Please note, despite what the title suggests, this is not a field guide to tracks left by these horses.
Cumberland Island, off Georgia’s southeast coast, was once a Spanish colony, but its wild horses are farther from the Colonial Spanish type than those of East Coast islands never settled by Spain. The unmanaged Cumberland herd is also the wildest, though the National Park Service does not consider it wildlife. The horses are very adaptable, but this subtropical paradise is especially challenging. Without renewed human intervention, their future is unclear. Can we ensure their well-being without compromising their wildness?
Wild horses have lived on the Atlantic coast for hundreds of years. Now confined to a few barrier islands in four states, they attract millions of visitors even as they generate speculation, concern, and spirited debate. Millions of visitors who frequent vacation spots along the Atlantic Wild Horse Trail are eager to learn about the wild herds that roam the nearby islands. The Hoofprints Guide Series engage the reader with detailed information about the history, environment, behavior, and prospects of these intriguing animals. Each guide presents a realistic, detailed account of one Atlantic coast herd and is packed with black-and-white photographs. The Hoofprints Guides are appealing to a general readership, yet are well-referenced and accurate enough to satisfy the scholar. Each of the Hoofprints Guides has been abridged from Bonnie Gruenberg's Wild Horse Dilemma: Conflicts and Controversies of the Atlantic Coast Herds (2015).
By profession, Bonnie Urquhart Gruenberg is a Certified Nurse-Midwife and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner who welcomes babies into the world in Lancaster County, PA. Specializing in obstetric and equine topics, she is a prolific author, artist and photographer. For nearly two decades, she has spent countless hours researching and photographing the private lives of wild horses in both Western and Eastern habitats. Her award-winning textbook Birth Emergency Skills Training (Birth Guru/Birth Muse, 2008) has been translated into Russian, and was developed into a hands-on workshop. She also has published Essentials of Prehospital Maternity Care (Prentice Hall, 2005); Hoofprints in the Sand: Wild Horses of the Atlantic Coast (as Bonnie S. Urquhart; Eclipse, 2002), and numerous other books, e-books and articles. Prior to her career in obstetrics, she worked as an urban paramedic in Connecticut.