Wild Horses at Island Farm, Manteo, NC

My daughters, Julia and Dineane, and I visited Island Farm in Manteo, NC this past Thursday. Island Farm is a living museum teaching about farm life on the Outer Banks in the nineteenth. We had a grand time touring the furnished two-story house, watched a weaving demonstration, and we invited to touch and pick up anything we wished to examine closer.

Outside, Gloria Abbs demonstrated how clothes were washed and my daughter was good natured enough to give scrubbing on a washboard a try and let me photograph her.

The farm is really a working farm, with chickens, sheep, and cattle. Crops include sweet potatoes and corn. There is a vegetable garden, herbs and a beehive for the sweet tooth. We took an ox drawn cart ride around the grounds and the driver told us about the history of the farm.

Before leaving we had a nice chat with Jennifer Frost, who we’d met on entering when we bought our passes. She told us that in the pasture across the road from the main farm were two of Corolla’s wild horses. The horses are descended from sixteenth century European explorers and colonists. The horse have been an important part of the history and culture of the area ever since.

The farm took the horses on because the wild herd needs culling from time to time to keep the herd at a healthy and manageable size. But sadly, one of the two mares is there because some evil-minded person shot her with an arrow. She is no longer able to survive in the wild.

I just cannot comprehend a human being doing something like that. And it not the only time the one of the wild horses has been injured, even killed, at the hands of some violent and evil person. There are reports of horses being run down and hit by vehicles on the beach and even shot by gunfire. Others have become sick or died from eating trash or inappropriate food left out by beach visitors. The wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs, historically known as Banker Ponies, have survived four hundred years on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. They have made it through hurricanes and very harsh living conditions, but it is feared human beings and the rabid development of the Outer Banks will be their undoing.

The two horses, both fillies, at Island Farm, are named Gracie and Bow. You can see them as you drive to Manteo on highway 64, in a pasture where an antique windmill has been erected. It is directly across the road from the Island Farm entrance. It cost $6 per person the tour the farm and is well worth the price. You can spend as much time as you like, and there are always new demonstrations and different things to see.

To learn more about the Corolla Wild Horses go to http://www.corollawildhorses.com/index.html

To learn more about Island Farm go to http://www.currituckbeachlight.com/islandfarm/

Pale as the Moon

When I was a child I was fascinated by stories about early explorers and pioneers of America. I was even more intrigued by stories about Native Americans. My obsession was probably first ignited by stories my Daddy told me that he heard from his father and grandfather. Growing up in the fifties and sixties the western genre was popular in TV shows and movies. By the time I was in the third grade I’d read everything our local library had, fiction and non-fiction, about Native Americans and the pioneer days.

While all this reading was going on I was growing up just an hour’s drive from the Outer Banks. My parents loved to fish, so we made frequent trips to the coast with that purpose. I became more infatuated with the history of the area as I grew older.

I was an adult before I made a career of horses. I had already raised three children when the opportunity came for me to enroll in the equine tech program at Martin Community College.

So, it is only natural that I combined those three loves: Native American history, the Outer Banks and Horses, when I wrote Pale as the Moon. Gray Squirrel and Heita Hoonoch are childhood playmates put in a different setting and time, but close friends all the same.

I didn’t know we had wild horses on the Outer Banks until much later in life. I hadn’t even given it much thought that people fished and lived on North Carolina’s coast eons before a white man ever set foot on our shore. I guess I learned that in elementary school when we were taught North Carolina History. It was reinforced the first time I saw the outdoor drama, “The Lost Colony.”

Forty some years later while reading Daniel Barefoot’s Touring the Backroads of north Carolina’s Upper Coast I came across a tidbit of information on page 140 that gave Pale as the Moon its conclusion. As far as I am concerned it is the logical answer to the Lost Colony mystery. In 1956, while I was voraciously reading books about Indians, artifacts of English and Native American culture were discovered near East Lake in a common mound. Forever lost to future investigation in the name of progress, the mound was covered back up and the canal digging carried on. I believe the English colony moved in with a lakeside village, but how did they find it? Someone showed them the way. Why not a young Native American girl who had become close friends with one of the English families?

So, a young Native American girl befriends a wild colt. Together, led by a series of dreams and empowered by the speed and stamina of the horse, she rescues a motley crew of English invaders. Along the way she rides like the wind with the sea spray on her face and the sea gulls laughing with glee. What an adventure, to be the first American to ride a horse. What an adventure to meet a boy her own age who sailed to America from across the vast Atlantic Ocean. Who better than a young child to realize the need for peace between two peoples whose cultures were so different.

I like to picture a much younger version of myself on vacation with her family at the Outer Banks. She sits on the cottage porch in a wooden chair, big enough to curl up in, with a book that will transport her back into a different century. She hears the whinny of a lost foal through the roar of gale force winds. She sees a vision of white sails when she glances up from her book to look across the breakers. Between the screeches of sea gulls she hears the soft voice of a Paspatank girl, just about her age. She turns the pages and joins in the celebration of the corn dance. She dreams. Her heart races with anticipation as Heita Hoonoch stretches his neck to take the ear of corn from her lap. She smells the sun and sea in his mane.

More pages turn, more adventures await. She IS Gray Squirrel. She knows the secret of the Lost Colony.

Order the book at Faithful Publishing

Let Me Introduce Myself

Growing up just a few miles inland from North Carolina’s Outer Banks, in Plymouth, North Carolina on the banks of the Roanoke River, I only dreamed of having a horse when I was a little girl. I wasn’t aware that wild horses roamed free on some of the coastal islands where I loved to visit with my parents on numerous fishing trips.

Becoming a professional in the horse industry as an instructor, breeder and trainer was my training ground for writing. I have relied on my thirty years of experience with horses and children, and my lifetime fascination with the history of the Outer Banks to write two historical novels for young readers: Pale as the Moon and An Independent Spirit. I have also written three non-fiction books, The Book of Miniature Horses (Lyons Press 2005.) and The Book of Draft Horses: The Gentle Giant That Built the World, (The Lyons Press 2007), and The Book of Mules, which, will be released by Lyons Press in 2008.

In addition, I’ve done freelance writing for several regional and national magazines including Stable Management Magazine, Western Mule, The Horse, USA Equestrian, Young Rider, The Chronicle of the Horse, Boys Life, The Gaited Horse, Our State, Carolina Country, and Conquistador.

After getting an AAS Degree in Equine Technology from Martin Community College I took extended courses in art and composition. I am a certified riding instructor and have served many years as a Master NC 4-H Horse Program Volunteer. I still teach riding lessons and keep a couple of old mares. You’ll probably read more about them here. I have begun a side career as a photographer since providing the photographs for my last two non-fiction books.

I plan to share my thoughts on writing, horses, and other things here from time to time.