E63 Naturally Scott Adventures – Colonial Spanish Mustangs & the Wild Horses of Corolla 🐎🌊

Welcome to another edition of Naturally Scott Adventures, where Scott Harris takes you into the field to experience some of North America's greatest wildlife spectacles, iconic species, and wild places.

In this episode, Scott heads to the remote beaches of Corolla in North Carolina's Outer Banks to spend time with one of the most fascinating populations of wild horses in America: the Colonial Spanish Mustangs. 

For more than 500 years, legend holds that these remarkable horses have survived along this isolated stretch of coastline after Spanish ships wrecked offshore. Whether every detail of the story is true or not, the horses themselves are very real—and absolutely unforgettable. 

Scott shares stories from multiple visits to the Outer Banks, including close encounters with stallions, mares, and foals, sunrise moments on empty beaches, and why these horses have become one of his favorite wildlife experiences anywhere in North America. 

In this episode:

🐎 The legend of the Colonial Spanish Mustangs
 🌊 Wild horses living along the beaches of the Outer Banks
 ☀️ Sunrise encounters in Corolla and Carova
 📸 The best ways to experience the horses responsibly
 🐻 Nearby wildlife opportunities at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
 🦅 Osprey, bald eagles, dolphins, and other coastal wildlife
 ✨ Why some wildlife experiences stay with us for a lifetime

Part history, part adventure, and part wildlife story, this episode explores one of the most unique natural experiences on the East Coast.

👉 Stay up to date and get bonus content here: https://naturallyscott.kit.com/5fd12c6752

