PART 1
These are horses that came from wild American ranges, often with foundations that go back even further. Some came from the eastern ranges and are the last remnants of once vast hordes that populated the sea coast. Some are fresh off the panorama of the wide open West. Others have expanded far beyond their original ranges and have become the most popular horse in the world. Still others wait quietly in the recesses of America, rare treasures yet to be discovered. All have something to contribute to the horse world.
They hale distinctly from a time and place where a pioneering workforce was actively establishing a new nation. They are the ancient Spanish breeds, the Indian mounts, or the cow horses filling the need for skill and endurance. They raced, drove cattle, or delivered the mail. Some were America’s first warhorses. Many existed for centuries, defying nature and humans in remote areas where their purity could continue.
Their hardiness is profound and popular beyond American borders. With them, the West was won, civilizations were transported, battles were fought, and livestock was moved to feed a nation. Nature instilled them with the strength and survival capabilities that far surpass others.
Independent and devoted, agile and careful, intelligent and agreeable, they are a paradox. They uniquely personify the American way of life.
Relaxing in the tropical heat, Abaco Barbs stand in the shade of Caribbean pines to stay cool. Milanne Rehor
Arkwild, Inc.
2829 Bird Avenue, Suite 5, PMB 170
Miami, FL 33133
www.arkwild.org
On a small island situated about 150 miles off the southeastern shore of Florida and just north of Nassau in the Bahamas, there lives a herd of rare Spanish horses. The island is called Great Abaco, and it is the only place where these special Spanish horses exist. They have possibly lived here for centuries. They are the Abaco Barbs, wild and romantic Spanish Barb horses. (Abaco is pronounced A´-ba-co, with the accent on the “A.”)
The Abaco Barb is considered by some experts as the rarest breed of horse on the planet. DNA tests show that the Abacos are definitely related to the Puerto Rican Paso Fino and are probably the best representative of Spanish Barbs in this region.
They originate from hardy Spanish stock that could endure appalling conditions. When first brought to the New World aboard ships, they survived the journey of six or more weeks, often with little food or water. The horses were either shipwrecked (there are many Spanish shipwrecks on the island’s reefs) or abandoned on Great Abaco. Another possibility is that their ancestors were brought from Cuba to help in logging the forests of Grand Abaco and were abandoned when the lumber company switched to tractors.
At one time, there were around two hundred Abaco Barb horses on Great Abaco. Few people would have expected domesticated horses to survive for centuries unattended in this isolated island unlike any other horse county. But the Abaco Barbs did. They aren’t the typical scruffy little horses, hard pressed to survive, that are sometimes found on western American frontiers. Instead, they are healthy horses of Barb size, 13 to 13.2 hands, and they are beautiful, bright-coated animals in an assortment of colors, including bays, pintos, and roans. If approached by people, they are cautious, but not spooky, simply turning and walking away or hiding in small, discreet places. They are tough enough to survive on their own, with their only predators being the occasional wild dog that attacks their young, and humans.
Due to the Abaco Barb’s endangered status, they are not captured and used for riding or work as other wild horses have been, but are kept in their natural habitat. None of the survivors today has ever had so much as a halter or rope guiding it. They remain rather quiet and confident in their surroundings, unlike wild mainland bands on open plains that find it necessary to move extreme distances. They are curious and intelligent, drifting in and out of the forests with noble grace and dignity. They live on thousands of acres of pine forests on the island, as free as the island winds.
History
There are two competing theories concerning the origins of the Abaco Barb. The first is that they were brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus, or other Spanish explorers, and were either shipwrecked or abandoned on Great Abaco. Columbus did have two horse farms in Cuba, but horses in Cuba today bear no resemblance to the Abaco Barbs.
