Lowcountry Part 3

Auldbrass and Marsh Tackies

On Friday we had to be at Auldbrass Plantation at 11, so we had some time in the morning to stretch our legs before spending most of the day in the car. We decided to walk around the Beaufort waterfront. We wondered down some side-streets and saw beautiful old southern homes, covered in Spanish moss, echoing the sounds of history.

After leaving Beaufort we headed to Yemassee to Auldbrass. Auldbrass is a Frank Lloyd Wright plantation owned by Hollywood director Joel Silver who produced Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, the Matrix, and more. It's the only southern plantation designed by Wright. The reason for our visit was that Frank Lloyd Wright actually designed stables to fit the Marsh Tacky horse native to South Carolina. There are large stables on the property and then smaller stables for the Tackies since they are smaller horses. It's a testament of the history of the breed in this area.

We got to view and photograph the stables which were indeed a lot smaller than the stables for the Friesians. We also got to see the owner’s Friesians and Texas Longhorn cattle. He had several other animals on the property including Zebras, Hippos, and Pigmy Hippos. In our trek around the property, we saw a gorgeous Cypress Swamp. It looked like something out of a movie.

After leaving Auldebrass, we headed to Ridgeland to visit an old-time Marsh Tacky breeder. D.P. Lowther's family has had Tackies for years and years and he continues to raise them. He has the largest herd in the country and has helped keep the breed alive. We went to his property and he showed us around. There were probably over 100 horses, all in different fields and pastures. There were all sorts of colors, types, geldings, stallions, etc. After looking at the horses we visited with D.P. and his wife, Ms. Dan while they talked politics and Marsh Tackies. D.P. is a living legend when it comes to the Tackies and he’s well respected for his knowledge and breeding of the horses. The visit allowed Jeannette to get some information for the Marsh Tacky Studbook as well as learn and glean more information about the Tackies. D.P. also shared a story about the “old Wood cattle” that used to be common in the area. Most likely these were Pineywoods cattle. After leaving the Lowther place, we headed to Hilton Head for the next leg of our journey.