Equus, of which the horse is a member, originally evolved in North America, these horse relatives became extinct on the continent approximately 8,000–12,000 years ago. In 1493, on Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the Americas, Spanish horses, representing E. caballus, were brought back to North America, first to the Virgin Islands; they were introduced to the continental mainland by Hernán Cortés in 1519. From early Spanish imports to Mexico and Florida, horses moved north, supplemented by later imports to the east and west coasts brought by British, French, and other European colonists. Native peoples of the Americas quickly obtained horses and developed their own horse culture.^[4][5]

Horses remained an integral part of American rural and urban life until the 20th century, when the widespread emergence of mechanization caused their use for industrial, economic, and transportation purposes to decline. Modern use of the horse in the United States is primarily for recreation and entertainment, though some horses are still used for specialized tasks.