The second theory holds that the horses were brought to the island from Cuba around the turn of the twentieth century by an American company, Owens-Illinois, when it established logging operations there. According to local sources, these horses were abandoned when tractors came into use; however, it has not been possible to trace the manifests or other documents showing what types the horses were or how many were brought in. Additionally, it seems odd that stallions and mares would both be used for work. If this is the horses’ true origin, it is possible that they have only been on Abaco for more than a century.
The logging camps were abandoned in the early 1900s. Little can be found of the logging settlements or industry anymore, except for old logging roads. One notable settlement was called Norman Castle, which was abandoned in 1929 and became the site where the horses found refuge many years later. Regardless of how long the horses lived on the island, they survived more than half of the last century without human interference. Left alone on the island, the horses thrived.
Trees remain of the utmost importance to the Abaco Barb. Caribbean pines (Pinus caribaea) exist only on Grand Bahama, Andros, Great Abaco, and New Providence islands. These pine forests have for millennia sheltered flocks of wild parrots and migrating birds, as well as wild hogs abandoned by the early settlers; scores of species of orchids, and other plants, and thousands of insects live there. The forests have also provided a home for the horses, giving shade and protecting them from the burning sun. Without the forests, there was a danger that the pinto spotted horses would become sunburned.
The horses tramp out networks of pathways among the grazing places and sloughs where they water. Even in the worst droughts, the horses have water. The limey outcroppings keep their hooves pared down and naturally trimmed.
Originally the horses had enough room to roam and graze, and they grew sleek. Only an occasional horse was lost to people who captured them for work on sugar cane mills on the island. Bred to survive harsh conditions, they flourished.
In the 1960s, however, disaster struck the horses. It wasn’t a hurricane, catastrophic drought, tidal wave, fire, flood, or disease. Instead, it was a road. A simple road was built on Great Abaco running from one end of the island to the other. The Owens-Illinois company had returned and built the road to harvest the remaining forests for pulpwood. The shelter of the pines was gone.
Suddenly, there was access to logging roads left a century ago that had been abandoned but were still passable. The island had been sparsely populated, but now there was a jump in the human population, and some islanders found it great sport to harass and kill the horses. At times they ran the horses down old narrow logging roads until they were close enough to rope them out a vehicle window or until the horses dropped from exhaustion. Many of these victims became legends for the vicious cruelty visited on them and their gruesome ends. After an accident resulting in the death of a child trying to climb unattended on a horse owned by an island resident, there were attempts to wipe out every wild horse on the island by local residents. Wholesale slaughter ensued. These attacks to eliminate all the island horses almost succeeded.
With the slaughter, the horses nearly became extinct by the early 1970s. Around that time, however, three horses were brought out of captivity to a farm being developed near the original herd area. That effort resulted in a herd of about thirty-five head, but their survival is threatened again.
Breed Survival
In 1992, Milanne Rehor, an avid sailor, was planning a vacation to the Bahamas; in preparation, she read two lines in the Yachtman’s Guide to the Bahamas about the wild horses on Great Abaco. She decided to visit New Plymouth in Green Turtle Cay, an island lying about two miles north of Abaco, where she inquired about the horses. There, she was told the horses had all been killed, and there were not any more wild horses on Abaco.
Sources said, “The horses all died of pesticide poisoning.” “I’ve been going to Abaco for twenty years and I never heard of any horses.” “There were horses here, but when the big road went in, some man tried to capture one by throwing a spear at it. It died.” “They all died.” This was amazing news, considering that Abaco is a significant island with thousands of acres and only two miles away. No one knew anything about the horses.
Rehor contacted Lynn Key and her husband, Henry, manager of a citrus farm in the Norman Castle area. The Keys took her to the farm and forest area where the horses roamed. Rehor was stunned to find such stately and mysterious horses. They were a healthy, energetic herd of about thirty head that had survived the slaughter of the 1960s. They had beautiful, bright coats in an assortment of colors, including bays, pintos, and roans. Rehor was determined to find out everything about them.
