The Sable Island horse is a small

feral horse A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these ...

found on

Sable Island Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island ...

, off the coast of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It has a horse

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological pr ...

and horse ancestors, and usually dark in colour. The first horses were released on the island in the late 1700s, and soon became feral. Additional horses were later transported to improve the herd's breeding stock. They were rounded up for private use and sale for slaughter, which by the 1950s had placed them in danger of extinction. During the 2018 study, the estimated population was 500 horses, up from the roughly 300 recorded in the 1970s. In 1960, the Canadian government protected the horses by law in their feral state. From the 1980s on, long-term, noninvasive herd studies have been performed, and in 2007 a genetic analysis was conducted that concluded the herd was genetically unique enough to interest conservationists. In 2008, the horses were declared the official horse of Nova Scotia, and in 2011, the island was declared the

Sable Island National Park Reserve Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island i ...

. The herd is unmanaged, and legally protected from interference by humans. The horses live only at Sable Island and, until 2019, at the

Shubenacadie Wildlife Park The Shubenacadie Provincial Wildlife Park is part of Nova Scotia's Provincial Park System. It is a wildlife park in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada. The 40-hectare park includes animals, an interpretive centre, hiking trails, a picnic area and p ...

on the mainland of Nova Scotia, with the latter herd descended from horses removed from Sable Island in the 1950s.

Characteristics

The horses that remain on Sable Island are

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

. They generally stand between . Males from the island average about and females about . The available food on the island limits their size, and the offspring of horses removed from the island and fed more nutritious diets are generally larger. Physically, the horses resemble

Iberian horse The Iberian horse is a designation given to a number of horse breeds native to the Iberian peninsula. At present, some breeds are officially recognized by the FAO,croups. Overall, they are stocky and short, with short

pastern The is a part of the leg of a horse between the fetlock and the top of the hoof. It incorporates the long pastern bone (proximal phalanx) and the short pastern bone (middle phalanx), which are held together by two sets of paired ligaments to fo ...

s that allow them to move easily on sandy or rough ground. Sable Island horses have very shaggy coats, manes and tails, especially during the winter. The tail is full and low-set. Their coats are mostly dark colours, but some do have white markings. About half are bays, with the rest distributed among chestnut, flaxen, and

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

. Many Sable Island Horses have a natural ambling gait. Prior to their protection, when they could be kept for the use of humans, the horses were known for their

sure-footedness Sure-footedness is the ability, especially when hiking or mountain climbing, to negotiate difficult or rough terrain safely. Such situations place demands on a person's coordination and reserves of strength as well as requiring sufficient appreciat ...

and gaits. The Sable Island horses are a

population that is entirely unmanaged: they are not subject to any kind of interference. Observational research, which is considered noninvasive to the herd, has been conducted by various entities over several decades. The population in recent years (2009 and onward) has varied between 400 and 550 animals. Due to the lack of predators, older horses often die of starvation after their teeth are worn down by a lifetime of exposure to sand and marram, a tough

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

History

Sable Island is a narrow, crescent-shaped island located approximately southeast of Nova Scotia. It is long and covered in sand dunes and grasses. Over 350 bird species and 190 plant species have been found on the island, in addition to the herd of feral horses, which are the most well-known inhabitants. Although popular legends claim that Sable Island horses swam ashore from the island's many shipwrecks, or were introduced by 16th-century Portuguese explorers, this is not supported by historical or genetic evidence. In reality, the horses were deliberately introduced to the island during the 18th century. The first recorded horses were brought by a Boston clergyman, the Reverend

Andrew Le Mercier Andrew Le Mercier (1692-1764) was French-born Protestant Huguenot leader in Boston in the 18th century and author. Le Mercier was born in Normandy, France in 1692, completing clerical studies in Geneva at the then Collège Calvin, Geneva Academy in ...

, in 1737 but most were stolen by passing mariners. The present-day horses are thought by most historians and scientists to have descended mostly from horses seized by the British from the Acadians during the

Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian peo ...

