Pony pennings such as this one at Shackleford Banks used to be common along Tar 

 Heel barrier islands. 



those grazing near Caswell are short, 

 standing 14 to 15 1/2 hands, or 56 to 62 

 inches tall, and weigh about 1,000 

 pounds. Their foreheads are wide, their 

 necks long and crested, and their chests 

 broad. They have strong legs, a high tail 

 and a long mane. Yet one of their most 

 prominent features is a short back, due to 

 five lumbar vertebrae, instead of the 

 more common six. 



For decades, the absence of the sixth 

 backbone has been all some people 

 needed to prove that the ponies de- 

 scended from Spanish mustangs. 



Many Spanish horses have five lum- 

 bar vertebrae, agrees E. Gus Cothran, an 

 associate research professor in the De- 

 partment of Veterinary Science at the 

 University of Kentucky. But so do many 

 other breeds. 



Two years ago, Cothran, a genetics 

 expert, attempted to decode the ancestry 

 of the region's feral horses in a research 

 project funded by the Eastern National 

 Park and Monument Association. 



His study on the genetic makeup of 

 horses at Ocracoke, Corolla, Shackleford, 

 Carrot Island and sites in Georgia and 

 Virginia made several previously un- 

 charted discoveries and has become a 

 guide for genetic management of the 

 herds. 



FOR DECADES, 

 THE ABSENCE OF THE 

 SIXTH BACKBONE 

 HAS BEEN ALL SOME 

 PEOPLE NEEDED 

 TO PROVE THAT 

 THE PONIES DESCENDED 

 FROM SPANISH MUSTANGS. 



In one part of the study, Cothran 

 found that the Outer Banks horses had 

 more in common genetically with one 

 another than with 65 domestic breeds. 

 Evidence also suggests that few other 

 breeds had been introduced to the Banker 

 ponies through the years, echoing the 

 theory that they have been isolated for a 

 long time. 



"I suspect, at least to some degree, 



that they all share ancestry," Cothran 

 says from his office in Lexington, Ky. 

 Spanish ancestry is evident, but the 

 Banker horses are probably not straight 

 descendants of Old World Spanish 

 breeds, he adds. More likely, they de- 

 rived from the horses bred later in the 

 Caribbean. 



"There is evidence from genetic 

 markers and physical appearance that 

 they have Spanish ancestry," he says. 



Research can't tell us, though, 

 which Spanish herds they came from, 

 when they were introduced or under 

 what circumstances. The Banker ponies 

 may be descendants of the conquista- 

 dors' horses or of horses imported to the 

 Outer Banks for plowing farms in the 

 1920s, for instance. 



"You can't make a final statement," 

 Cothran adds. "It's just not that clear- 

 cut." 



Although Cothran did not detect 

 similarities between the feral horses and 

 today's Spanish breeds, he did note the 

 horses' likeness to saddle-and-harness 

 breeds such as saddlebreds and Morgan 

 horses. He suggests that the Banker 



ponies and the saddle-and-harness breeds 

 share a common ancestor — the Spanish 

 jennet, a hardy Iberian horse. Similar 

 traits are shown in the saddle-and-harness 

 breeds through an extinct breed called the 

 Narragansett Pacer. 



Not everyone makes hay of 

 Cothran's research. 



Ernie Bowden, a Currituck County 

 commissioner and one of the area's last 

 cowboys, dismisses Cothran's findings, 

 especially the part about the horses' lack 

 of pure Spanish breeding. 



"Very frankly, they have been 

 identified as the first horses introduced 

 by Spanish who colonized the area," 

 Bowden says. They have a direct line, 

 he adds, "absolutely directly." 



In reality, however, the lineage is 

 probably diluted as Cothran suggests. 

 Many historians believe that the first 

 settlers to the Outer Banks brought their 

 livestock — including horses — by way 

 of the West Indies, British Isles and 

 Jamaica, the trade routes at the time. 



None of John White's 16th-century 

 drawings depict horses, and Ralph Lane's 

 writings of the time are mum on the sub- 



6 MAY I JUNE 1994 



