Wild Horses of North Carolina's Outer Banks Will Ride Out Hurricane Dorian 'Butts to the Wind'

Georgia Slater
Wild Horses of North Carolina's Outer Banks Will Ride Out Hurricane Dorian 'Butts to the Wind'

The wild horses of North Carolina’s Outer Banks are prepared to ride out Hurricane Dorian, like they have done for years.

The now Category 3 storm is making its way up the coast after devastating the Bahamas, and while parts of South Carolina and North Carolina are under evacuation, CNN reports, the colonial Spanish mustangs of the Outer Banks aren’t going anywhere.

According to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, which oversees the herd, the horses are able to sense the storm from a change in air pressure and know exactly what to do when it approaches: move to higher ground and group together under sturdy trees.

“They’ll likely ride out winds and rain as their ancestors did before them — in huddles, butts to the wind,” the organization told CNN, who added the horses have already begun grouping together.

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The herd manager will be staying at the farm through Dorian, the Fund added. The farm has already stocked extra hay, grain and water for the horses should they need the supplies during the storm.

Getty
Getty

Just in case, all the horses have been ID-ed, with their tags braided into their manes.

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“Remember, they’ve been doing this for 500 years!” the Fund said.

The dozens of wild horses in the state practiced the same procedure during Hurricane Florence in 2018.

Jo Langone, COO of Corolla Wild Horse Fund told PEOPLE at the time that “a day before or even a half day before a storm, [the horses] know they need to be out of wide open space if we have high winds coming and heavy rains. They’ll take protection in forest areas or in the marsh, and hunker down. Sometimes they’ll group together because they block off bad weather from each other.”

She added that once the high winds and rains cooled down, the horses came out from the trees safe and sound.

“Once it alleviated, the horses started coming out and grazing where they normally would,” she said. “They weren’t affected for that long!”