Photography by D.E. Buccheri
as seen on the cover of "The Hatteras Monitor," June 2003
The Banks Ponies that I am referring to in this section are those where I was able to photograph only a few. As described in the section “Cape Lookout,” we traveled the 3 mile stretch from land at Beaufort, North Carolina 3 miles on a small ferry, which to me was like a Platoon Boat. The ferry only carried about 15 people at the most. Along the 3 mile trip to Cape Lookout are numerous marshy islands. It is on these Islands that the Banks Ponies are located.
115 Brook Lane, Newport, NC |
The driver of the Ferry slowed down long enough for us to take a few camera shots, but with the wind gusting against the small Ferry and water splashing on my camera lens it was difficult to get very many photographs of these ponies. Nevertheless, I have included the photographs that I was able to get, that were not blurred in this section.
The driver of the Ferry told us that the herd of Banks Ponies was kept to a size of about 129. The ponies looked to me sturdier and stronger than the Wild Horses of Corolla. They survive on the marshy grasses and dune grasses on several Islands between Beaufort and Cape Lookout.
The information below concerning the origins and conditions of the Banker Ponies comes from the book “Banker Ponies an endangered species” by Jean Day, published in 1997 by “Golden Age Press.”
“In the beginning after the winds lessened, the twenty foot waves calmed into ripples on the aqua green sea. Flotsam from the Spanish Galleon
“Further down the beach, two mares heavy with foals joined the stallion. So it was that a Spanish Galleon joined those vessels already wrecked on North Carolina’s fabled Graveyard of the Atlantic. The only survivors were three Spanish Mustangs.”
“Soon two healthy foals were born. They grew up, reproduced, and gradually the herd spread out over the island. This is just one theory as to how the wild ponies got on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.”
