A Shackleford Summer: Preventing the Extinction Of the Banker Horse

This stunning young Shackleford stallion arrived Friday night. Cracker Jack is a straight Shackleford Island, via Cedar Island, Banker stallion. He will be spending some time here and we will breed him to several Corolla mares and a mare or two who are also Colonial Spanish horses, but of different strains. We are delighted that his owner, Cyndi Finch, recognizes the need to both keep this horse as a stallion and to make him available to breed conservation efforts. 

The lack of genetic diversity among the Corollas is causing genetic collapse among some of these horses. I have some Corolla mares that cannot produce a foal when bred to another Corolla. There are four strains of matrilineal DNA found in Shackleford and only one among the Corollas. The Corollas have among the smallest number of alleles found in any distinct genetic grouping of horses.

 After World War I over six thousand wild Banker horses roamed the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Today there is a herd in Shackleford that is legally protected and a herd at Corolla that teeters on the brink of extinction as the land upon which they live is rapidly consumed by vacation homes.

 These horses have the demeanor, smoothness of gait, and spectacular endurance that makes them the perfect family horse. They have been here since the 16th Century. We do not have the right to allow them to become extinct during our generation.