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Marsh tackies, a squat breed of horse indigenous to the area, ran last year on Mitchelville Beach Park on Hilton Head Island as part of the festival. Now, town officials and event organizers say the quality of the sand at Mitchelville Beach Park is too dangerous for a horse race.
"There had been a test run of the horses out there," said town manager Steve Riley, "but everything shifted in the sands and the horses started falling into sinkholes."
Racing the horses in such conditions could lead to a horse breaking a leg or throwing a rider, said James Mitchell Jr., president and CEO of the Native Island Business and Community Affairs Association.
The race features about 150 horses and drew 3,000 spectators last year at its first running.
Mitchell and Michael Marks, president and CEO of the Coastal Discovery Museum, asked the town to change its laws to allow the horses to race elsewhere on the island. Horses have been outlawed on the beach since the town's ordinances were adopted in the late 1980s, Riley said.
The town allowed the race to take place last year at Mitchelville Beach Park because the area doesn't fall under the ordinances that govern Coligny Beach Park. The new law would allow horses on Coligny Beach under a special events permit.
Marsh tackies, once used by islanders to help with farming, have become rare as the island's native population gave up farming in the last half of the twentieth century. Racing the tackies had long been a wintertime tradition, said Mitchell.After each year's harvests, Gullah residents would gather on the north shores of Hilton Head to race marsh tackies across the sand. The winner took home bragging rights.
Coligny has more parking than Mitchelville Beach Park, but isn't part of a historic native island community, Riley said. The site change isn't necessarily permanent, he said, and council members said the sand quality at Mitchelville could change in time for next year's race.
The town hopes to meet next Tuesday to vote the ordinance into law in time for the race, scheduled for Feb. 28.