Senator Edison Key, Henry’s father, gave her more background information: “When we were clearing the land for a [cattle ranch] project in the early 1970s, we found [horse] carcasses and bones all over. I thought it just wasn’t right.” That cattle business had ended when Owens-Illinois left.
At that time, the Keys and others decided to help re-establish the native stock of wild horses on Great Abaco. Edison Key and his brother-in-law, Morton Sawyer, were partners in developing the farm and provided the site and resources to create a haven for the horses.
Morton Sawyer’s son, Floyd, already had two native Abaco Barb wild horses at the farm, mares named Liz and Jingo. Jingo may have been Liz’s foal and may have been named after the horse in the classic 1959 children’s story, Jingo: Wild Horse of Abaco, written by Jocelyn Arundel and illustrated by Wesley Dennis. The bays in the herd today are from Liz and Jingo, and some of them bear the delicate features that mirror the image of Jingo in Dennis’ drawings.
A pinto stallion named Castle, which descended from the native wild Abaco herd, was brought to the farm from Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco, and every pinto in today’s growing herd is stamped with his unmistakable look. Castle died a natural death around 1989, when he was close to thirty years old.
The Roman nose and obvious depth of body are Spanish traits, making this Abaco Barb look much larger than the typical 13-hand Abaco. Milanne Rehor
Castle, Liz, and Jingo were lucky. Since they had been in captivity, they had escaped the 1970s slaughter. As far as anyone can tell, they were the last surviving native island stock in existence. They shared buildings, shelter, feed, grass, and grain with the cattle on the farm. When a vet came to check the cattle, the vet also checked the horses. One farm hand was assigned to the horses full time, until the herd reached twelve head and were released. All the wild Abaco Barbs on the island today are descendants of these three horses.
By 1992, when Rehor first observed the horses, the future seemed bright for them. By 1997, however, the herd had dropped from more than thirty to sixteen head. Individuals identified by sight had vanished; corpses and skeletons were found, but the reasons for death were not known. To reverse this trend, Rehor started the Abaco Wild Horse Fund (now Arkwild) in the United States and the Wild Horses of Abaco Preservation Society (WHOA) in the Bahamas. These organizations helped the plight of the horses, and with the birth of four fillies in one year, the herd grew to twenty-one.
DNA Testing
Work began in 1992 to identify the origins of the Abaco Barbs, but the horses’ background remained unclear until 1998, when a few people recognized traits that hinted the horses probably were pure Spanish Barbs. The horses were eventually tested in 2002. After three separate DNA analyses, it was discovered that they were in fact descendents of Spanish Barb horses brought to the New World during the time of Columbus and other Spanish explorers. One genetic analyst stated that the horses share some mitochondrial DNA with the Sulphur Spring mustangs of Utah. These mustangs were tested to have some of the highest similarities to Spanish-type horses of any of the wild-type horses tested in the United States. Based on this—as well as photo and video records—the Great Abaco Island horses were accepted in 2002 by the Horse of the Americas Registry as the Abaco Barb, a new strain of the Spanish Barb breed.
A beautiful splash white pinto Abaco Barb running. Sunshine can be especially detrimental to horses like these who need the protection of pine trees, many of which have been harvested for pulpwood.
Due to their Spanish Barb ancestry, Abacos have unique traits and may be the only breed capable of contributing these traits back to the Spanish Barb population, which is also recognized throughout the world as critically endangered. This makes the Abacos equally rare and extremely valuable in the equine world. There are no other Spanish types quite like them.
Victoria Tollman, executive director of the Equus Survival Trust, stated: “Initial DNA studies show that Abacos show a high degree of Spanish Barb traits, including the very unusual splash white gene. Abacos, perhaps even more so than the other Colonial Spanish breeds, are very significant to conservation because they represent a time capsule of genetics of the first era Iberian horses to reach the New World—genetics that were present during the Golden Age of Spain at the time the New World was being settled. More . . . studies are needed to better understand how the Abacos fit into the general Colonial Spanish family and what unique traits they alone may be able to contribute back to the world.” But she warned, “We are running out of time. With so few left, they are the most critically endangered breed on the planet.”