. The Acadian horses were descendants of several shipments of French horses, including members of the Breton, Andalusian and

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

breeds, later crossed with horses from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

, including Spanish Barbs. The Boston merchant and shipowner Thomas Hancock purchased some Acadian horses and transported them to Sable Island in 1760, where they grazed the island as

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

. Although often referred to as ponies due to their small size, they have a horse

and an ancestry composed solely of horses. After the government of Nova Scotia established a lifesaving station on Sable Island in 1801, workers trained some of the horses to haul supplies and rescue equipment. Lifesaving staff recorded the importation of a stallion, Jolly, taken there in 1801, who was probably similar in type to the original Acadian horses released on the island. Although Jolly was not the first horse on the island, he was the first to be identified by name in historic records, and is known to have survived on the island until at least 1812. Other breeding stock, probably including horses of

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

, Morgan and

Clydesdale Clydesdale is an archaic name for Lanarkshire, a traditional county in Scotland. The name may also refer to: Sports * Clydesdale F.C., a former football club in Glasgow * Clydesdale RFC, Glasgow, a former rugby union club * Clydesdale RFC, South ...

breeding, were sent to the island during the first half of the 19th century, in the hopes of improving the type of horses found on the island and raising the price for which they could be sold on the mainland. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the horses on Sable Island were periodically rounded up and either kept by islanders or transported to the mainland, where they were sold, frequently for slaughter. The meat was primarily used for dog food by the late 1950s, and the island horses were in danger of extinction. School children began a public campaign to save the horses. In 1960, as part of the Canadian Shipping Act, the Canadian government declared the horses fully protected and no longer able to be rounded up and sold. The law requires that people receive written permission before they can "molest, interfere with, feed or otherwise have anything to do with the ponies on the Island."

Study and preservation

Sable Island horses at Shubenacadie Wildlife Park 01

Beginning in the mid-1980s, long term studies were begun of the Sable Island herds, and by the mid-2000s, most horses living on the island had documented histories. In 2007, a genetic analysis of the Sable Island herd was performed. It was concluded that these horses were genetically similar to multipurpose and light draft breeds found in eastern mainland Canada, with differences probably created by

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...

and

genetic drift Genetic drift, also known as allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance. Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and there ...

. However, the researchers also stated that Sable Island horses had genetically "diverged enough from other breeds to deserve special attention by conservation interest groups," and that the loss of the Sable Island horses would be more damaging to the genetic diversity of the Canadian horse population than the loss of any other breed.

Genetic erosion Genetic erosion (also known as genetic depletion) is a process where the limited gene pool of an endangered species diminishes even more when reproductive individuals die off before reproducing with others in their endangered low population. The ...

is a possibility within the Sable Island population, due to the small number of horses. In a study of mitochondrial DNA published in 2012, the Sable Island horse was found to be the least genetically diverse of the 24 horse populations studied, which included horse and pony breeds as well as feral populations from North America and Europe. A 2014 study by Parks Canada stated that the horses were under threat from their low numbers, excessive inbreeding and extreme weather due to

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. In 2008, the Nova Scotia Legislature declared the Sable Island Horse as one of the provincial symbols, making them the official horse of Nova Scotia. In 2011, the Canadian government created the

, which allows further protection of the island and horses. Aside from the island, until 2019, Sable Island Horses lived only at the

Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia Shubenacadie () is a village located in Hants County, in central Nova Scotia, Canada. As of 2021, the population was 411. The name for the Mi'kmaw territory in which present-day Shubenacadie is located and the origin of its name is the Mi'kmaw w ...

. It maintained descendants of Sable Island Ponies removed from the island in the 1950s by the Canadian Department of Transport. The last remaining horse was euthanized in September 2019. Nonetheless, some continue to view the horses as an invasive species which is not suitable in a protected region where ecological integrity should be preserved according to the National Parks Act. A study published in 2019 found that the Sable Island horses had about three times the level of parasite eggs in their fecal material than domesticated horses, averaging 1500 eggs per gram. These included a parasitic

lungworm Lungworms are parasitic nematode worms of the order Strongylida that infest the lungs of vertebrates. The name is used for a variety of different groups of nematodes, some of which also have other common names; what they have in common is that t ...

s that caused respiratory diseases; the horses also suffered from reproductive diseases.

Necropsies An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

of carcasses inspected in 2017 and 2018 showed that young horses died of starvation and

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...

, particularly during extreme winters, as they would not have a sufficient reserve of body fat and suitable vegetation is sparse on the island during winter. Adults died of other causes. These results confirmed a similar study from 1972. The study also found that these horses incidentally consume significant quantities of sand, which gradually wears down their teeth and blocks their gastrointestinal tract. Typical mortality rates are about 1% annually; during a harsh 2017 spring, the mortality rate was 10%.

References

External links

Wild Ponies of Sable Island
- 1895 ''The Halifax (N.S.) Herald'' article on capture of ponies
Green Horse Society - Sable Island Horses
{{Horse breeds of Canada and the United States Horse breeds Feral horses Horse breeds originating in Canada

Horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

Characteristics

History

Study and preservation

See also

References

Further reading

External links