Corolla Wild Horses | Corolla Wild Horse Fund - Official Site • Corolla, NC (2024)

We want to hear from YOU! Have a question about herd management, the farm, or anything else related to CWHF and the Banker horses of Corolla? Submit them via this form: forms.gle/6bckrV575NNt23GP9 and we will choose some to answer during our Fall Fundraiser that kicks off next month. ... See MoreSee Less

This week marks the two year anniversary of June’s removal from the wild after she contracted a potentially fatal infection called pythiosis.

On September 7, 2022, we rescued June and the following day trailered her to NC State College of Veterinary Medicine & Veterinary Hospital where she was immediately taken into surgery to remove the infected tissue. She was hospitalized while the veterinary team there worked around the clock to treat not just the infection but also various secondary issues that became life-threatening as well. Thanks to the extraordinary care she received, her sensible, easy-going demeanor, and her strong will to survive, June came back home to us on September 27 and has been flourishing here at the farm ever since.

June has such a bright future ahead of her now! She is going to be an amazing ambassador horse, and we’re looking forward to getting her off the farm next year for outreach. She practiced all summer at our open houses and has really come to enjoy all the attention. June’s sire Roamer was one of the best outreach horses we’ve ever had, so it definitely seems to run in the family! We’ve also started June under saddle and she’s excelling at that as well. She is so sweet and laid back, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s very cute too. 😉

Removing a horse from the wild is always heartbreaking - even when we know we’re saving their life. But domestication doesn’t mean that horse is no longer serving a purpose. June and the other horses here on the farm are ambassadors for their breed and their wild counterparts, and their stories serve as very real, very meaningful examples of why our work - and your support - is so critical to their survival.

You can help us continue providing the best care to June by sponsoring her: www.corollawildhorses.com/horse-sponsorships/

We’re also very excited to have partnered with Middleton Clay Project for a special series of horsehair pots featuring our rescued Corolla Bankers. In celebration of the anniversary of her rescue this month, June was the first horse to be featured and there are only 30 of these unique pots left. Get one today - when they’re gone, they’re gone! Proceeds benefit the horses. www.middletonclayproject.com/product/rescued-corolla-june/603?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&...

And don’t forget you can come visit June and the rest of the horses (and Raymond, of course!) at our Fall Open House on October 12. More details: www.facebook.com/share/3ix2fFmZFqt6QUu9/

Happy Labor Day!

We’d like to extend a special thank-you today to our staff who works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to keep the horses safe and our organization running. We are so lucky to have such an amazing team!

Hope everyone has a fun, relaxing day!

www.corollawildhorses.org

Really looking forward to this!The time has come!

We are so excited to invite you to the premiere of the mini-documentary "Winged Horses of the Outer Banks" on Tuesday, September 17 at 6:00 p.m. in the Town of Duck Amphitheater.

Immediately following the premiere, the new Town Park horse statue will be unveiled. Join us for the grand reveal as we hear from a few special guests and meet Riptide, one of Corolla Wild Horse Fund's own! Meet the artists, take photos, and learn about the Town through artist renderings of images from Duck's history.

Save the date and make plans to join us as we not only celebrate and preserve a piece of Outer Banks history 🐎

See you there!

Summer is back with a vengeance - the heat index today has been hovering around 100 or higher and the biting flies are nearly unbearable. The horses have been seeking relief on the beach but unfortunately we’ve had issues with people crowding them and not giving them their space.

If the horses are coming towards you please get out of their way and let them pass by without blocking or harassing them, even if this means you have to get up out of your chair for a minute or two. They are continually moving in an effort to avoid the flies and getting in their way not only adds to their discomfort, it puts you in danger too. And making them work extra hard to navigate the crowds can also lead to heat-related health issues.

Please be respectful of the horses if you are vacationing here this week. It takes very little effort to follow the rules and keep your distance.

www.corollawildhorses.org

Tomorrow is the last open house of the summer! Hard to believe. Hope to see you there! And go ahead and mark your calendars for the fall open house on October 12. More details coming soon! ... See MoreSee Less

Come see Riptide in Nags Head this morning!Come meet Riptide on Thursday Aug 22, at 10:00 AM.
Riptide is a four-year-old stallion who was removed from the wild as a colt due to a serious infection requiring life-saving treatment. The Director of Herd Management, Meg Puckett, will talk about the wild horses of Corolla and their work to protect them.💚 ... See MoreSee Less

Check out this great new series of limited edition pots by Middleton Clay Project! Each run will feature a different rescued Corolla Banker, and part of the proceeds benefit the horses.

