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When asked what motivated him to help 

 study the ponies, Steve Benbow, a Morehead 

 City insurance agent, stumbles to explain his 

 reasoning. He uses words like "heritage," 

 "wildness" and "independence." 



But his sentiment is clear. These wild horses 

 are interwoven in the culture and uniqueness of 

 the Crystal Coast. To locals and visitors alike, the 

 ponies are a living reminder of the area's strong 

 maritime ties and rugged roots. 



No one is sure how wild horses came to live 

 on Shackleford Banks, but many speculate it was 

 some combination of early explorers, colonists, 

 and overland trade and travel, says Stuska. One 

 popular theory is that horses swam ashore from 

 sinking ships in the 1400s and 1500s. Another is 

 that horses were left behind when settlements like 

 Diamond City, on the eastern end of Shackleford 

 Banks, were abandoned in the late 1800s. 



Genetic samples from the Shackleford 

 ponies reveal blood variants rarely seen in 

 domestic horses, according to Gus Cothran, the 

 director of the University of Kentucky's equine 

 blood typing research laboratory. 



'This leads us to believe that this herd of 

 Banker Horses could be descended from a very 

 old core group of Colonial Spanish horses," 

 Stuska says. 



Today's herd still reflects the survival 

 strategies and social pecking order that kept its 

 ancestors reproducing on Shackleford Banks for 

 so long. The ponies organize themselves into 

 harems, or groups of mares associated with one 

 stallion. A stallion with a large harem has a higher 

 status among the herd, and a greater chance 

 of ensuring his genes are passed on to future 

 generations. 



There are about 25 harems on the island, and 

 anywhere from five to seven "bachelor bands," 

 or groups of young male stallions, according to 

 Stuska's latest count. 



"Certain harems only stay in certain 

 areas," explains Emily Adams, a study volunteer 



and North Carolina 

 Cooperative Extension 

 agent. The same is true 

 for bachelor bands, 

 although their home 

 ranges are slightly 

 bigger. "They may be 

 eating different things 

 on different parts of the 

 island," she says. 



Watching, Waiting 



When the 

 volunteers arrive, they 

 are given their field kits 

 — a GPS unit to pinpoint 

 the location of their samples, a walkie-talkie, a 

 soft cooler, several resealable plastic bags, and 

 a clipboard with data sheets. They are split into 

 groups and assigned to different areas of the 

 island. 



The groups check the ponies' most likely 

 haunts first, such as the freshwater ponds. The 

 volunteers may get lucky and discover a harem or 

 a few wandering bachelors. Or all they may find 

 are traces of ponies — ragged edges of bushes, 

 hoof prints or a fresh pile of dung. 



When they do find ponies, volunteers 

 approach carefully and give the animals plenty 

 of space. The ponies may respond to this new 

 presence with a flick of an ear or the toss of a tail, 

 and then they turn back around. 



"They just go about their business," says 

 Adams. 



For the volunteers, the best part of the day 

 has begun. First, they look for any numbers 

 displayed on the ponies' hindquarters. 



These numbers are freeze-branded onto 

 ponies during round-ups, an event to manage the 

 herd that occurs anywhere from every two to four 

 years. Unlike hot iron-branding, which obliterates 

 hair follicles, freeze-branding uses a cold agent to 

 alter follicles so that the hair grows back white. 



Volunteers then cross-reference the numbers 

 with names and document the ponies on their data 

 sheets. Then it is time to take out the binoculars, 

 find a comfortable patch of sand and start 

 observing. 



Sometimes there are little dramas, like 

 tussles over the use of the watering hole. Other 

 times, the stallions find themselves involved in 

 bigger commotions. 



"When they fight, the stallion will always 

 send in the second-in-command first," says Yoder. 

 A challenge usually consists of meeting nose-to- 

 nose, snorting and pawing the ground. During 

 the last fight Yoder witnessed, the second-in- 

 command began the challenge and then quickly 

 turned and ran — the signal for the alpha stallion 

 to take over. 



"But the second-in-command immediately 

 ran back to one of the mares that was in heat and 

 tried to breed her while the alpha stallion was 

 fighting. The alpha heard it and took off — he 

 forgot all about the fight!" 



Most of the time, volunteers spend the day 

 watching the ponies eat. In the fall and winter, the 

 brown landscape makes it difficult to see what 

 bits of green they are consuming. Once the ponies 

 have finished grazing, there usually isn't much 



18 Coastwatch I Early Summer 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 



