A days-old member of a herd of wild horses familiar to those who often gaze across Taylor’s Creek in Beaufort was removed from the Rachel Carson Reserve and taken to the state veterinary college hospital this week after she was observed showing signs of extreme illness.
North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve Central Sites Manager Paula Gillikin told Coastal Review Tuesday that the young filly had improved overnight after being transported Monday to the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine in Raleigh.
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Gillikin had observed and examined the female foal at the Rachel Carson Reserve. A consultation with the reserve’s local equine veterinarian convinced the staff to remove the horse for further examination and treatment.
“She wouldn’t have survived,” Gillikin said Tuesday. “And she was living in a family of horses that is always out on the waterfront. So, everybody was seeing her, and everybody knew she was already there. So, we had to do something quick.”
As of Tuesday, the young horse was still receiving plasma, fluids and antibiotics, “and she’s progressing as well as she can,” Gillikin said, adding that her hospital stay will probably last about four more days. “The vet at the vet school said that she has a good chance of surviving and making a recovery.”
But the foal will not be returned to the herd. Her exposure to humans and other factors rule out that option.
“Even if we put her back out there, which wouldn’t really be fair, after she experiences the cushy life, even if we tried to, her mother was not producing enough milk,” Gillikin explained.
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And word of the opportunity to adopt has already been spread among those potentially in the know.
“We have already put some feelers out through the vet school,” Gillikin said. “They’re circulating the word throughout the vet-med folks at the equine hospital. And then I’m going to start calling a couple folks.”
Meanwhile, vets are working to determine the causes of the filly’s distress, emergency care is being administered, and treatment options are being considered, the Division of Coastal Management said in a press release.
The division also extended its gratitude to the Cape Lookout National Seashore and the Town of Beaufort Police Department for their assistance with assessment and transport of the foal.
The wild horses at the reserve were brought here in the 1940s and eventually became wild, according to the division.
“The horses are valued by locals and tourists alike as a cultural resource and symbol of wildness and freedom,” according to the press release, which noted that the herd subsists primarily on saltmarsh cordgrass and digs for fresh water. “The wild horse herd is continually monitored by Reserve staff and volunteers with minimal management to maintain the wildness of the herd. The Division intervened in this case because of the extreme signs of distress and the very young age of the foal.”
Officials also asked the public to help protect the horses and their safety by maintaining a distance of at least 50 feet, or about the size of a large bus. A much larger distance is recommended for viewing the horses’ natural behaviors and protecting them from disturbance.
