Archive for category: News

Are you an amateur photographer with great pictures
of the wild horses of the Currituck Outer Banks?

Have you always wanted to have your photography published?

Do you value the wild horses and want to support the
mission of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund?

If you answered Yes! to these questions, the annual CWHF Calendar Contest is for you!

Winning images will be selected by a panel of  independent judges, and the winners will be published in our 2016 calendar. Proceeds from the sale of the calendar support the CWHF mission to protect and preserve the wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs and the land on which they live.

The 2016 calendar contest is held now so that it can be available for purchase early in 2015. Every year our calendar becomes more an more popular, and every year we have more and more printed. Plan now to have your photography in the next calendar!

The Entry Form must be submitted with your image files. Submissions must be postmarked between May 1, 2014 and August 31, 2014.  Click here to download the 2016 Calendar Contest Rules and Entry Form. 

Today is my birthday. Let’s just say I’m old enough to be getting membership requests from AARP. It is said that with age comes wisdom but the older I get, the less I understand why it is so hard and sometimes impossible for some people to do the right thing.

The Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act mandates that the Corolla Wild Horse Fund can manage the wild herd that has lived on the Outer Banks for nearly 500 years, at the SCIENTIFICALLY recommended minimum of 120 to 130, with periodic introductions of mares from Shackleford Banks to try and reverse the Corolla herd’s current spiral into genetic oblivion. The only other remaining wild herd of Banker strain Colonial Spanish Mustangs left has been managed successfully at 120 to 130 since 1998 on Cape Lookout National Seashore/Shackleford Banks. Those horses live on 3,000 acres and the Corolla Horses have access to approximately 7,544. The Currituck Wildlife Refuge comprises 3,000 of the 7,544 acres available to the horses and our most recent aerial count documented only 8 horses on USFWS property.)

At issue is the United States Fish & Wildlife Service’s continued insistence that the herd size be managed at a maximum of 60. According to one of the nation’s leading equine geneticists and expert on feral horses, 150 is the number needed to maintain genetic diversity (once you have attained it) in a wild herd. Peer reviewed science has shown that the Corolla horses are not only highly inbred with extremely low genetic diversity, they are down to one maternal line. In contrast, the Shackleford Banks herd has three maternal lines.

On February 6, 2012, the United States House of Representatives did the right thing. They passed the Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act unanimously. The bill’s sponsor, Walter Jones, (R, NC) did the right thing by also ensuring that the bill had a good balance of bipartisan cosponsors as it moved to the Senate. Senator Kay Hagan (D, NC) sponsored the bill in the Senate. Governor Bev Perdue supported the bill. Our hopes were high, however, the bill languished in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee while USFWS and Ducks Unlimited worked behind the scenes to kill it, sending letters to committee members and the public containing false information. Congressman Jones, the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States, the Animal Welfare Institute, and others, all did the right thing and tried fervently to have Senator Hagan garner support for the Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act. The bill that is the only hope for the very horse that the state of North Carolina designated as one of their state symbols, was allowed to die in committee.

Begin Part II. Again, Congressman Jones did the right thing again and reintroduced the bill in the House of Representatives on January 3, 2013. It has since passed through the Natural Resources Committee and is awaiting a vote on the House Floor. The Senate will have another chance to do the right thing. It is the right thing to do to protect and conserve a rare and ancient breed that is already listed as critically endangered. It is the right thing to do to protect and conserve an animal whose centuries old ancestors’ bones are mingled with the sand all along the coast of the Outer Banks. It is the right thing to do to conserve and protect an animal that has peacefully and successfully co-existed with all other wildlife for nearly 500 years. Why is it so hard for our legislators in the Senate to do the right thing?

I don’t think there is a rational person in this country that wasn’t torn apart by what happened at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. When this type of unspeakable horror takes place it leaves just about everyone feeling helpless, with a deep need to reach out and do something, anything, to show how much you care. But what can be done?

Greg Becker of Palm Beach, Florida, is one of those people who wanted to do something. He reached out to us to ask if we could name a wild horse after Jessica Rekos, a horse lover who died that day. “Jessica loved everything about horses,” her parents, Rich and Krista Rekos said in a statement. “She devoted her free time to watching horse movies, reading horse books, drawing horses, and writing stories about horses.” When she turned 10, they promised, she could have a horse of her own. For Christmas, she asked Santa for new cowgirl boots and hat.

Our staff knew just the filly and now “Jessica” runs wild and free on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We hope that her family can find some small comfort in this knowledge.

 

During their Thanksgiving break, this group decided to give thanks by giving back!  While planning their recent trip to Corolla, Jena and Anthony Mazzio, Jon, Erica, Cindy and Rocco Parise, and Gina and Valerie Philippi contacted the Corolla Wild Horse Fund for a volunteer project that would benefit the wild horses. As frequent visitors to the area, this group understands involvement in protecting the horses’ habitat is necessary for their continued survival.   They showed up in force on Friday, November 23 to tackle the day’s work.  Supplied with trash bags and gloves, they combed several miles of the four wheel drive beach for hours collecting an impressive pile of trash that would otherwise become a hazard to the wild horses, visitors and vehicles.  Our dedicated Corolla Ocean Rescue came through with a plan to pick up all the trash that was collected that same afternoon.  A huge thank you goes out to this awesome group of volunteers!  Way to go!