Mounted Boy Scout Troop 290

In 1953, when the Cape Hatteras National Seashore was created, the Park Service banned free roaming livestock on the island.

[4] This began to change in 1953 when the Cape Hatteras National Seashore was created and the Park Service banned free roaming livestock on the island.

In 1959 the North Carolina legislature and the National Park Service ordered the ponies removed from all the Outer Banks islands because of overgrazing.

However, the legislature and Park Service were persuaded to make an exception for the Scouts' ponies as long as they were penned and taught to eat hay.

In the 1960s the National Park Service also began taking care of a small herd kept on 180 acres (73 ha) at the northern end of the island in pasture known as the Ocracoke Pony Pens.

[7][9][10][13] Then the BSA demanded that the Scouts buy insurance to continue riding the ponies, which they could not afford, and the troop folded about 10 years after it was formed.

[8] In 1973 Park Ranger Jim Henning and his wife Jeannette began efforts to save some of the horses at the north end of the island.