Hi there! My name is Merlin.

I am what some people call a banker pony. I am really a horse but we are called ponies because we are smaller than some horses, standing only about 14 hands high (a hand is about 4 inches and the measurement is made from where the neck meets the back to the ground). Years ago, the folks here on the Outer Banks started calling us Banker ponies and the name has stuck. In the 16th century, my ancestors came from Spain via Hispaniola (located between Cuba and Puerto Rico) to live on one of the islands off the coast of North Carolina that make up the Outer Banks. My island is called Shackleford Banks and it is only nine miles long. It is located just east of Morehead City and Beaufort (we pronounce it Bow-fert). Here is a map of the local area so you can see where I was born

What you won't see on the map, though, is the abundance of bookmakers ready and waiting to accept your horse racing wagers. This list of new horse racing betting sites comes to show that the interest in us banker ponies and our ability to gallop is growing by the day. Our performance on the track is monitored by specialists and then reflected in the odds so that the fastest of us would get priced up with the shortest odds.

If you ask the old folks on Harkers Island about us, they will tell you that the horses have always been here. That we swam ashore from sinking ships long before the English people came. The story of the Shackleford Horses actually began about 400 years ago in Europe. Carolyn Mason, from the Foundation that watches over us, has started a timeline about us. There is also a page about my friend, Spirit and pages of our photos and stories. Just click on one of the links below to visit the pages you want to see. The folks at the Foundation and I hope you enjoy all of our pages and that you come to visit us on our island. Please visit our site often and we would be grateful if you took a moment to sign our guest book.