Second Outer Banks wild horse dies after being struck by vehicle
A wild mustang died Saturday after being struck by a vehicle on the northern Outer Banks, the second deadly encounter betweens cars and horses in the last two weeks.
The horse, a mare in her teens named Cora Mae, was hit about 7:30 a.m. in what caretakers described as “a terrible accident” in Carova. The driver remained at the scene and notified authorities and the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, which manages the herd of about 100 wild horses in Currituck County. Officials didn’t release details about what happened, but horses often unexpectedly gallop out of the dunes and onto the unpaved roads and beaches of the four-wheel drive area.
The group’s veterinarian responded to the scene and determined Cora Mae had fractured her tibia in “multiple places,” said Meg Puckett, herd manager for the CWHF.
Cora Mae was “one of the top producing mares on the beach” and had a colt, Cosmos, last September, Puckett said. Cosmos was not yet weaned, but caretakers said he is old enough to survive on his own and was in the company of his father Saturday afternoon.
“He is still with his dad Surfer who will take excellent care of him as long as they stick together,” Puckett wrote in a Facebook post on the CWHF’s Facebook page. “We will be keeping a very close eye on him and will intervene if it seems like he’s struggling, but as of right now we are hopeful that he will acclimate just fine.”
Cora Mae was also mother to several other wild horses in recent years, including Liberty, Valor, Riptide and Bravo. Riptide lives at the CWHF’s rescue farm in Currituck after being removed from the beach in 2020 due to an infection.
“At four years old, he is our best ambassador/outreach horse, has been started under saddle, and we have plans to potentially breed him next year,” Puckett wrote on Facebook. “There is some comfort in knowing that Liberty, Bravo, and Cosmos are still in the wild and will hopefully sire their own foals in the coming years.”
The loss comes a little over two weeks after another horse was fatally injured by a vehicle on the beach.
On July 23, a 9-year-old stallion named Thicket was struck by a driver who left the scene and didn’t report the collision. The injured horse later had to be euthanized. Authorities are still looking for the driver, who left behind shards of plastic from a turn signal and pieces of a plastic fender.
Kari Pugh, kari.pugh@virginiamedia.com