Today, there is a handful of remaining Abaco Barb horses battling for their lives. Hurricane Floyd caused enough damage to the forests for the horses to stay full time on the farm after 1999. They grew obese, many individuals developed laminitis, and they stopped reproducing. Possible pesticide and herbicide residue from the farm may also have been causing problems.
The government of the Bahamas designated a preserve and conservation area established for the horses in 2003. The preserve was granted more than six hundred acres of fenced forest to return the horses to their natural habitat and wean them off the over-rich grass on the farm.
Since the horses cannot be taken off the farm food completely (they spent too many years subsisting on it exclusively), they are given access to limited miniature pastures that are rotated frequently. Thus, the remaining mares and stallion have been returned to their natural habitat. The other stallions live beyond the controlled pastures, waiting for the next expansion of the fenced areas to include them. All the horses are descended from the last stallion of the original wild herd.
Great Abaco Island has some ten thousand full-time residents, but this is increasing rapidly. In the winter, the population swells with tourists as well as second-home owners and their guests. Since the horses are protected and reside in a remote area, the only way to reach them is to take a guided tour. The horses are proving to be of historical and cultural interest, part of the flavor and mystery of the tropical atmosphere of Great Abaco. As Rehor observed, “You have to see them to believe them.”
The horses have a wide range of reactions to strangers and visitors. If people are relaxed and comfortable with them, the horses are equally so. At other times, people who have been pushy or brash have been rewarded with only glimpses of the horses as they run off.
Great Abaco’s horses—as well as its wild boar and parrots—still survive. They are struggling symbols of a future where beautiful wild things still exist and are appreciated.
Characteristics
Abaco Barbs have compact bodies and strong legs, beautiful long tails, flowing manes, and gleaming coats. As with all Barb horses, they have convex, or Roman, noses. Eyes are large and ears are quite large and pointed, being slightly hooked in at the tips. Tails are low-set and long, often touching the ground. Chestnuts on the inside of the front legs are small and, on the rear legs, are nonexistent.
Abaco Barbs closely resemble Spanish horses, especially the Puerto Rican Paso Fino. All skeletons found so far have the unique five-lumbar vertebrae. Similarly, all have shown the fuller structure of the Wing of Atlas—the first cervical vertebra behind the skull. The side wings of this vertebra are rounded and fuller. This diversity is found only in Spanish Mustangs or Barb types.
Colors are bay, strawberry roan, and three different color arrangements of pintos: war bonnet, medicine hat, and a pattern sometimes referred to as splash white. Splash white is unique in that the color is only on the forequarters, or on the fore-quarters, back, and a bit on the rump (which may also extend down a leg), while the rest of the horse is white.
The horses appear to be quite large; it is only after approaching them when the viewer realizes they are only a bit more than 13 hands. They have never been precisely measured, but their size looks to be about 13 to 13.2 hands. Their size has not changed significantly in the past sixteen years or so.
Their surefootedness is phenomenal. Rehor stated, “You wouldn’t believe your eyes if you saw them running through the rocky forest, jumping logs, scrambling up the hills. Amazing, considering how lame they used to be [when restricted to the farm and contracting laminitis].”
There have been questions about inbreeding concerns, but Rehor found all horses to be healthy when she first observed them in 1992, and they have continued to be robust-looking since. “In an environment like this, flawed animals die fast. The herd of thirty-five when I first came here was beautiful—not a messed-up animal in the bunch.”
Once the herd is back up to something resembling normal numbers, they will be given as much freedom as possible. The horses flourished without outside intervention for so many centuries that it seems likely they will return to the same healthy numbers if given a chance.
Credit: Milanne Rehor and Wild Horses of Abaco Preservation Society