Mike will be at tomorrow’s farm open house, and of course so will June! Come by and meet them both in person. Details: www.facebook.com/share/eBnGvDtKd2cShwbQ/?mibextid=9l3rBWwww.middletonclayproject.com/product/rescued-corolla-june/603?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&...

RESCUED SERIES, Each month we'll have a pot with a postcard of the horse and their individual stories. Collect them all. This Month we recognize the beautiful JUNE!!!! ONLY 50 avalible. AVAILABLE NOW!!!!

There are a handful of horses that we are lucky to see once or twice a year because they live deep in the marsh in places that are difficult (or often impossible) for us to access. Today was very exciting because two of those horses were out on the beach.

Dash was born last year and we saw him once at a distance when he was a few months old. His mother is named Rotor because we first spotted her from the helicopter in 2017. Both look great - clearly eating well on all that lush, green marsh grass. Dash is a big yearling, almost taller than his mom. And we have a clear photo of his little hind sock for our records now! It’s the little things in life. 😉

The horses have about 7500 acres of land to roam and as you can see in the last photograph it is quite vast once you get away from the oceanfront. Easy for a couple of horses like Rotor and Dash to stay hidden for months at a time! Learn more about how you can help us protect and preserve the Corolla Bankers and their wild habitat:

www.corollawildhorses.com/support-corolla-wild-horse-fund/

Come visit the farm tomorrow! Details below 👇🏻

Sponsored by The Northern Outer Banks

We were shocked this morning to learn that our neighbors Corolla Village Bar-B-Que lost everything in an overnight fire. Thankful no one was hurt but this is such a devastating loss for Larry and Cristie. A GoFundMe has been set up to help them get through the coming months: gofund.me/8355d2c9 Please consider donating and sharing with others! ... See MoreSee Less

Our store and museum in Corolla will be closed tomorrow, but you can still shop online! We’ve got some great new merchandise in stock: www.corollawildhorses.com/cwhf-gift-shop/ ... See MoreSee Less

Just a reminder that tomorrow’s open house has been cancelled due to the threat of severe weather. ⛈️We’ve been keeping a close eye on the weather and have decided to go ahead and cancel this week’s open house due to the uncertainty of the forecast. Right now it looks we’ll be getting quite a bit of rain and we don’t want to risk having visitors or staff out driving in it on Wednesday. This also gives us a chance to make sure the farm and the horses there are prepared for any tropical weather that is heading our way. We hope everyone in the path of this storm stays safe! ... See MoreSee Less

We’ve been keeping a close eye on the weather and have decided to go ahead and cancel this week’s open house due to the uncertainty of the forecast. Right now it looks we’ll be getting quite a bit of rain and we don’t want to risk having visitors or staff out driving in it on Wednesday. This also gives us a chance to make sure the farm and the horses there are prepared for any tropical weather that is heading our way. We hope everyone in the path of this storm stays safe! ... See MoreSee Less

Raymond and Blossom moved into a different pasture a couple weeks ago and Raymond has been hard at work establishing new holes to roll around in. This one is really coming along nicely! 😁

www.corollawildhorses.com/horse-sponsorships/

It’s incredibly difficult to get back into the normal swing of things after going through a tragedy like we experienced last week. We are still in shock, we are emotionally and physically exhausted, and we are grieving. But there are still horses here that need us and who give us a reason to get up and get moving every morning even when it’s really, really hard.

Life does go on.

So with that in mind, today we’d like to introduce everyone to the newest member of the Corolla herd, a colt named Ember. He was born the first week of July and at a month old is a big, healthy foal with a very bright future ahead of him.

Ember has everything he needs to grow up into a stallion who will one day produce foals of his own - an experienced mother who is taking great care of him right now, a habitat that provides him with plenty of food and fresh water, other horses who will teach him the ins and outs of being a wild horse, and survival instincts that have been passed down through many generations. It is up to all of us to make sure that Ember is never threatened by the things that we humans can control. That includes giving him plenty of space and never petting or feeding him, driving slowly and being aware of our surroundings at all times, cleaning up after ourselves, and being good stewards of the environment.

Every single person who sets foot on the 4x4, be it tourists or full-time residents, property owners, daytrippers, contractors, and everyone in between, has a responsibility to follow the rules and keep these horses safe. Please help us make sure that Ember’s future stays as bright as it is right now.

