The Banker horse is a breed of feral horse living on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Descended from domesticated Spanish horses and possibly brought to the Americas in the 16th century. Bankers are allowed to remain on the islands due to their historical significance. They survive by grazing on marsh grasses, which supply them with water as well as food.
About Banker horse in brief
The Banker horse is a breed of feral horse living on barrier islands in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It is small, hardy, and has a docile temperament. Descended from domesticated Spanish horses and possibly brought to the Americas in the 16th century. Bankers are allowed to remain on the islands due to their historical significance. They survive by grazing on marsh grasses, which supply them with water as well as food, supplemented by temporary freshwater pools. To prevent overpopulation and inbreeding, the horses are managed by the National Park Service, the state of North Carolina, and several private organizations. The horses are monitored for diseases, such as equine infectious anemia, an outbreak of which was discovered and subsequently eliminated on Shackleford in 1996. The typical Banker is relatively small, standing between 13. 0 and 14. 3 hands high at the withers and weighing 800 to 1,000 pounds. The forehead is broad and the facial profile tends to be straight or slightly convex. The coat can be any color but is most often brown, bay, dun, or chestnut. The breed shares skeletal traits of other Colonial Spanish horses: the wings of the atlas are lobed, rather than semicircular; and they are short-backed, with some individuals possessing five instead of six lumbar vertebrae.
The convex facial profile common to the breed also indicates Spanish ancestry. Since they are free-roaming, Banker horses are often referred to as \”wild\” horses; however, because they descend from domestication ancestors, they are feral horses. It’s thought that the Bankers arrived on the barrier islands during the 16TH century. One theory is that ancestors of the Banker swam ashore from wrecked Spanish galleons. The presence of Spanish treasure ships has not been confirmed, but horses may have taken refuge close to shore where the horses have been turned loose. Another conjecture is that the breed is descended from the 89horses brought by Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón and 600 colonists subsequently died as a result of disease, desertion, and an early frost. About 450 of the original 600 colonists died in 1526, and only 15 of the new settlement for North Carolina lasted for 15 years. At least eight shipwrecks discovered in the area are of Spanish origin, dating between 1528 and 1564. These ships sank close enough to land for the horses to have made it to the Outer Banks, where they may have turned loose as gold and silver horses. However, the presence of the horses has not yet been confirmed.
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This page is based on the article Banker horse published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
