Staff, supporters and fans of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund (CWHF), the non-profit devoted to managing the herd of wild horses known as Bankers who roam the Outer Banks in North Carolina, are mourning the loss of three special senior horses.
It began with the loss of Mocha, a mare who was spotted by contractors working on a home who contacted the CWHF on October 16. It was determined that the horse, who had spent much of her life living wild on the banks, wasn’t able to stand any longer and she was humanely euthanized by a veterinarian. According to a local news outlet she was buried in a quiet spot on the Banks.
Flint, Ruby and Danny in an older photo. (CWHF Facebook)
The group posted more details on its Facebook page, writing, “Mocha was very wild and rangy, blind in one eye, and tough as nails. She lived most of her life in the marsh and we didn’t see her too often. She was the kind of horse you feel guilty touching even after death, because she would have never wanted nor tolerated that in life. This morning there was a rainbow right over the spot where Mocha died. We’d like to think it was a thank-you for respecting her wildness and letting her live and die with the dignity she deserved, and a reminder to stay hopeful for the future of this herd.”
At the top of the post about the loss of Mocha, the author mentioned that the CWHF had been monitoring the aged stallion Flint as he was coming close to the end of his life. It was decided on October 23 that he was more “listless” than he’d been the week before. The stallion was caught and examined where the treating vets and staff discovered the horse no longer had any functional teeth and had a severe sinus infection. Flint was thought to be in his late 30s, perhaps 40, and everyone involved agreed that the best thing for this magnificent senior wild stallion was to be allowed to pass peacefully and he was euthanized. He was then laid to rest next to his son Danny.
Raymond was “the salt of the earth.” (CWHF Facebook)
And then on October 30 the organization had to made the same difficult decision about Raymond, a beloved wild mule who was in his 20s. According to the CWHF post Raymond had a small scrotal hernia that occluded the affected loops of his small intestine, making euthanasia the only choice.
“We believe that Raymond was in his late 20s. He was the offspring of a wild Banker mare and a donkey that lived with the herd before there was a domestic livestock ordinance in place. He was actually Raymond Jr (or maybe even Raymond III) ‒ his sire the donkey was the original Raymond. He was also known by locals as Jack, Rebel, Burrito, and probably a few other choice nicknames over the years.”
The CWHF have created a memorial wall on its website to honour this unique and beloved equine. “Finding the words that fully encapsulate Raymond’s extraordinary life and his place in our history is proving to be quite difficult,” the post on the virtual wall reads. “There will never be another one like him, and his death is the end of an era. He is the closing chapter on a way of life that does not exist here anymore. He was everything a Banker is supposed to be – resilient, adaptable, smart. He was truly the salt of the earth.”
The fact that all three of these equines were able to live their best lives in the wild, watched over by the caring humans who run the CWHF, is something to be grateful for ‒ as is being able to pass away peacefully and be laid to rest in the wildness of their home. As one post read on the group’s social media, “This is what we hope for every wild horse in the herd.”
