Only the government could take an iconic, free, powerful being and turn it into a lazy leach and a beggar.
Well, I’m sure that applies to the creation of dependent humans. But the horses on Assateague have been taught their habits by free-range tourists :-)
The day we were there, we encountered a mare with a blind foal. She was very watchful, but didn’t mind when we petted the baby. These horses aren’t ‘feral’ anymore.
(I worried about the swim that year; how would a blind horse manage?)