First foal of the season born to Outer Banks wild horses

Spring has officially arrived on the Outer Banks with the first foal of spring spotted back in the marsh in Carova.

The light brown filly, Dove, was born sometime last week and appears to be thriving, caretakers said.

Meg Puckett, herd manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, said the filly is believed to be this year’s first baby born to the herd roaming the northern beaches of the Outer Banks.

Dove is the granddaughter of Amadeo, a blind stallion beloved by his caretakers at the horse fund’s rescue farm for more than two decades before his death in 2020.

With tourist season getting underway, Puckett said the new foals and their families need space. Between four and six foals are born to the wild horses each year, and the herd now numbers less than 100 horses.

“We cannot afford to lose horses due to human-caused problems,” Puckett wrote in a post on the Corolla Wild Horse Fund’s Facebook page. “They face so many challenges to their survival that are beyond our control ... so please do not make survival even more difficult by not following the rules and behaving disrespectfully.”

County law states that everyone must stay at least 50 feet away from the horses and petting and feeding them is illegal. Yet every day during the tourist season, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund fields calls and messages about people breaking the rules.

Puckett says those who see a foal and family should not “park and sit right on top of them, and do not circle around and around them.”

“Crowding them stresses out the adults and it habituates the foals during a very critical time in their development,” Puckett wrote. “The adults can also be very territorial and protective, and by getting too close you are putting yourself in serious danger.”

Kari Pugh, kari.pugh@virginiamedia.com