Carrot Island. The future of the state's 

 feral horses is in doubt, and officials 

 face tough decisions about what should 

 be done. 



"No one ever thought this would 

 grow into what it has become," 

 Dorman says. "They really thought 

 they were going to set up some control 

 measures and that would be the end 

 of it." 



As many as 35 untamed horses 

 run among the brush and fields of the 

 Currituck National Wildlife Refuge 

 north of Corolla. Twenty-one rove 

 between the sound and sea near Co- 

 rolla, and about 224 more roam 

 Shackleford Banks and the Rachel 

 Carson Estuarine Sanctuary in Carteret 

 County. Only a small herd of 26 have a 

 place to call home at Ocracoke — on 

 about 200 penned acres managed by 

 the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. 



"People like seeing the horses," 

 says Ken Merritt, refuge manager of 

 the Mackay Island and Currituck na- 

 tional wildlife refuges. "But there are 

 definitely some problems, and as de- 



velopment continues on the Outer 

 Banks it's going to be difficult for the 

 two to coexist." 



THE HORSES' 

 TRUE BEGINNINGS 

 ON THE BARRIER ISLANDS 

 ARE AS MUCH A MYSTERY 



AS THE LOST COLONY, 

 BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUTS 

 AND THE SOURCE OF THE 

 OUTER BANKS BROGUES. 



In recent years, the "wild" horses 

 of the Outer Banks have become one of 

 the region's top tourist attractions. Visi- 

 tors scramble through thickets and 

 down gravel roads in Corolla to get a 

 glimpse of the short, stocky horses 

 unfettered by boundaries and rules. The 

 horses' mysterious history only adds to 

 the intrigue. 



"People love horses; we all love 

 horses," says Chuck Harris of the Cape 



Lookout National Seashore. But he and 

 other wildlife managers are asking more 

 questions about the horses' best interest, 

 their habitat and the people who en- 

 counter them. So far, finding a balance 

 hasn't been easy. 



"Politically, it's a hot potato," Har- 

 ris says. "My personal opinion is that 

 this is, will and can be a management 

 problem for us." 



The problem begins with the inabil- 

 ity to pinpoint the exact origin of these 

 much-heralded horses. Claims of pure 

 Spanish ancestry fuel the fight to protect 

 the horses and to allow them to run 

 wild. 



The horses' true beginnings on the 

 barrier islands are as much a mystery as 

 the Lost Colony, Blackbeard's hideouts 

 and the source of the Outer Banks 

 brogues. Some residents believe the first 

 wild ponies were left by members of 

 the Lost Colony. Others think they 

 swam from 16th-century shipwrecks or 

 escaped from Spanish stock brought to 

 the Outer Banks in the first part of that 

 century. 



4 MAY I JUNE 1994 



