The Wild horses of Abaco have been known for as long as the Bahamas has been colonised. Until recently however, their importance was never known. Today, though, through the tireless work of one woman, the Wild Horses of Abaco are now recognised by the 'Horse of the Americas Registry' as being some of the few Spanish Barb horses remaining in existence.

A few other groups of Spanish Barbs have been discovered in North America, including the 'Wilbur-Cruce Mission Strain'. In the late 1600's, Father Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit priest and missionary, first brought the Spanish horse to the an area in what is now southern Arizona and northern Mexico in the San Miguel river valley, approximately twenty-five miles east of  Magdalena. All these groups of horses have in some way been isolated from other horses and have maintained much of the original gene pool of the horses imported by the Spanish, for geographical isolation is one of several mechanisms for the maintenance of genetic purity in a species, subspecies, variety or breed.  For greater details of the characteristics and history of these horses, click here.

Although horses have  subsequently been  introduced to the Bahamas from both North America and from Britain, DNA testing on the Abaco horses has shown without doubt their relationship with the Spanish Barbs. The horses are now officially known as 'Abaco Barbs'.

How the horses got to Abaco in the first place remains unknown. Columbus was the first European to set foot in the islands in 1492. He was rapidly followed by various Spanish conquistadors who passed through the Bahamas en route to Hispaniola and Central America and who captured many of the native  Indians as slaves to work in the gold mines and to dive for pearls off the coast of Venezuela. In a Royal Decree 0f 1493,  the Spanish crown had ordered that every ship to the New World had to carry at least two broodmares, so it is quite probable that one or more of the early Spanish expeditions released horses on the island of Abaco - and quite possibly also the Wild Boar found on both Abaco in the north and Inagua in the south.

Another possibility is that the horses swam ashore from one of the many Spanish shipwrecks that occurred at this time in the shallow reef-infested waters of the islands. In 1595, a whole Spanish fleet of seventeen ships was wrecked off Abaco. Any horses being carried by these ships would have been able to swim ashore.

When Ponce de Leon visited the Bahamas in 1514, he found no sign of the the Indians. There were no more natives, and the Bahamas certainly had no gold so the Spanish were not interested in these low-lying scrub covered islands. For more than one hundred years the Bahamas had no human population. They were not colonised by Europeans until 1648, when William Sayle and his 'Eleutherian Adventurers' established the first colony at Governor's Harbour on the island of Eleuthera to avoid religious persecution. The name of Sayle does not remain in the Bahamas, for in 1657, Sayle returned to England, although, he left behind families - many of which settled on the island known today as Spanish Wells and  whose names have spread throughout the islands including Pinder, Sands, Sawyer, and Knowles.

Then the logging company Owens-Illinois negotiated a contract to harvest the Abaco pines for wood pulp. They drove a road through the island, which gave access to the forest as never before. Although the logging camp closed in 1929, the road remained. Now the inhabitants could capture and chase the horses. In an unfortunate incident, a young child trying to ride a captive Abaco horse was dragged to her death. This resulted in many of the horses - maybe as many as 200 -  being killed. 

By the early 1960's there were only three Abaco wild horses alive. Fortunately they were saved by Abaco residents Edison Key and Morton Sawyer who took the horses to  the Bahama Star farm  - a 3,000 acre Citrus farm near Treasure Cay. The herd bred there, reaching a peak number of 35 in 1992. Since then, many have died and only 12 remain today. However, living on the farm does not suit the horses. Nutrient rich feed and soft ground has caused obesity and abnormal hoof development. They need to be back in the Pine forests.

The latest chapter in the history of the Abaco Wild Horses began when writer and media consultant Milanne Rehor became interested in them. Today, she lives on a boat at Marsh Harbour, Abaco. 

Milanne first heard about the horses in the 1992 "Yachtsman's Guide to the Bahamas", where she read: "The old settlement of Norman's Castle...in days gone by...was a busy logging camp, but it was abandoned in 1929. Today few traces of the settlement or the industry remain and the only inhabitants are herds of wild horses..."

Milanne describes her first sight of the Wild Horses on her web site: