Corolla Wild Horse Fund

5 days ago

Tomorrow brings an end to our spring fundraising campaign. We love the opportunity to spend a month sharing a glimpse into our world serving this extraordinary mission. We love engaging with all of you in a way that we hope brings the Bankers home to you wherever you are.

Our final ask this spring of all of you is to become a member of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. Being a member provides us the funds that make everything you saw this month possible.

If each one of you were to become a member, or encourage a friend to become a member, at any level, your collective impact will continue to ensure the Bankers live wild and free. For those of you that are already members, please feel our gratitude. If you are uncertain as to whether you are currently a member, please reach out to Marley at marley@corollawildhorses.com.

All of us, together, are a powerful force united to protect the Bankers and preserve their habitat.

To become a member, visit:
www.corollawildhorses.com/memberships/ ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

7 days ago

The wild herd of Bankers has lived here on the Outer Banks for hundreds of years. How can you be part of ensuring they continue to live here freely, not only now but for decades to come?

Join The Wild and Free Legacy Society and be part of a like-minded group of supporters that have committed to having the Corolla Wild Horse Fund named in your planned giving. Through this society, we honor the spirit of philanthropy that nurtures and sustains the Fund’s ability to serve our mission of protecting the wild Bankers. We welcome generous and forward-thinking donors who want to support the long-term impact of the Fund through a planned gift. There are several creative and flexible ways to get involved. Whether you consider naming us in your will, donating land for Banker habitat, or making a qualified charitable distribution from your estate, there is a place in the Legacy Society for you.

All who join the Legacy Society in 2025 will be inaugural members and will have a hand in charting the course for our future. There will be specific Legacy Society communications and an open house in the fall.

For more information, email Chris at chris@corollawildhorses.com or click here: www.corollawildhorses.com/legacy-society/

Establishing a philanthropic vision for your future estate is one of the most profound ways that you can continue to be part of a better tomorrow for generations to come. We are so grateful for your willingness to consider the Corolla Wild Horse Fund in your planned giving. ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

1 week ago

Today we pause to remember and honor all those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms.

Wishing everyone a meaningful Memorial Day. 🇺🇸 ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

2 weeks ago

DO YOU OWN A RENTAL COTTAGE?

As we continue to share our spring fundraising campaign with all of you, these final weeks will be all about how YOU can be involved with us. Just a few days ago, we shared the story of Horse Sponsorship. Today, the focus is primarily directed at those of you who own rental properties OR those of you who come stay at a rental property.

We have an amazing program called Owners Are Donors. Through Owners Are Donors, you pledge a certain amount for each week that you rent out. It could be as little as $20 per week! As part of this program, you will receive a personalized graphic for your cottage’s slideshow, a hand-made steel horse plaque to display in your cottage, and a CWHF membership decal. There is no better way to let your guests know that they are staying at a cottage that protects the horses.

For those of you that are guests, we encourage you to share this program with your owners. They may not be aware of this opportunity!

For more information, click here: www.corollawildhorses.com/owners-are-donors-program/

We love partnering with rental property owners through this program. ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

2 weeks ago

Did you know that we currently care for 20 resident Banker horses at our farm on the mainland?

When a wild horse has a potentially fatal injury, illness, or becomes severely habituated, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund consults with our veterinary team and makes a decision in the horse's best interest regarding intervention.

From our youngest rescue who turns four in July to our oldest mares in their thirties, each formerly wild Banker has a unique personality and circumstance that led them to live on the farm. While rescued Bankers have been candidates for adoption before, most of the current rescues require specialized care and will remain with us for the rest of their lives.

Over the years, our horse sponsorship program has had a significant impact on our ability to meet each horse’s needs with ease. By sponsoring a Banker, you help cover costs of rescue, veterinary treatment, medicine, hay, horse trailer maintenance, and essential upkeep of our barns and pastures. On average, the Fund spends around $250 per month on hay for just one horse. Multiple that by 20, throw in medical costs, veterinary check-ups and more, and you'll see why every dollar is essential in providing these horses' the best care possible. We could not do this work without your support.

Become a horse sponsor today or give a sponsorship as a gift: www.corollawildhorses.com/horse-sponsorships/ ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

3 weeks ago

Education and Research

The Banker horses are what’s known as a landrace breed. This means that they are unique from any other breed of horse in the world due to the adaptations they’ve developed over the last several hundred years that allow them to survive on the barrier islands of North Carolina. Breed conservation is key to their long term survival. These genes do not, and cannot, exist anywhere else because the horses are intrinsically tied to our coastal landscape, culture, and history.

