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The Atlantic Wild Horse Trail
The Wild Horses of Shackleford Banks, NC

For centuries, free-roaming horses have lived and died on the 60-odd miles (97 km) of North Carolina islands that now constitute Cape Lookout NS. Now they remain only on 3,000-acre/1,200-ha Shackleford Banks, a narrow ribbon of sand roughly 9 mi/14.5 km long that runs perpendicular to the southernmost end of Core Banks.

Many believe that the original horses swam ashore from Spanish shipwrecks long before the English colonized the New World. The shoals off Cape Lookout and along the banks are certainly treacherous. One of the region’s earliest cartographers named Cape Lookout Promontorium tremendum, or “horrible headland” ( Jones, 2004). Ships, mostly bound to and from the English colonies, often passed this hazard carrying horses and other livestock, especially in the mid-to-late 1600s and 1700s. Shipwrecks might have brought horses to the island, but there is no proof, and perhaps no possibility of proof.

Islands and necks were widely used as grazing commons  throughout the American colonies.  Colonists of predominantly English descent settled Shackleford Banks in the 1760s, when it was contiguous with Core Banks.  By the mid-1800s, Shackleford Banks was home to more than 600 people in several communities who called themselves "Ca'e Bankers" (dialect for "Cape Bankers").  Diamond City, named after the distinctive diamond pattern of the nearby Cape Lookout Lighthouse, was the largest town ever established on Shackleford Banks home to roughly 500 residents. These residents free-ranged not only horses, but cattle, sheep, hogs, and goats.

The year 1893 was particularly bad for storms—at least 5 major tropical storms or hurricanes swept Shackleford Banks, including one in August that killed 18 people and another in October that killed 22. In 1896, two major hurricanes brushed Shackleford Banks, convincing a number of residents to relocate to the mainland. Then on August 17, 1899, the Category 3 San Ciriaco hurricane slammed North Carolina. It wrecked seven ships, knocked homes off their foundations, swept away gardens, and disinterred the dead. Carcasses of dead horses and sheep lodged in trees.

The devastation was too much to bear. After the storm, even the most tenacious residents of Shackleford Banks decided to pack up what was left of their belongings and move to stable ground. By 1902, Shackleford was deserted. The island was once again left to wildlife and free-roaming livestock. At the turn of last century, Shackleford reportedly held a vast number of wild horses. In 1933, another storm severed Shackleford from Core Banks at Barden Inlet.

Cape Lookout somehow escaped the commercialism and population growth of the Cape Hatteras area. At one time, developers considered building a bridge to Shackleford and developing the island as a tourist destination; but the state began acquiring land in the 1960s, ultimately it became part of Cape Lookout National Seashore. Congress created Cape Lookout NS in March 1966, extending from Ocracoke Inlet in the north to Beaufort Inlet in the south, but it would be another 20 years before the seashore was fully established. Mostly undeveloped and accessible only by boat, the seashore comprises four barrier islands that buffer 56 mi/90 km of the central coast of North Carolina. In 1960, an edict issued by the 1959 General Assembly of North Carolina required stockmen to remove all livestock from Shackleford Banks.

Stockmen did remove large numbers of livestock in the early 1960s, but not all. The remainder multiplied, and between 1978 and 1981 the livestock census on Shackleford ranged from 81 to 108 horses, 64 to 89 cattle, 104 to 144 sheep, and 100 to 150 goats. By that time there were no year-'round residents on Shackleford, but landowners maintained fishing cabins and other structures for seasonal use. At one time, Shackleford roundups were conducted by men and boys, but during the 1950s, the pennings became part of July 4th celebrations and involved most of the community.

In the 1980s, the Park service removed sheep, goats, and cattle from the islands. Local residents petitioned that the Banker Horses be left to roam free on Shackleford. With the sheep, goats, and cattle no longer competing with them for resources, horses multiplied rapidly, from a relatively stable count of roughly 100 from the 1970s to 1986 to an estimated high of more than 221 in 1994 .A management crisis had developed. The Park Service declared that the equine population overgrazed the island and strained the ecosystem. 
Whether horse grazing is ultimately helpful or harmful to the environment depends largely upon herd size. Overpopulation is clearly detrimental to horses and habitat alike. By the mid-1990s many of the horses in the Shackleford herd were underweight, particularly the mares, and researchers were seeing signs of increasing environmental damage. It appeared that Shackleford Banks had more horses than it could comfortably support.

