Newly discovered horse family is living like castaways on remote Outer Banks island

A secretive family of feral horses has been discovered living in isolation on a remote part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

The find was announced June 22 by the nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund, which says the two adults and a foal were seen on an island in the sound west of Carova Beach.

A woman visiting the area is credited with making the discovery after spotting the foal wandering by itself.

Meg Puckett, who manages the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, says the discovery proves “there are areas that are still truly wild.”

“There are horses who live in these areas that we are lucky to see once or twice a year,” Puckett says.

“Most of the horses do regularly travel back and forth from the sound islands to the main part of the beach, but it’s not often you find groups like this who seem to live out there permanently. “

A team sent to the island reports the foal, which is six to eight weeks old, and her mom “are in excellent shape.” The foal has been named Doe and her mother is being called Libba. They were accompanied by another adult, “but we couldn’t get a good enough look at him/her to see if we recognized them or not,” the fund reported.

Corolla Wild Horse Fund manages a herd of about 100 horses and tends their medical needs with the help of donations. The herd roams 7,600 acres at the northern end of the Outer Banks, much of it “marshy, swampy, and difficult to navigate,” the fund says.

Outer Banks horses, known as “bankers,” often swim in search of food, which explains how some would end up on a remote island. But the fact some continue to escape detection is surprising, giving the booming Outer Banks tourism industry and the presence of three national parks.

The fund intends to put a team on the island later in the year to identify the three horses and collect tissue for DNA samples, Puckett says.

“There are horses who live in these areas that we are lucky to see once or twice a year, and we always assume there are probably a handful more that we never see,” Puckett says.

“We sometimes spot a couple horses here and there on the islands when we fly over for aerial counts, but it can be difficult to ID them from that distance.”

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