First in 40 Years

First in 40 years...
The Island Packet reported the birth of a foal on November 10, the first birth of a Marsh Tacky on Daufuskie Island in 40 years.http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article184255093.html This new filly hasn't a clue that she is making history kicking up her heels and frolicking around Daufuskie. The beginning of life, endangered or not, is something to celebrate.
Anne Rivers Siddons introduced me to Marsh Tackies in her book, Low Country. The setting is Peacock Island, a fictional island in the beautiful low country of St. Helena's Island. The plot captures the age-old risks and reality of development that consume life as we know and love it, including Peacock Island's cherished Tackies.
Marsh Tackies, a breed from the Colonial Spanish group of horses, developed from horses brought to the Carolina coast by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. The Marsh Tacky is a small, gentle horse that adapted to the marshes of the low country. They once galloped the coast from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina down to St. Simons Island, Georgia. Today, they are endangered with only about 450 in existence.
The Marsh Tacky is not, in the truest sense of the word, indigenous to the low country; Tackies assimilated into the coastal environment. (Pictured is the oldest known breed, Carmague, also a small marsh-loving breed, which is indigenous to the southern region of France.) Worth protecting, the Daufuskie Marsh Tacky Society works to save the breed on Daufuskie Island - https://daufuskiemarshtackysociety.org/
Congratulations, Daufuskie. Take care of your new filly!

~ LowTide explorer, Carolyn Fjeran


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