The majority of Many Down-Easters—residents of the lowlands and villages of eastern Carteret County—considered the horses an important part of part of their cultural heritage and wanted them to remain. Many had grown up on the backs of the rugged little Bankers, and had fond memories of participating in annual pennings. Ultimately the Park Service decided to gather all the horses; test them for equine infectious anemia with the assistance of the N.C. Department of Agriculture, Veterinary Division; destroy any positive reactors; and offer the remainder for adoption. Mares returned to the island would receive annual contraceptive vaccines to limit fertility. With the birth rate in check, the population would never again exceed what the island can comfortably sustain. Both the horses and their environment would be healthier.

EIA, also known as swamp fever, a disease that only affects equids, is caused by a lentivirus—a retrovirus with a long incubation period—similar to the one that causes AIDS in humans or feline leukemia. It is transmitted by horse flies, which can transfer blood from infected hosts into healthy animals. Once infected with EIA, horses remain infected for life. Some become obviously ill, others are asymptomatic carriers.

On November 12, 1996, the agency corralled all 184 horses, considerably fewer than the original estimate of 221. Seventy-six horses tested positive for EIA. Sixteen of the 18 dominant herd stallions on Shackleford Banks (89%) tested positive. None of these horses showed obvious signs of the disease. State law required quarantine or euthanasia of the infected horses. Carolyn Mason, a retired librarian committed to protecting the culture and heritage of the area, organized local residents to form the Foundation for Shackleford Horses, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

As the Foundation sought quarantine sites, only 8 days after the horses were tested, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and the Park Service killed the 76 positive testers, as well as an uninfected foal who slipped into the quarantined herd to remain with its dam. Their bodies were unceremoniously buried in a landfill.
The 108 horses with negative Coggins tests were released back to the island after the Park Service freeze-branded large numerals on their rumps to make identification easier. Several horses evaded captors in the 1996 roundup and were not tested. A second roundup in March 1997 captured 103 horses. Five of these were positive for EIA. The foundation was ready this time and had obtained prior approval for an isolation site. The Park Service gave these animals to the foundation, sparing them from destruction. In 1998, three of 106 horses tested positive for EIA and were also quarantined.

In October 2002 , Bob Vogel took the reins as superintendent of Cape Lookout NS and organized a meeting that included scientists, representatives from the foundation, and other stakeholders to rethink the management plan. The team reached a consensus that the horse population should never fall below 110 horses and that occasional expansions to 130 animals would allow successful genes to increase in frequency and benefit the population. These recommendations became Public Law No. 109-117 in 2005.

Today wild horses on Shackleford Banks are jointly managed by the foundation and by Dr. Sue Stuska, the Park Service biologist in charge of their welfare. The Park Service now makes an apparently sincere effort to integrate public opinion and information into its management plans. From a distance, Stuska delivers contraceptives by dart gun, documents new foals, and evaluates the health status of each individual, but does not feed, touch, or interact with the horses except in extraordinary circumstances. The Park Service treats them as wildlife and grants them the space in which they can be wild horses.

Maintaining a smaller herd has benefited the horses greatly. Rubenstein wrote that Shackleford foals had only a 48% chance of surviving the first two years. Since 2000, about 82% of Shackleford foals survive the first 2 years. A 2009 study by Stuska et al. indicates that the diet of the Shackleford horses is adequate to maintain relatively good health.

Shackleford Banks is accessible to visitors by boat. Island Express Ferry Service LLC is the only authorized concessionaire to drop off at Cape Lookout Lighthouse and Shackleford Banks. The congressionally mandated partnership between the Park Service and the Foundation for Shackleford Horses has been in place since 1999. The agencies work well together, combining resources and advancing goals more effectively than either could achieve independently. In the face of climate change and other future challenges, this management team should act to preserve both the island ecology and the herd, keeping the horses of Shackleford in a healthy balance with the island that has been their home for hundreds of years.
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Respect free-roaming horses as wildlife. Keep at least the length of a large bus between you and the horses at all times, and try not to disrupt their behavior with your presence.
Respect free-roaming horses as wildlife. Keep at least the length of a large bus between you and the horses at all times, and try not to disrupt their behavior with your presence.
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Wild horses of Shackleford Banks
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The Wild Horse Dilemma: Conflicts and controversies of the Atlantic coast herds. 
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Wild Horse Vacations: 
​Volume 2: Ocracoke, NC, Shackleford Banks, NC, Cumberland Island, GA
Shackleford Banks Links