Editors note: This summer, National Parks Traveler is taking a close look at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which is grappling with serious issues related to its beaches, wildlife, and historic structures. This is the last of three articles, with the first focusing on Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the second on beach erosion.

CAPE HATTERAS NATIONAL SEASHORE, North Carolina — Anyone who has read the classic 1947 novel Misty of Chincoteague can probably recall its dramatic opening scene: Hundreds of years ago, as a violent storm tosses a Spanish galleon off the Atlantic coast, a herd of horses escapes from its broken hull and scrambles to safety on the wild, undeveloped shore of Assateague Island. Manes and tails whipping about in the salty air, the ponies were “unable to believe that the island was all their own,” author Marguerite Henry wrote, drawing from real-life stories about the horse herds at Chincoteague, Assateague, and other coastal sites.

Fast-forward to present-day Ocracoke Island, a North Carolina barrier island largely managed as part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, aside from the historic fishing village on the island’s southern end. On Ocracoke, a small herd of 11 horses, romantically believed by many to have descended from historic European stock, doesn't run freely but lives in a fenced paddock on the sound side of the island. Often seen munching from a feeder within view of the adjacent parking lot, their existence is a far cry from the untamed herd that gallops across Misty’s opening pages. Now, the National Park Service is evaluating what to do with them.

It’s not a new question for the National Park Service — and is one that can carry political weight and be controversial. While Assateague Island and Cape Lookout national seashores have management plans for their free-roaming herds, a recent proposal to remove feral horses from Theodore Roosevelt National Park was highly contentious and ended with the horses remaining and the superintendent leaving the Park Service. In Georgia, the Park Service is being sued to remove its feral herd of roughly 200 horses at Cumberland Island National Seashore.

Separating Fact from Fiction

Nearly 80 years after Misty’s publication, the idea of wild horses running free along the Atlantic coast is one many people still find magical and awe-inspiring. Like bears, bison, moose, or wolves, horses are an iconic species in the National Park System, found in herds of varying sizes from Assateague Island and Cape Hatteras to Cape Lookout and Cumberland Island, as well as other places such as Theodore Roosevelt. Most of the parks manage their herds independently and uniquely, in consideration of various laws, constituencies, and traditions. And yet, horse care poses major challenges for the National Park Service, which has faced questions, concerns, and even lawsuits about how best to manage these herds.

“The Ocracoke horses are all behind a fence in a pasture,” says Cape Hatteras Superintendent Dave Hallac. “They are taken care of more as if they were pets or farm animals. They are somewhat domesticated, meaning that they're mostly eating supplementary food. They receive significant veterinary care. They're not a wild or free-roaming group of horses.”

For many Cape Hatteras vacationers, visiting the Ocracoke horses—often affectionately called “ponies”—is a must-do, in part because legends of their descent from Spanish shipwrecks continue to loom large in the collective imagination. Ocracoke is accessible only by boat or small plane, and most tourists arrive via the car ferry from Hatteras Island, which docks on the island’s northern end. The pony pen is only about six miles down the beach road from there.

“It is one of our traditions to stop and see the ponies,” says Heather Modzelewski, a mother of three who lives in Fairfax County, Virginia, and whose family has been going to Ocracoke for years. “We took the kids when they were little, and now it’s just part of our Ocracoke routine. We also like the beach across from the ponies. We usually stop for a glimpse of the ponies, if they are in the pasture near the road, and then head over to the beach before heading back to the ferry.”

Despite romantic visions of the ponies galloping in the surf, at Ocracoke, extensive management is required to keep the herd healthy—including thousands of dollars spent every year on hay and grain. With climate change, erosion, worsening storms, and other challenges facing these barrier islands, the future safety and viability of the horses is in question.

Future Considerations

Earlier this year, in partnership with Outer Banks Forever, the nonprofit partner of the Outer Banks group of national parks (which includes the Wright Brothers National Memorial and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in addition to Cape Hatteras), researchers Kent Redford, a scientist with Archipelago Consulting, and Elaine Leslie, retired chief of biological resources for NPS, published an overview of the Ocracoke horse herd that includes a history and analysis of horses in America, the park system, and Cape Hatteras specifically, along with a summary of relevant laws and regulations pertaining to the herd.

The review is designed to inform an ongoing public process, which has so far included a couple public meetings, to determine a management plan for the herd, something the Park Service does not currently have. “We have a lot of things going on here,” Hallac says. “And so I think what has happened over time with horse management at the park, as the fire of the day [figuratively speaking], or the week, or the month, or the year has been dealt with, the park really never took the time necessary to come up with a good management plan for the Ocracoke horse herd.”

The review details how NPS came to manage the Ocracoke herd, which likely had Spanish or European roots originally but has since evolved through hundreds of years of interbreeding and outright trading so that, now, no clear consensus exists about the genetic provenance of the current 11 horses. When the national seashore was established in 1953, the then-superintendent deemed the horses “feral” and outside the scope of the park’s mission, but a public outcry led to the herd being taken over by a local Boy Scout troop in a bid to “save” the animals, according to Redford and Leslie. To contain the herd (then around 35 ponies) and prevent them from harassing locals or trampling private property, the scouts built the fenced area in 1959. But attention to the horses lagged, and by the 1960s, the herd was back under NPS care, where they have remained since.

The authors further note that, according to a 2023 study, each Ocracoke horse requires 156 bales of hay and 1,153 pounds of grain per year. That’s probably more than $40,000 per year in hay and $5,000 per year in grain for the current population, using general estimates of hay and grain costs. While that is nowhere close to what it would cost for a larger herd like those found at other seashores, when factoring in veterinary care, maintenance, and other forms of upkeep, the costs are significant to tend to the Ocracoke herd.

Yet the authors acknowledge that local lore and traditions make for powerful connections between people and ponies, not just at Cape Hatteras but across the park system, and especially among Indigenous peoples—and that the herd contributes to the local economy via tourism. Potential future outcomes, therefore, could include transferring the horses to the care of local Indigenous tribes or other entities authorized in horse care, or they could continue to stay penned at Ocracoke but perhaps be moved to a location that is less vulnerable to sea level rise and other effects of climate change.

“There is unlikely to be a ‘one size fits all’ management approach to feral horses and livestock within the National Park System,” Redford and Leslie conclude. “It is recognized that this can be a highly charged issue particularly with the local community as horses are well-loved.”

Ongoing Care and Conversation

For Heather Modzelewski, seeing the horses is a tradition, but it’s not one that would make or break their Ocracoke experience. “If the ponies were not there, we would still go to the island, and we’d probably stop at that beach and reminisce about when we would stop to see the ponies,” she says. “But it wouldn’t be upsetting, especially if it were for a reason like protection or so they could have better care or management.”

No matter what, Hallac emphasizes that the priority is caring for the existing herd. “The primary objective is actually really, really important, and it is the health and welfare of the existing herd,” he says. “We have a commitment to take care of the animals that we have today, or to make sure they are taken care of. Even if we didn't work on this plan, we're committed to doing that. We have a full-time horse handler who helps to manage the herd, and we have an excellent volunteer program.”

The park is planning on more public meetings or opportunities for public comment on the issue. So far, attendees at public meetings have represented a cross-section of interests, with several people sharing their love for the herd and desire for various things such as more breeding to grow the current population. Other options on the table could include moving the pony pen closer to or within Ocracoke village or a dynamic, “if/then” process with stages of change depending on what happens with climate or other factors.

“The Ocracoke community is very important to us, and we will continue to spend a significant amount of time speaking with them,” Hallac says. “But, as you know, this is also a national park. And so we're also trying to make decisions that are in the best interest of the park and all Americans.”