Studying the Ponies of Shackleford Banks

A young mare on Shackleford flicks an ear and an eye in our direction

My husband Bernie and I have sailed to Shackleford Banks to study the ponies for two weeks. We have been in our anchorage, about a quarter of the way down the island from the West end towards the east, for 5 days now. I am currently sitting in a 24-foot sailboat off Shackleford Banks, NC, riding out the tail end of a gale that came in without warning last night. The winds reached 40 knots at their worst, but today, it was still blowing hard enough that I didn't want to launch a kayak to get to shore to continue observing the ponies. We thought we’d just write instead, but even that has been tough as the boat is jumping around a lot on the anchors.
Watching the wild ones with questions in mind is the best way to learn.

These ponies are amazingly tough and well-regulated. They live in small, very cohesive bands. They have, over many generations of harsh living on this island (400+ years here), developed very zen demeanors. Certainly not shut down or numbed in any way, just chill and ready to respond to whatever the moment brings. If they feel pressure from the weather, they move into the thick, short, live oak forests. If the bugs get too bad in summer, they file along to stand in the breeze on the ocean side.

Much here has made them who they are. They reflect tough. They reflect secure. They reflect steady. They reflect resourcefulness. They have never witnessed an abundance of food. Yet they appear closely bonded and peaceful for the most part.

Yearling foal in forground, his dam behind him and the chestnut stallion in the back ground. This was the first band we met on Shackleford

I wanted to come to Shakleford Banks with a plan for how I would observe these ponies and the kinds of questions I wanted to ask of them.

I wanted to come to Shackleford with a plan on how I would observe the ponies

Stallion from the second band we met on Shackleford has come through the winter in relatively good shape

The first thing I note every day is date, time and location. These things are good to know, as sometimes you start to see patterns in when a band might rest, eat, and drink.

Then I note a general location where I spotted a band. The total population of horses on Shackleford right now is around 102 horses. The horses organize themselves into bands. There are harem bands and bachelor bands. Harem bands are made up of a lead stallion and his mares plus their offspring, and maybe another non-breeding stallion. Harem band size on Shakleford ranges from 2 to 13 members.

Most bands are smaller. The non-breeding bands, mostly made up of young and non-breeding stallions, are called bachelor bands. Some of the harem bands have established territories that the stallions actively manage with dung piles and also defend from other stallions.

Other researchers have noted that harem stallions in the western part of the island share territories, while those in the middle and on the East tend to defend their own territories. This is primarily due to the flatter topography and better grazing in the eastern and middle parts of the island. The density of horses is also greater in the middle and on the east end than it is on the West side. In all, there are 25 harem bands and 7 bachelor bands currently on Shakleford.

The next thing I do is identify the bands I see by noting the number of band members and the type (harem or bachelor). Then I describe each member that make it up. I note sex, general age, like yearling, younger horse, mature adult and older horse. I also note the facial and leg markings for identification. I describe the stallion in as much detail as I can. Sometimes mares or young horses leave their band, but the stallion always stays until he is defeated by another stallion, which does not happen very much on Shakleford. That’s why it’s important to identify the stallions really well. For wild horses, these horses do not seem to challenge each other as much as some other wild herds do, so the band members are usually fairly stable.
The mares that have been sterilized with the PZP vaccine tend to change bands more than others, but not that often. Last year, 11 mares on Shakleford were darted with the PZP vaccine. This should keep them from having foals for the next 1-3 years. This is necessary to help manage the carrying capacity of the island and to keep too many ponies from starving due to a lack of available nutrition.

I also use the Henneke Body Condition Score to describe each band member’s condition. A 1 is very emaciated, where you can clearly see the whole skeletal structure under the coat, to 9, which is obese. With wild horses, you really only ever see scores on the low end, 5 and below. So far, on Shakleford, just coming out of a rather tough winter, we have only seen a high score of about 3.5 on a few stallions. Most of what we have seen is quite thin right now.

I then note the primary activity they are engaged in during my observation. Most of the time, it’s eating, but we've also seen them resting, playing, and nursing. When eating, we are trying to note what it is. The four major types of vegetation the ponies eat on Shakleford are Spartina marsh grass, sea oats, salt meadow cordgrass and centipede grass. They also eat some aquatic plants.

Then I watch for incidents of the two questions I am interested in observing in these horses. One is the behavior around novelty. Novelty, in this case, is anything out of the ordinary that will cause one of the band members to look up and orient. Orienting is when a prey animal assesses its relative safety. I am interested in what this response looks like. What eye or front on view the horse orients to, and what the other band members do in response to his/her behavior. Who orients, and what is the novelty that caused the reaction?

I am also interested in observing how horses seek and receive attention from other herd members, and what they ask for, such as play, grooming, nuzzling, companionship, or close proximity for resting or grazing. I am interested in the eye they approach each other with, as, like humans, horses show eye lateralization preferences based on emotional states.

This is all observational data and will not be made into any kind of empirical study, but it gives me a nice framework for my personal observations and will help me to understand the horses I work with even better, as both attention-getting and seeking, and orientation are very important in the lives of all our horses.

A yearling foal from our first band grazes on centipede grass

A mare naps while her stallion grazes near by

A stallion looks towards his mare, inviting her to follow him down the beach but...

She would like to go the other way eventually, when the stallion walked off she turned around and followed him