The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1903-02-13
WILD HORSES OF CAROLINA.
When Captured They Soon Become
Quite Tractable.

On one of the lonely banks that help
to form the coast of North Carolina
live the only wild horses east of the
Mississippi river. They are hardly hor-
ses at that for they are not any taller
than child. They are called banker"
ponies, because they come from the
banks. Their hair is long and shaggy,
and so thick that it protects them from
the cold winds which sweep down up
on them from Cape Hatteras and the
Atlantic ocean.
Although many of the ponies have
been caught and transformed into
tractable beasts, it is doubtfu if a
hundred people outside of North Caro-
limo ever heard of them. The trade in
them is not even wide enough to reach
into the extreme western counties of
their state, and if you ask the folks of
the mountainous country what a bank
er pony is you'll find the animal about
as little known as an Asiatic tiger.
East of Greensboro, though, it is the
ambition of every child to own a bank
er, and each town is likely to boast
three or four of the pretty creatures.
Hitched to diminutiVe DuggieS and
wagons, they trOt around the streets,
taking steps about as long as dogs,
They are then as gentle as lambs Tor,
once tanned, their lameness is absolute.
Probably the most interesting thing
about the bankers is a theory as to
their origin. Historians of the OLD
North State have said that the ponies
are descended from remnant of hOr-
seS left on the banks by Sir Walter
Raieigh more than three centuries age.
Of course, everybody knows that it is
a mooted question just where Sir Wal
ter landed first. Those who trace the
ponies back to the landing hold the
view that the British knight and his
colony stopped while on the souther-
ly banks, where the ponies are to be
found, and then migrated over toward
Roanoke island, having found the first
stopping place unsuitable for the fort
that was to be built. However that
may be, the ponies are there. They
stick closely to the banks at Shackle-
ford's, which is one of the chain of
sandbars that form great breakwa-
ter for that coast
Shackleford's banks begin at Ocra-
coke Inlet and extend northward to-
ward Hatteras, ending opposite the
town of Beaufort. The distance is for
ty miles. The banks consist of nearly
level dunes for the most part, but every
now and then there is a low sand hill.
These occasional hills are covered with
semi-tropical getation-stunted trees,
small cactus. There is also some fan
or scrub palmetto, called by the ma
tiYes pimetto,"
1t is estimated that there are about
1900 of the ponies on Shackleford'
banks. They weigh on an average 800
pounds each, and measure from Is to
IA hands high. They are fine swim
mers and sometimes, when the wealth.
er is very stormy, they swim across to
the mainland, between two and five
miles away. They eat marsh grass,
sea oats, and holly berries, and it is
stated that they live to be very old,
some Of them reaching 40 years. The
banks are owned by men who have OBJ
tanned grants from the state. Years
ago these owners began to drive the
wild ponies into pens and brand them,
Nowadays, when there is a colt that
does not follow its mother 1t is the I'M
written law that any owner may drive
it in and take possession.
In color the long-haired colts are
faded brown. Their hair grows short
er as time passes. With age the color
becomes darker. Sometimes you see a
banker three years old that is entirely
black, and this is almost certain to be
the case when they are taken up the
country and fed on corn and oats like
other ponies. At the various stock
farms of North Carolina there have
been many tests of Interpreting, and
1t has been found that the ponies cross
well with large horses.
Want ode In Gtar cost but Ok ppnts