We are tasked with the tricky job of preserving these genetics while at the same time not interfering with the natural course of their lives. Luckily there is a lot of breed conservation work that can happen without being intrusive to the wild herd. In 2020 we undertook an ambitious project to collect DNA from every wild Corolla horse, along with any that have been removed from the herd and are currently living in captivity. From this we can build ancestries, learn more about herd dynamics, movement, and breeding behavior, test for genetic diseases, and build a breed database that will help other managers far into the future.

The farm also provides opportunities for breed conservation. While we have yet to breed any of the captive Bankers, we have plans to do so in the future. We’ve also begun collecting and storing semen from our stallions so that should something happen to them, their genes will be preserved for many years to come. We have been working on creating a breed standard for the Banker horses, which consists of taking measurements of all the formerly wild horses to help us come up with an average standard for size and body proportions.

We always say that the more we know about the horses, the better equipped we are to properly manage and protect them. This is true for the public too! We can’t expect people to be invested in the horses’ future without an understanding as to why our work is so important, and why the horses are worth saving.

Education takes many forms - farm open houses, outreach with rescued horses, talks and lectures, workshops for tour drivers, social media and PSAs, school programming, summer camps, and so much more. We believe that education should be free and widely available, which is where your ongoing support comes in. Your donations, memberships, and sponsorships allow us to continuously expand our education and advocacy efforts in new and exciting ways. From signs and billboards to helping us feed our ambassador horses at the farm, your contributions make a huge impact!

Tomorrow afternoon we will be doing a live video from the farm to check in with all of the rescued horses in our care. Be sure to tune in or watch it later whenever you have time!

Get involved and become invested in these horses’ future with us: www.corollawildhorses.com/support-corolla-wild-horse-fund/ ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

3 weeks ago

Grace, Emma, and Ocean Pearl had a great time at Museum of the Albemarle this morning sharing the story of Betsy Dowdy with second graders from Grandy Primary. We love being able to talk to local students about this incredible history that happened right here in their own backyard! 🐎 ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

3 weeks ago

We are not being hyperbolic when we say that stress and crowding can kill foals. The rules and guidelines that we are constantly begging people to follow are in place for a reason and they apply to everyone - tourists, residents, day trippers, and everyone in between. No photograph or any amount of social media clout is worth more than a foal's life. Please give these horses their space and respect the fact that they are wild animals.ATTN: Foal separated from her mom following disturbance by visitors

🐎 Visitors and boaters are advised to stay several hundred yards away from the foal’s social group 🐎

Please read the full post for a happy ending. On the afternoon of Saturday, May 10th a group of four horses, including a mom and 6 day-old foal, were grazing along the shores of Deep Creek, Rachel Carson Reserve. The presence of motorboats close to the shore, paddlers in Deep Creek, and people on foot caused stress for the male horse (stallion) and he quickly herded the foal’s mother across Deep Creek and to the west, leaving the foal behind on the east bank.

Over the next few hours, the stallion continued to herd the remaining group members to the west further away from the foal, who was alone and whinnying for her mother. Herd manager Paula Gillikin and volunteer Miriam Sutton were onsite to ensure visitors were aware not to approach the horses, to ensure a better chance of reunification. The foal stood on an oyster rock for a few hours with the tide rising when Gillikin made the decision to move the foal by boat back to its mother, as young foals need to nurse multiple times per hour. Plus, sundown would’ve made a reunion more difficult.

About 6pm, foal and mom were reunited! Based on this event, we ask that visitors on foot and boaters (even in Taylor’s Creek) give the foal’s social group several hundred yards of space. We realize visitors and boaters are excited about seeing the new baby, but we need your help to ensure it can survive. ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

3 weeks ago

Happy Mother’s Day! 💐 ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

4 weeks ago

While we strive to keep every horse wild and free for its entire life, sometimes that’s not possible. Removal from the wild is always the last resort, but in cases of life-threatening illness or injury, or habituation that becomes dangerous for the horse and/or humans, we will sometimes have to make the heartbreaking but necessary decision to intervene. This is not something we take lightly, but fortunately when it does happen we are well-equipped to provide whatever care the horse may require.

In 2018 CWHF purchased a 30-acre farm on the Currituck mainland that has become a permanent sanctuary for these formerly wild horses. Since the purchase, we have been slowly but steadily turning it into a facility that is set up for these horses’ very specific needs. We’ve been replacing the three-rail pasture fencing with something more substantial and safer and we installed a perimeter fence around the entire property, we’ve built multiple intake and veterinary stalls and paddocks, we’ve turned the farmhouse into office space as well as a museum and gift shop for days when we’re open to the public…the list goes on! The farm is first and foremost a sanctuary for the twenty horses who currently call it home, but it’s also an important part of our ongoing research into genetics, habitat, and breed conservation and it’s a space for education where we host school groups, day camps, and the public during our weekly summer open houses.