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, this is the Naturally Scott Podcast, and I'm your host, Scott Harris. I gotta tell you, I love being your host. This is just such an amazing gig to have. And now that we've kind of modified our schedule a little bit, we're we're alternating weeks between a human guest and then focusing on either an animal or a location or a bird. I think it's a neat mix. And frankly, I think going from an hour to a half hour has done a lot for uh making the show even stronger and better. So we are more now about storytelling uh than we were, and I don't regret any of the shows we did, um, but I'm loving the direction we're going in. Now, this is the second of what we're calling Naturally Scott's adventures, um, which are my adventures, where I'm going out and uh trying to visit places and see things and experience stuff and then bring them and share them with you. In addition to the podcast, I'm doing that through an upcoming book called American Safaris, where I'm highlighting 25 places around the country where if you go at the right time in the right place, you can see some magical natural things, some wildlife spectacles. Um, but this is the second one we've done. The first one was on snow geese, and this one is on colonial Spanish Mustangs. And I have to tell you, uh, they are absolutely remarkable. Now, if you're listening to the show and not watching, right about now, my producer Frank Sierra is going to throw up a video, and the video is absolutely stunning. And I don't say that to be mean to people who aren't watching, but if you get a chance and you can go to YouTube or go to Apple or the places where the videos play, you got to do that because there's going to be some great videos and some great photos in all of these Naturally Scott adventures. And while they're not required for enjoying the podcast, or at least I don't believe so, I think it's still a positive thing to do. So let me set the scene uh for this video that was just showing. Um, these are the outer banks of North Carolina. It was December and it was cold out. And it was uh just north of a town called Corolla. Uh, there's an area called Corova, um, and it is an 11-mile stretch of beach. It's the last 11 miles of North Carolina. As a matter of fact, at the end of that beach, at the end of the 11 miles, you run up against a fence that the state of Virginia has put up. That's the state line. And so you have this area, about 7,500 acres, no roads. It's all four-wheel drive required. There are some residential uh uh uh homes out there, but there's no businesses, nothing commercial, nothing industrial, nothing retail. And um, so it is the couple hundred homes that are out there, and then these remarkable horses uh that we're going to talk about. So when you arrive, you go through, you're taking highway 12, you come out on the other side of Corolla, which is really the last town, and now you you you drop down into four-wheel drive, and there's an incline going up, a tiny incline, it's not a big deal, but you go up this incline, and for a bit you can't see anything. And then as the truck levels out on top and you look down, you're looking out over the beach and over the Atlantic Ocean, and it is stunning. Now, on this particular day, uh, where that video was when that video was taken, um, there were just two of us on the entire beach, uh, myself and Frank Sierra. Now, you've heard Frank's name come up before. Frank's the producer on the show, and um, which is great. I think he does a marvelous job. Um, but more important than that, Frank has been my best friend since 1969. We go back a long way and we shared a lot of adventures, and this was one of them. And it was really a special day. As a matter of fact, the next day we went to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and saw the black bears, which will be an upcoming Naturally Scott Adventures. But today we're focused on the colonial Spanish Mustangs. So we arrived before dawn. It was it was dark out, a little bit of pre-dawn light, we're filled with hope and anticipation and excitement. I'd been before and I'd seen them before. Frank had not. So this was really even more exciting for him. As we crest that hill and we come down into the beach, and um we start to work our way up the beach. So you're heading north now toward Virginia along this 11-mile stretch, and you're driving right on the beach. You can go into the surf if you want. It's it's really quite amazing. But as we're doing this, we get oh less than a mile onto our trip, um suddenly there are three horses. And um, these are colonial Spanish Mustangs, and they are standing in the surf. I mean, the waves are slapping against their legs, and the sun is this beautiful gold um coming up and glistening off the water. The water looks like it's all twinkle lights, and and the and the the horses are silhouetted because you're looking into the sun, um, but no less beautiful because of that. Now, these are not huge horses. These horses are about five feet tall, they've got short backs, but they've got deep chests, and they're survivors. Um, they are amazing. And so, what I want to share with you is this there are a couple of legends or myths about these horses. And as with a lot of legends and myths, we've reached a point in our society where we're trying to get rid of as many of these as we can. I'm gonna tell you the two that are involved with these horses, and then I'm gonna tell you that I believe in them, that I've chosen to believe in them. Um, in the way I imagine a child believes in Santa Claus. Um, it may prove one day to not be true, um, but it makes my life more joyful to believe them. So these are the two, the legends and the myths. Number one, that these horses arrived in this country over 500 years ago, and they came as a result of a couple of Spanish ships sinking in the 1500s in the 16th century off the Atlantic seaboard. And uh a couple of the sailors on board, these horses were down below in the hold, and a couple of the sailors said, let's give them a fighting chance as we're sinking. They unlocked and let the horses go. And some of these horses swam to shore and managed to make it and survive, and have now survived for half a millennium. Um, there aren't a lot of them. There's roughly 100 to 110. The island is thought to be able to support about 130. But that is the legend, the myth of how they arrived there. And it might very well be true, by the way. Uh, it was believed for a long time, and some still believe it. I am among them. Now, the other thing about these horses is that it is thought that they are the last purebred colonial Spanish Mustangs existing. The science is slowly changing on that. Some of the people now call them bankers. They think they're related to other horses um on the eastern seaboard, and maybe they are. Um, but again, I like to think uh that they're the last of their breed, uh these noble beasts, and that they swam on shore a half a millennium ago. But no matter what you believe, no matter how they got there, no matter if they have cousins