The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-01-11
OueeO Little Ponies OF the
North Carolina Sand
Banks.
(By Fred A. Olds.)

: DoAhS WHICH marx the eastern UOuhudiJ
of North Carolina, and which form a
vast breakwater within which are the
sounds through which the government now
proposes to provide an inland water
way which will end the terrors of Cape
Hatteras. The writer has told for the
Sunny South the story of the part of the
banks of which Cape Hatteras forms
vast promontory and this is to be
story about the part further to the
southwark, where the little ponies are,
the only wild horses east of the Missis-
sippi. ponies which have over three CEN
turtles of history behind them, and which
date back to the time of knightly Sir
Walter Raleigh and to the days when the
Moors of Barbary were a power.
The part of the banks in question is
known as "Shackelfords banks" taking
it's name fir ON the chief owner. Begin
ming at Ocracoke inlet, this stretch of
sand reaches to Bogue inlet, terminating
at Shackelford's point, in front of the
town of Beaufort Shackkelford's banks
is about forty miles long, low-lying, with
here and there dunes, or sand hills. ris-
ing to height of. say, IS to 40 feet,
tree covered, the trees laced with vines,
and in this mass of nearly subtropical
ish bayonet, prickly pear or small cactus
and the fan or scrub palmetto. There
are homes here and there along the ir-
regular stretch of Shackelfords banks,
and there is also light house, and near
it a great natural harbor of refuge, at
Cape Lookout, which the government is
also planning to utilize.
On Shackelford's banks alone are the
4 - frs -fYOV
but true. that these are found in their
wild state nowhere else. There are said
to be about 200 of them on the banks.
Inquiry made of observant residents as
to whether the numbers of the ponies
had decreased during the past fifty years
brought the response that it had, and
that until about 1850 the ponies increased.
The ponies weigh about 800 pounds, and
their height Is about 10 to Il hands
that is, AZ to Az feet. Their life is
mainly on the banks, though in very
stormy weather they sometimes swim
over to the mainland. distance of to
5 miles away. Their food is marsh grass.
leaves of scrubby trees and shrubs and
berries, particularly the berries of the
holly. The woods give them, usually
good shelter, and hence it is but sell
mainland They live to quite an age but
the average is about % years. Some
reach the age of 40.
HOW OWNERSHIP IS FINALLY SET
/ TIED.
/ These ponies have owners. The blanks
are owned by various persons, largely
ly grants sold by the State. These peo-
pie make pens out of drift wood and
rough logs and poles, and into these the
ponies and their colts are driven and
branded. A colt following branded mare
| is considered the property of the owner
| of the mare. and he holds it. In cases
where there are colts which do not fol-
low the mares. then the "penners," that
is, the men who make and own the pens,
take them. Such is the unSritten law.
che ponies are driven out of the scrub
by drivers or herdes. and this is a work
of no small difficulty, as the scrub is so
thick as often to be jungle, threaded
by thousands of narrow paths through the
shining sand. The wind and the salt keep
down much of the vegetation, so that
there one may see hickory trees not
over feet in height. yet loaded with
nuts, and horse chestnut trees equally
as dwarfed.
| The colts are covered with hair sew
eral inches in length, natures protection
against the weather. This is called colt
hair and looks like felt. 1t falls off in
larke flakes. Most of the colts are OF
faded brown color, but when their colt
hair falls off they come out in their true
color, which is sometimes black. They
are termed colts until they are branded
though they may be 3 years old or more
before they are penned and the brand
put on.
These ponies are always known, in all
parts of this State. as banker" ponies.
They do not appear to be sold much out
side of North Carolina, as the people in
other States do not know anything about
them They cross we'll with horses
When taken up-country and fed upon
hay, corn and oats they fill out and
darken in color somewhat. Their in
stinct is remarkable. They know by
means of it the way to get to the nam
land or to islands with the minimum
amount of swimming, and the writer ha@
seen them wade great distances without
getting out of their DEPTH making va
rous turns and changes in direction tc
conform to the shoals. Yet they arc
fearless swimmers. They paw holes il
the sand at low-lying places and thus
get drinking water.
Though an inlet only about two miles
in width separates Shackelfords banks
from Bogue banks yet the ponies never
go on the latter banks. Nor do they
cross Ocracoke inlet.
The ancestors Of these hardy and val
liable little horses were the Barbary
horses which Sir Walter Raleigh sen
over with his colonists to Roanoke island
They have bred and multiplied and fol
at least two centuries have been utilized
by the people Of that section. Sir Wal
ters colonists, when the relief from Eng
land was so long delayed in reachin;
them. went with the Indians to the main
land, but must have left the ponies. Th'
Indians were unused to horses. Thes'
Indians were the Haterasks, who CAV
their name to the dreaded cape. Whel
Raleigh's colonists first landed there the!
found that the Haterasks were dstin
guished by their blue eyes and that the,
had a tradition that their fathers coul'
talk out of a book" Hence the inference
that at some former period crew o
white men had been cast away there
| abouts and had anna lgamated with tn
1 Indians.