Our Foundation Herd For The Corolla Off Site Breeding Program

This post is less to inform or entertain than it is simply to document the core members of the foundation herd for our Corolla off site breeding program. Other posts give information about how one can participate in the program. Simply search "off site breeding program" on this blog for details. Pictures of the horses listed below can often be found by searching their names in a similar fashion. Briefly put, the wild herd of Colonial Spanish mustangs of the Banker strain that is found north of Corolla on the Outer Banks of North Carolina faces genetic collapse and teeters on the brink of extinction. Horses are listed according to strain and sex. A few horses fit in more than one category. Those who share a common letter after their name are "closely related" (meaning that they share at least a known grand parent). Please note this list does not include horses that we have produced and placed with others over the years through the off site breeding program and are available for  use for breeding.

Corolla stallions

Manteo A
Tradewind
Edward Teach
Corn Stalk
Poncho B (1)
Stitch B

Corolla mares
Secotan
Baton Rouge A
Swimmer
Polished Steel B (1)
Black Hawk B
Katalina
Valor

Choctaw and high percentage Choctaw Mares

Monique C
Mozelle   C
Zee
Feather
La Primera D

Shackleford Stallion
Wanchese

Shackleford Mare
Persa

Marsh Tacky Mare
Hickory Wind ? (she may be sterile)

Grand Canyon Stallion
Scoundrel Days D

High percentage Grand Canyon Mares
Janie D
La Primera D

This is a large and varied foundation herd. To over simplify a bit, Corolla stallions and mares are bred to those listed in other strains for the first generation of breeding. The offspring of those pairings are to then be bred to other Corollas to whom they are not closely related.  A future generation of that line could then be bred to a strain listed above not in its lineage to bring further diversity to the program. That offspring will then be bred to a Corolla not closely related.

As can be imagined this is a long term project. If enough other breeders join in and maintain even very small conservation bands of these horses they will be preserved.

So far this summer I have bred Corn Stalk (see above) to Zee and Persa. Over the summer and fall I plan to breed four or five more mares.

Contact us now to reserve your 2017 foal and to become part of the effort to preserve these historic horses for future generations.
 

There Is Nothing That My Big Girls Can't Do

I imagine that there are many contexts in which young ladies would be offended by being referred to simply as "big girls." The horse lot is not one of those places. Everyone has a role at the horse lot and every participant matters--but there would be no horse lot with out my big girls.

Most, but not all, of my big girls began riding with me when they were kids. They were the earliest ones to understand what we are doing here. From Katie who about eight years ago looked over our weeds and dusts and wild horses and said, "some day this place is going to be famous", to Rebecca who insisted that I continue to spend money and think bigger in terms of infrastructure development and increasing herd size, to Lydia who reminds everyone that the "people matter more than the horses" to Jen, a professional farrier who turns trimming job into works of art, to Abigail, who though only fourteen, takes on every task with the calm competence of a thirty year old, to Chloe,who provides helpful instruction to the newer riders without even a tinge of haughtiness or condescension, to two wonderful Ashleys whose quick insight in to what I can do and what I should do often have taken me off of the horns of a dilemma with crisp, clear instantaneous analysis.

All first rate horse trainers and first rate people, who coupled with a handful of older adults. make coming to the horse lot worth the trip.

And to Elise whose near constant refrain of, "oh, we can take care of that" keeps things looking positive. She understands the need that I have to unwind and she understands that playing music is about the only thing that really does that.

Yesterday I asked her to take on a huge task--to assist me in gathering and classifying my writings over the past decade as background research for the book that I am currently writing. This is a big job. She readily agreed.

Can't think of anyone that I would rather have doing it.

Preserving the Banker Horses Through The Off site Breeding Program

In early Colonial years Colonial Spanish horses were the only horses in the southeast. They eventually were bred into different strains--- all from the same root-Banker, Marsh Tacky, Seminole, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Florida Cracker to name a few of those strains--all even tempered, all with extraordinary endurance, small, compact and powerful with a strong need to bond--with other herd members or with people.

In the 1920's over 5,000 Banker horses ran wild on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Today only two herds remain in the wild--the Corollas and the Shacklefords.

The Corollas number less than 125.

Before Martin Luther King had a dream, before John Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon, before December 7 became a day that lived in infamy, before Lincoln took the podium at Gettysburg, before Jefferson wrote of the self evident equality of men, before Patrick Henry called for liberty or death and, yes, even before the English landed at Jamestown America's history resonated through the sound of the hooves of these little horses, pounding the beaches and pushing through the swamps and marshes.

And now they are nearly gone.

At Mill Swamp Indian Horses we are working hard to prevent their extinction. So few Corollas are left that they face genetic collapse because of so much in breeding. Our breeding program seeks to turn back the pages of time to reintroduce genetics that were once a part of the heritage of these horses but that have drifted away from them over the years. We have a foundation herd of Choctaw, Shackleford,Marsh Tacky, and Brislawn Spanish mustang strains to breed back into our Corollas. We have five Corolla mares and a Shackleford mare on site. We have five Corolla stallions and a Shackleford stallion on site, and two other Corolla stallions with whom we have access for breeding.

By selectively using cross strain breeding instead of cross-breeding we will maintain the integrity of the Corolla strain. ( All of the horses in our program are of the same Colonial Spanish breed but are of different strains within that breed. No modern breed horses are used in the off site breeding program.)

Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc., of which Mill Swamp Indian Horses is a program, is a 501 (c) 5 non profit breed conservation corporation. We have no paid staff. We are all volunteers. We seek to place the offspring produced in this program with others who will seek to raise a few Corollas and thus keep these historic horses with us for four hundred more years. In recent years we have been very successful in doing so.

This summer we are breeding more mares than we ever have. Contact us now at msindianhorses@aol.com to reserve one of these 2017 foals.

As a side note, I doubt if anyone living today has ridden Corolla horses as many miles as have I. I find them to be easier to train, not just than any other wild horses I have trained, but easier than any horses of any breed. Tough, strong, super healthy--they thrive best with natural horse care--no sugary feed, no shoes, no stables-grass, hay, barefoot and outside 24/7. They are economical to raise, easy to train, comfortable to ride, and are warm and affectionate.

They are the perfect family horse for novices, small acreage farmers, and families with children.

Come and be part of the effort to preserve these horses for the future.

The Livestock Conservancy: Know Who Your Friends Are

By saving the nation's agricultural past The Livestock Conservancy might very well save the future of American agriculture. Factory farming is cruel and degrading to both animals and people.

And it is risky.

America's factory poultry and pork production are one epidemic away from collapse because of the conditions in which the animals are raised and, equally important, because of the limited genetic variability of these animals which weakens their immune system.

The Livestock Conservancy has its finger in the dyke. Give them your hand.

Learn about the Conservancy, join, urge your friends to do the same thing.

Turning Pro: Lydia Barr Horse Training

Over ten years ago, Lydia Barr started riding with me.  She quickly learned to ride and she has learned to train horses as it should be done---slowly. She has mastered natural horsemanship and is a first rate trainer both of the horse who has never been handled and the horse that has not been ridden f in years. She handles the aggressive horse and the terrified horse with the same patient hand.

And now she is being paid for her work. Lydia has taken on several clients over the past few months and is doing first rate work with the horses. In this picture she is working a 12 year old stallion who had never been saddled.

This was nothing new for her. She has been working and riding stallions for years.

And she has a great supporter documenting her sessions. Wendell Whitehead took this, and many other, beautiful pictures of her work. Whether it is starting a horse or helping a problem horse, if your horse is in Tidewater Lydia Barr is a great resource to make your horse happier and easier to handle.