Unique spot is common trait among Outer Banks wild horses. Be careful looking for it
Mysteries dating back centuries surround the wild horses on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, so it’s news that experts are reporting the discovery a unique physical trait shared by many of the animals.
It’s also a little funny. This special trait is on their butts, meaning those who linger for closer inspections might get horse kicked.
The Corolla Wild Horse Fund showed an example of such a spot, posting an unflattering rear-end photo of a horse named Riptide to Facebook on Tuesday.
“See the white hair at the base of Riptide’s tail? That’s a coat pattern called rabicano. It’s characterized by white hair at the top of the tail, and often white hairs around the flanks too,” the group wrote.
“Many of the Corolla horses have this patterning. In fact, we recently collected DNA samples from eight horses at the rescue farm to be used in a university study on the rabicano gene.”
Tourists interested in seeing the spot should be warned it’s illegal to go within 50 feet of the wild horses, due to their unpredictable nature. (They tend to kick and bite each other.)
DNA studies are ongoing with the herd, as experts try to unlock how the horses are related and where they came from in Europe. It’s believed the wild mustangs are descended from stock brought to the continent by Spanish explorers, according to National Geographic.
However, there is also evidence the herds include escaped farm horses and mules, and horses that made it to shore during one of the countless shipwrecks recorded off the Outer Banks.
McClatchy News reported in June that an ambitious DNA project is underway involving the nearly 100 wild horses on Corolla. Herd manager Meg Puckett says the Corolla Wild Horse Fund has started by mapping the family tree of each horse, but it intends to go much deeper.
“Right now, we’ve just thrown the net out. As we drag it in, we’ll learn more and more about what we’ve ‘caught.’ We are recording the percentage of Spanish, American and European blood in each horse. Spanish is highest in all of them, obviously,” Puckett said in June.
The nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund protects the herd roaming Corolla, including a farm that takes in horses removed from the wild for health reasons. Horses at the farm are included in the DNA study.
This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Unique spot is common trait among Outer Banks wild horses. Be careful looking for it."