In the coming days we’ll be introducing you to the residents of the farm, talking more about daily operations, how we train and take care of the horses, on-going projects, and letting you know about all the ways you can be a part of this life-saving work. Stay tuned!

Support the horses: www.corollawildhorses.com/support-corolla-wild-horse-fund/ ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

4 weeks ago

What's in a Name?

The Corolla Wild Horse Fund has been monitoring and managing the wild horses for nearly 40 years. From the very beginning we have kept track of each individual horse as time, technology, and resources have allowed. And since the very beginning, these horses have been given names.

The primary reason for naming the horses is that it makes it much easier for our staff to communicate with each other about them. It’s far easier to remember “Caroline” than “Mare 162168.” (Every horse has a registration number in addition to a name.) Whether or not it is best practice to name wild animals (either in a zoo or sanctuary setting or in their wild habitat) has been a topic of debate for many decades, and there are valid points to be made on both sides of the argument. Historically for CWHF, naming has been what works best for us from a herd management perspective, and we’ve also found that naming helps people feel more connected to the horses, which in turn can garner more support for their protection. However, there is a very delicate balance that must be maintained so that the horses do not become anthropomorphized (attributed with human characteristics and behaviors) and so that people do not forget that they are truly wild animals.

A lot has changed in forty years.

There are far more permanent residents living in the off-road area now, there are more property owners from all over the world, we are seeing more and more visitors each season, and social media now reaches further and has more of an impact than we could have ever imagined, even a decade ago. The science behind good husbandry is ever-evolving and it’s critically important that we remain open to change, be adaptable, and be honest with ourselves and the public when it comes to what’s best for the horses. In the last couple years we have noticed a concerning trend of anthropomorphization and familiarity with individual horses that delegitimizes their wildness, makes herd management difficult, and puts the horses in danger of habituation.

So this brings us to foaling season - very exciting for us, but for the horses it’s a very unstable, vulnerable time when life is literally hanging in the balance. What happens in the first few hours, days, and weeks of a foal’s life can determine whether that foal will survive its first six months, its first year, and then on into adulthood. Mares’ lives can hang in the balance too. Pregnancy and birth are difficult, nursing a foal requires a lot of calories and energy, going into foal heat attracts competing stallions who can be very aggressive…the list goes on. These are the natural parts of their lives that they are physically and instinctually equipped to handle and even then there is no guarantee that mares and foals will survive. Every single wild foal that makes it to adulthood is truly a miracle. When we add stress caused by humans to this, things become even more precarious.

You may have noticed in the last couple years that we have not been announcing foal births immediately. This is because we have noticed another concerning trend of people going out of their way to seek out pregnant mares and newborn foals like it’s an Easter egg hunt. People want to be the first to find them, the first to know the name, and the first to post photographs on social media. And believe us - we get it. It takes a lot of restraint on our part not to shout the arrival of new foals from the rooftops. But is that really in their best interest? Is it in the best interest of the mare who has hunkered down deep in the marsh to protect her newborn foal? We don’t think so, and we believe that she has a right to her privacy and a right to her wildness. This isn’t to say we aren’t aware of these foals, and that we aren’t monitoring them from a distance as best we can until their mothers decide to bring them into more accessible (to humans) areas. Our vet is updated on every new birth and discussions are had about the condition of the foal, the condition of the mother, background on the mare’s foaling history, and any other relevant information. As with any of the horses, we would intervene in the case of life-threatening illness or injury under the direction of our vet, but our goal is to always be as unobtrusive as possible and respect the fact that these are wild horses who have done a pretty good job of surviving here on their own for hundreds of years.

Is it a perfect science? No. But we learn from past experiences, we adapt to change, we work very hard to keep our emotions out of it, and we call on other experts for support and advice when needed.

The first two foals to come out in public this year were Finola and Folly, and as we have always done in the past, we posted about them and shared their names. In the last couple weeks we’ve taken a step back, had some really great conversations among ourselves and other colleagues in the field, and realized that we need to practice what we’re preaching. Moving forward we will not be sharing the names of foals and we will use more discretion when sharing the names of adult horses as well. This beautiful colt made his public debut earlier in the week after spending the first month of his life deep in the marsh with his first-time mother and the rest of the harem. He is healthy and sound, growing as he should, and developing all the skills he’ll need to survive in the wild.

What more could we ask for? Here’s to a long, wonderful life for this colt - wild and free. ... See MoreSee Less

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

4 weeks ago

Photo taken yesterday of a wild Banker stallion with a cattle egret. These migratory birds arrive on the Outer Banks every spring and spend the summer following the horses around eating flies and other insects. They are the only ones allowed to ride the wild horses - you’ll often see them perched on the horses’ backs! ... See MoreSee Less