STORY 1
Watching the comings and goings of tiny horses that looked right at home grazing on marsh grass or galloping on the beach was “magical,” according to residents of Horse and Little Horse islands who witnessed the unlikely scene over the decades. But those days are gone after a November roundup corralled the last members of the semi-wild herd of “marsh ponies.” They will live out the remainder of their lives on local farms.
The end of the isolated herd that once roamed freely in the wilds of coastal Beaufort County — called ponies but looking more like little horses — was bittersweet for Dr. Venaye Reece. For the last 12 years, the retired veterinarian fed and cared for the horses, which could run like the wind and swim like fish. Watching them, said Reece, who could see the herd from her home, was, she said, like “seeing unicorns appear out of the morning mist.”
“They were magical to see on the marsh,” Reece said. But, she adds, it is also a relief to know that the ponies that once snorted at boundaries will now receive better care in a more hospitable and controlled environment with better oversight.
Limited food sources, inbreeding, health concerns, encroaching development and access and oversight concerns took their toll. So the decision was made to place them in foster care at farms owned by Brandi O’Brien of Bluffton and Nichole Bradley of Yemassee. On Nov. 6, the semi-feral horses were lured with feed into a pipe corral provided by Beaufort County Animal Services, then ushered into a stock trailer and driven away to begin a new life of relative leisure.
Some of the seven ponies are close to 20 years old, which is roughly the life span of the ponies, said Reece. Wear and tear of teeth, caused by sand consumed while grazing, was a major limiting factor in their lifespan, she said. Domestic ponies, on the other hand, often live well into their 20s or even 30s.
“They will just keep being in the wild — just in a different location,” said O’Brien, whose Bluffton farm is located in a similar marsh environment where the horses once lived. Since the ponies arrived, they’ve been feeding on grain and hay. Their hooves have been trimmed. And a veterinarian has “floated” their teeth — or filed them down to make them even.
STORY 2
A monument honoring a former Black Congressman who commandeered a Confederate ship during the Civil War is slated to stand outside of the visitor’s entrance of the State House. The Robert Smalls statue will face the State House and the George Washington statue. But the location in the northeast quadrant of the grounds between the African American history monument and the Spanish American War Veterans monument allows the statue to even “see” the monuments honoring Ben Tillman and Wade Hampton.
“As these younger generations of citizens visit the state house, they will walk by the Robert Smalls,” said state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, D-Richland. The Smalls statue will depict him in a three-piece suit wearing a bow tie. “This depiction is actually consistent with everything else we have around here,” Johnson said. “Put him up there as an equal to everybody else. This is an equal human being. This is a man who did extraordinary things, but he’s an equal, and we need to go ahead and exemplify that with our actions and treat him as an equal.”
The monument will have a panel with a biography, including Smalls being born into slavery, how he commandeered the Confederate Ship Planter in 1862 to bring 15 other runaway slaves to Union forces, served as a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional convention in 1868, which required compulsory education for all children, served as a state representative and state senator, and was elected to Congress in 1874.
STORY 3&nb
