Become a Corolla Wild Horse Fund Member -

Help Keep the Corolla Wild Horses Wild and Free!

The Corolla Wild Horse Fund is a non-profit, registered 501(c)3 public charity, whose mission is to protect, preserve, and responsibly manage the herd of wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs roaming freely on the northernmost Currituck Outer Banks. You can be a part of protecting and preserving this historic herd!

Your membership dollars are critical to help us carry out our mission, provide care for injured horses, and give the wild horses a much needed voice. Members receive car window clings and our quarterly publication, Wild and Free. Members at the $50 level or higher are entitled to a 10% discount on CWHF merchandise. Click here for a membership form or to donate online.

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To see the bill be presented and passed go to: http://jones.house.gov/ and go the Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act. A big victory for the horses! Now on to the Senate. We are so very grateful to Governor Perdue, Currituck County; the Humane Society of the United States; Animal Welfare Institute; ASPCA; Wild Horse Preservation Campaign; Foundation for Shackleford Horses; Equus Survival Trust; all the legislators of both parties, and all the caring individuals who contacted their legislators to urge them to support this critical bill. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Karen H. McCalpin
Executive Director
Corolla Wild Horse Fund, Inc.
P.O. Box 361
1126 Schoolhouse Lane
Corolla, NC 27927
252-453-8002"

Adoption Program

In 1995, Secretary Betty McCain of the Department of Cultural Resources issued the following Proclamation: “The Corolla Wild Horses are one of North Carolina’s most significant historic and cultural resources of the coastal area.”      

Would you like to own a piece of history?

In compliance with the Currituck Wild Horse Management Plan, one of the ways the Corolla Wild Horse Fund manages the herd size is to make horses available for adoption.  We appreciate your interest in adopting one of the Colonial Spanish Mustangs of the Outer Banks.

Generally, yearling or younger fillies and gelded colts are available. Younger animals have a much easier time transitioning to a domestic lifestyle and the gene pool is less affected by their removal.  Stallions are available on a case by case by basis.

All horses are tested for EIA, vaccinated, wormed, halter broken, and qualify for registration with the Horse of the Americas’ Registry www.horseoftheamericas.com as Coloni-al Spanish Mustangs.

Adoption Requirements, Application, & Agreement

Please read the requirements and application very carefully before completing (click here).  A $100 deposit is required with the application and an additional $515 is due upon approval. Please note: The Corolla Wild Horse Fund, Inc., evaluates applications in the order in which they are received.

Offsite Breeding Programs

The Colonial Spanish Mustang is on the threatened breeds list of the American Livestock Breed Conservancy, with less than 5,000 horses globally.

Questions? Contact the CWHF at (252) 453-8002 or e-mail the herd manager, Wesley Stallings,

at herdmgr@corollawildhorses.com

100 Reasons to NOT Touch or Feed Our Wild Horses

Our current herd count is 100. That is about 30 short of the minimum we need to maintain the genetic diversity and physical health of the wild horses. It is about to get smaller.

Last night I got several calls regarding a stallion that was lying on a sand road in Carova (the northernmost development on the north beach). He had been in the area grazing all day but had been lying on Ocean Pearl Road for about an hour. The initial caller wasn’t too concerned at first because the horses lie down in the sand and rest all the time. What caused him the most concern was watching a woman walk right up to the stallion, scratch him on the forehead, and the stallion made no attempt to get up or show signs that he didn’t welcome the attention. That is not normal behavior for a wild animal. That is what convinced him that something was wrong with the horse.

Long story short – the stallion was not sick or injured - but he is going to have to be captured and removed from the beach anyway. Why? Because he clearly has no fear of humans. He has no fear of humans because it is most likely that he has been approached and or fed so many times that he accepts, and perhaps now looks for, attention from humans. Now this horse has become a danger to humans. If he isn’t already, he will now approach humans and demand to be fed. In 2006 we removed another young stallion because he approached a resident out for a walk, demanded to be fed, and knocked the woman down because she had nothing to give him. Luckily she was only severely bruised. Now he is a gelding awaiting adoption and can never return to the beach that was his home.

Last year we found a young mare dead by a canal. Necropsy results identified alfa toxin poisoning as the cause of death. The horse apparently ate moldy hay that some well meaning but misguided person put out for the horses.

We have only 100 horses. We cannot afford to lose a single horse from the already dwindling gene pool. IT IS AGAINST THE LAW IN CURRITUCK COUNTY TO APPROACH, PET, OR FEED A WILD HORSE. There are 100 good reasons for this.

The horses have a specialized diet that has kept them healthy for nearly five centuries. Our volunteers have found apples, carrots, celery, spinach and lettuce that is being left out or fed directly to wild horses. The other consequence of feeding is painful colic or death but that is another topic in itself.

The link to the Wild Horse Ordinance is on our home page. Spread the word. Save our wild horses. Respect the Wild Horse Ordinance.