Wild horses in North Carolina won't be evacuated because they have their own trick to survive hurricanes
Susanna Heller 7 hrs ago
Video provided by Veuer
> Wild horses in North Carolina won't be evacuated for Hurricane Dorian.
> The animals have their own special survival tactic, which keeps them safe during storms.
> When bad weather hits, Spanish mustangs huddle together and point their butts toward the winds.
> It works and has for centuries, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund wrote on Facebook.
> Don't worry, though, the Corolla Rescue Farm is taking precautions - like implementing tracking devices and stocking up on food - but they expect that the horses will be just fine.
On Wednesday night, Hurricane Dorian was once again updated to a Category 3 storm as it made its way toward the Carolinas.
As the storm traveled along the southeastern US coast, there were calls for evacuations. But one group is staying in place: the wild horses that roam the sandy shores in North Carolina's Outer Banks.
In situations like a storm, or in this case, a hurricane, the horses know just what to do - they form a huddle and go "butts to the wind," OBX Today reported.
"They have an institutional knowledge of where it's high, dry and safe," said Meg Puckett, herd manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. "It's one of the few times we see a lot of the different harems come together."
The Spanish mustangs innately know to do this and have been using this survival "trick" for 500 years, the fund wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
"The wild horses are better equipped to handle a hurricane than most of us humans living on the Outer Banks," the fund wrote. "They go to high ground, under the sturdy live oak trees to ride the storm out."
www.facebook.com/corollaw...g/posts/10157641861708330
Ahead of Dorian's arrival, the Corolla Rescue Farm took extra precautions to keep the horses safe, like stocking up on hay and grain, filling troughs with water, and keeping a generator in case the farm loses power. The horses' manes have also been tagged and Puckett, the herd manager, will be riding out the storm with the animals, the post said.
The herd of 100 horses has turned their "butts to the wind" to get through other recent storms. In 2018, CNN reported that the horses used the method to get through Hurricane Florence.
Hurricane Dorian is expected to pass near or over the coast of North Carolina on Thursday and Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Poster Comment:
#1: sneakypete To: BTP Holdings (#0)
And these horses aren't really wild and haven't been for a long,long time. I am originally from that area,and know the locals used to catch one as they needed him or her,and use them to pull in fish nets from the sea,and to pull a wagon loaded with fish. Once they were done with them,they turned them loose again. It was a pretty benign relationship. The locals occasionally needed and used the horses for work,and in return they often fed and paid for vet visits for sick or injured horses.
I never once heard of a single instance where a local ever harmed one,or a local was harmed by one of them,and some members of my own family used them when hauling fish nets.
A "peaceful coexistence",thing.
I used to know the name of the family that owned most of the land the horses roamed on,and they were VERY protective of the horses,but AFAIK they never claimed to own them. IIRC,the family donated some land to the horses so they would always have a refuge when they got to the point all the young family members were getting college educations and moving away to work instead of fishing and farming. With the exception of the land dedicated to the horses,most of the family land has probably been broken up into building lots and has houses on it now.
There is now a new crew of babysitters for the horses that is comprised primarily of people who have moved there in recent years to retire,and they do a VERY good job of protecting them and taking care of them. Most people that live around there seem to feel protective of them too,and anyone caught harming one is probably going to do some suffering before the police show up.
As for the horses,if you leave them alone they bother no one. They are pretty used to people and mostly ignore them. I am not so sure how it would work out for you if you got close to and scared or harmed a colt while the stallion was around,but chances are you wouldn't be doing it again.
This is one of those rare and happy circumstances where humans and independent animals are living free side by side without any real conflict.
sneakypete posted on 2019-09-06 00:15:24 Reply Private Reply
#2: NeoconsNailed To: BTP Holdings (#0)
NeoconsNailed posted on 2019-09-06 07:54:12 Reply Private Reply
#3: BTP Holdings To: sneakypete (#1)
When I drove the big truck for Vestal out of Niangua, when we did not need to fuel up, we would go down Hwy C where the Amish lived.
One time I look left and the kids were giving the signal with their hands to blow the air horn. I grabbed the lanyard and tugged it. I did not see the horse on the other side of the road. He was raring back.
I bet that Amish man with the horse was saying something like, "Razza frackin English." ROTFLOL
BTP Holdings posted on 2019-09-06 09:53:46 Reply Private Reply