Visit our website to learn more about how you can help us fulfill our mission to protect, preserve, and responsibly manage this endangered herd: www.corollawildhorses.com/support-corolla-wild-horse-fund/

At 11:30pm on Friday, July 26 we received a 911 call that a horse who had been standing on the beach was struck by a vehicle. The incident was witnessed and reported by a visitor who had been surf fishing at the time. No other horses were injured. The driver of the vehicle was arrested.

The horse that was hit was 10-year-old stallion Bullwinkle, and the injuries he sustained were as follows:

-Significant skin trauma over the right side and back.

-Broken right hind leg with fracture of the lower femur.

-Left hind trauma and lateral destabilization of the hock with collateral ligament injuries, allowing the leg to bow outwards.

-Pendulous abdomen when standing and once euthanized fluid-filled abdomen confirmed with a fluid wave of manipulation, likely due to significant internal trauma and blood within the abdomen.

Bullwinkle’s injuries were severe and ultimately fatal. Our veterinarian arrived on the scene early Saturday morning to humanely euthanize him.

On Thursday, we posted a video of two stallions fighting and told the story of how the challenging stallion had been vying for the other stallion’s mares for several weeks. The challenging stallion was Bullwinkle. He was in the prime of his life, and went from being a symbol of what it means to be wild and free to a tragic example of how irresponsible, reckless human behavior can cause pain, suffering, and irreparable damage to the herd in an instant. Bullwinkle will never produce any foals. His genetics are gone from the herd forever and with such a small, endangered population the ramifications of that will last for generations.

Bullwinkle died as wild as he lived; at no point did he welcome our intervention and he remained wary and defensive even as he laid on the dune unable to stand anymore. The fight drive that he was always known for never left him, right up to the end. He was exactly what a wild Banker stallion is supposed to be, and we are glad that he at least never had to leave the beach - he was never meant to. He was buried at the edge of the meadow where the video from Thursday was filmed. There is not much comfort that can be found in anything about this tragic incident, but we are at least grateful that we could help him pass without further suffering and provide him with the respectful and dignified burial he deserved.

We’d like to thank everyone who helped us Friday night and Saturday morning, especially the visitor who called 911. Otherwise there would have been no consequences for the driver, we would have never known what happened, and Bullwinkle may have suffered for longer than he did. Thank you to our community who came together to help us that night and into the day on Saturday, to the Currituck County sheriff’s department for their quick response and on-going support, and to our staff and veterinarian for their unending dedication to always doing what’s best for the horses.

www.corollawildhorses.org

Caught some cool herd dynamics and behavior on camera today.

The darker stallion has been with the black mare and her two-year-old filly for the last couple years. The lighter brown stallion tried to steal them from him a few weeks ago, but was unsuccessful. Since then he’s been trailing the trio, and will regularly try to sneak in and grab the mares. The first stallion has to stay vigilant all the time - it must be exhausting, but he is really doing a good job of protecting his mares from the challenger!

At the end of the video you’ll see the darker stallion put his head down and move his mares away from the other one. This is called snaking, and it’s one of the few times you’ll see a stallion seriously bossing his mares around. When there’s no threat present they are typically happy to follow along and let the mares run the show.

It will be interesting to see how this drama plays out! Who are you rooting for? (I’m rooting for the mares. 😉)

www.corollawildhorses.org

Open house is rain or shine - as long as there’s no thunder and lightning the show will go on! The chance for storms increases as the day goes on so come early if you can just in case. If we have to shut down early due to the weather we will post about it. After 10am you can also call our office at 252-453-8002 before heading over just to double check. More info about the event below 👇🏻 ... See MoreSee Less

Riptide will be in Duck tomorrow morning! Stop by and say hi.We have another fun week of FREE events ahead! Make plans to join us this week in the Town Park:

Tuesday- 7:30 a.m. Yoga on the Green
- 10:00 a.m.- Meet Riptide: Corolla Wild Horse Fund
- 8:30(ish) p.m.- Movie on the Green: Shrek
Wednesday- 7:30 a.m. Dynamic Flow on the Green
- 9:30 & 11:00 a.m.- OBXTreme Magic Shows
Thursday- 9:30 a.m.- Story Time and Chalk Art Fun
- 6:30 p.m.- Concert on the Green: Will Overman

Stay tuned to social media and the website for any weather-related updates to the events.

Thank you to our sponsors: Village Realty OBX, Carolina Designs Vacation Rentals, Duck's Cottage Coffee & Books, Downtown Books, Kellogg Supply Company, The Cottage Shop, Twiddy & Co & Eventide OBX