The romantic legend says a Spanish ship wrecked offshore of the Outer Banks and the horses swam to shore. We know many things about our banker ponies. What we don't know for sure is how they exactly arrived on our shores. One study investigates the native Americans appropriating horses from an ill-fated Spanish settlement. Then bringing them to the surrounding islands. DNA analysis shows the local banker ponies to be Colonial Spanish Mustang. So one way or another they arrived from the Iberian Peninsula of Spain. In 1998 the U. S. Senate passed the Shackleford Banks Wild Horse Protection Act. And in 2010 the Colonial Spanish Mustang of the Outer Banks is named the Official Horse of the State of North Carolina. The herd is co-managed by the National Park Service and the Foundation for Shackleford Horses, Inc.