Wild Horses in Corolla, NC

Beyond this point, ... there be horses! 

When you've driven as far north on Route 12 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina as you can - when the tarmac ends ... the beach becomes an extension of Route 12. Beyond this point there are some houses, but more importantly there are horses, wild horses, and this is their sanctuary - here they have the right of way!

These horses are descendant, by most accounts, from the Spanish mustangs that swam here from shipwrecks in the 16th century, were offloaded from vessels that ran aground, or were abandonned by Spanish settlers who fled from the Indians. Today the herd numbers around 110 horses and they are proudly protected by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund and its supporters. You can see the horses by renting a four-wheel-drive vehicle, joining a commercial tour, or by joining the herd manager on a four hour trip. Peter and I considered the list of commercial providers and decided upon W.H.A.T., Wild Horse Adventure Tours for a sunset tour.

It was late on a brisk spring day, when we met up with Dave Barker and his door-less jeep in the parking lot of WHAT. He couldn't have been friendlier and he's obviously enjoying this employment in retirement. Peter and I were the only two on this tour, so Dave made sure we were lined up well for photographing the horses. We agreed later that this trip would have been worth just the drive along the beach with the ocean on one side and the dunes the other. It was breathtaking, especially with no doors, but soon after we left the tarmac we came upon two horses, one with a star on its forehead, grazing along the dunes. Dave explained that they were mother and son (mare and colt is the proper way to say that), and the colt was just one year old. Dave seemed to know the story of every horse we saw which added color and dimension to each herd's tales.

Dave drove us over "hill and dale". We found a beautiful "blond" herd grazing in someone's yard, a black stallion's herd with a pregnant mare drinking fresh water from the small pools left by recent storms, and we looked long and hard to see the new foul that had been born just the week before, but to no avail. 

The sun was completely down by the time we returned to the beach for the trip back to our car. The night was pitch black and we could only see the small stretch of beach illuminated ahead of us by our headlights and the white foam of the crashing waves at the shoreline. Wind was whistling through the jeep now and Dave kindly put the doors back on to keep the cold out. In the car on the way back to our Nags Head hotel, Peter and I  both felt exhilerated not only by the cold night air but by the sense of having entered the world of these wild horses and having captured some of them in our photographs.

 Photos & Slide Show @2011 Claudia Ward & Peter Tooker

Music: Little Martha, by Leo Kottke on Leo Kottke: Instrumentals - The Best of the Chrysalis Years

Comments

[cael]

Beautiful photos, can't wait unil I see The Outarbanks in a few weeks. I loved the pictures and the music.............thanks for sharing, and enjoying life so much

[Claudia]

Thanks for chiming in guys, it was very special.

[Tom E.]

Beautiful pictures and beautiful writing.

[Paul Angotta]

Nature at its most simple and beautiful - thank you for sharing.