Assateague, Md.- A centuries-old horse tooth, found in Haiti, is believed to be linked with the Assateague ponies.
Found in 1980, the tooth could be the answer to one question. That being, how did the ponies get to Assateague island?
Nicolas Delsol, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum Of Natural History, re-examined the tooth. Delsol originally was sequencing DNA of cow teeth. But, he quickly realized it was related to a horse.
"We found out that the closest, modern, relative to this colonial horse was found in the Chincoteague ponies, in Virginia. It was something that we initially would not expect. After that, we made some more research and found out about the local folk stories about the original Chincoteague ponies," says Delsol.
Many folklore's have been whispered from person to person. However, this new finding adds credence to one specific possibility. That being, the horses travelled on Spanish galleons during colonial times. The ships would travel from the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain, to the Caribbean. However, one ship wrecked off the coast of Chincoteague. And the ponies, were forced to swim to shore.
Delsol says, "Beyond that, what's interesting is that it shows that the Spanish, in the early stages of colonization, were not only exploring the Caribbean and Mexico. They were also present in these regions of the mid-Atlantic."
This does not confirm the story, however it adds a clue to our history.