Besides the cowboy, the horse is central to our romance with the old west.  10,000 years ago the horse became extinct in North America and it was not until the 1500's that the Conquistadores reintroduced Iberian strains. Over the years many of these animals escaped or were turned out by ranchers, eventually forming the herds of free-roaming Mustangs that stand as western icons of freedom to this day. But western horse culture doesn't restrict itself just to breeds that you can throw a rope from.  Freisians for example - incredibly beautiful all-black horses native to the province of Friesland in the Netherlands - compete and are bred in Utah.