in Florida or South Carolina, um, what we do have is a hundred-plus very hardy mustangs that live in this really difficult area to live in. Um, it is constantly a struggle for them to find food. They eat sea oats and acorns and wax myrtle leaves. Fresh water is a challenge. They're sometimes reduced to drinking out of puddles that um that have formed around uh through the acreage, sometimes in literally entire ruts. Um, but they just keep fighting. Hurricanes hit this area with some regularity, as do massive storms. Um, when Frank and I were there in December, we watched as a house was collapsing into the ocean, which a number of them have unfortunately done recently. Climate change is changing the way the ocean acts, and mankind is really powerless to stop it. So you have these horses struggling to live. When the big storms hit, by the way, the locals call it butts to the wind. The Mustangs turn their butts to the wind and allow their rear end to take the brunt of the storm and they survive it. Um, and it is it is a remarkable thing to see and a remarkable thing to be a part of. Now, you're there in the morning, you're the only ones there, and you're watching this, and now the sun's slowly rising. And as we left those three alone, because you don't want to bother them too much, um, but you've been looking at some pictures that we took while we were there, you continue along the 11 miles, and at one point there was a single stallion that came. Now there are sand dunes that are raised up that are maybe a hundred feet, 150 feet from the shore, no more than that. And they raise up pretty good, you know, 20, 25 feet. And this particular morning there's a single stallion, a beautiful stallion, and it comes and it stands at the top of this sand dune, and it's there by itself right now. In this case, um, we are between it and the sun. So we're looking right at it, and the colors are glistening, and this animal standing there, and it's hard not to use the word proud. I mean, it's looking at Frank and I, it's looking at my truck, and it's just, it's just this is its beach. It owns the beach. And it comes down to the beach and it marches down and it looks around a little bit and it's looking at us, and suddenly for reasons known only to it, um, and maybe that's fine. That is the only one that knows, it takes off running, it's kicking its back legs to the sky, it is just full of piss and vinegar, and we're getting to watch this. Now, it might very well have been a signal to the mare and foals because then they came over the hills um and followed this stallion down, um, the foals staying close to the mare. And these hundred-110 Mustangs that are out there, they break up into small herds scattered along the 11 miles. So they just naturally form uh these herds. The the teenage stallions are kicked out of their herd, so they go find another one or live by themselves for a while until they can gather up their own mare and create their own foals. Um, so you have these little pockets of horses along the way. And it is just great to see watching the mama and the foals. You know, we'll be showing some pictures during this of uh of one of the horses lying down um on the wet sand with another one standing next to it. There's one where there's an empty chair and a fishing pole and a horse standing next to it. There'll be some shots of mamas and babies that are just saying there'll be some other videos of the horses going against the dunes. You're gonna see all of this if you're able to watch. Um, but if not, just try to imagine, just close your eyes for a moment and imagine a brisk, not bitterly cold, but a brisk morning. Imagine the sun slowly rising and the ocean glistening. And there are other animals out there as well. There's white-tailed deer, there's coyote for the birders among us, and I'm certainly one of those. You've got osprey, and you've got bald eagles, um, and you've got gulls because you've always got gulls. You've got shorebirds like sanderlings and different things, and you've got bottlenose dolphins, which always, always, always um add to the beauty of a moment, whether it's down in Florida off the Sebastian Inlet watching osprey, and there's bottlenose dolphin, or whether you're on the west coast and looking for humpback or gray whales or elephant seals and the dolphins are playing. It is hard to imagine seeing those things and not enjoying them. So they bring another level to this. Now, these these animals are amazing because the times that I've experienced them on the beach, and I've I've been there a number of times, they are fairly standoffish. They don't really want anything to do with people. Which sometimes is difficult for them. In the summer, it's almost painful to be there in the summer. The tour groups come out and they've got these big Humvees uh with two benches in the back and they pack 12 people in there in their tree, tracking down these animals on the beach. And as soon as one of them, one of the tour guides, finds some horses, they radio or cell phone or walkie-talkie or whatever, but they contact the others. And then pretty soon there might be eight or ten of these things. So there could be a hundred people um, you know, making noise and taking pictures, and they stay a respectful distance, the trucks do, but nonetheless, it it generally disturbs the animals and and they'll head back inland. Whereas when you're there by yourself, if you get there early or late, um and and there's very, very few people out on the beach, you you're able to get a little bit closer and spend some time. And the horses don't seem stressed and they don't seem nervous, and there's not a lot of ancillary noise going on as long as you're staying quiet and you get to watch the animals and feel that you're a part of their world. But another way to do that, and again, winter is better than summer, in my view, just because of the the sheer number of people that aren't there, the number of the residents are summer only. A huge percentage of the guests and visitors are summer only. So in the winter, again, Frank and I went and spent a few hours inland. We never saw another human being. But what we did see uh were three of the Spanish Mustangs. Now you're asked to stay, I think it's 50 feet, it might be 100 feet, but you're definitely asked to stay away from the Mustangs. And there are fines for not doing that. So when Frank and I found these, we we each took our different positions on on how we wanted to shoot, where we wanted to shoot. I was uh in kind of a crook of a tree, if you will, at about the four foot level. There were two huge branches that went out from this tree, and I was standing in between them. And one of these horses noticed me and just started walking toward me and just kept walking. I'm clicking away, taking pictures, but there's nowhere for me to go. There's nowhere for me to avoid the horse. And pretty soon the stallion comes and it's pressing up against me. It backs me up against the trunk of the tree, not super aggressively, but very clearly making its its desires known. And then it started to smell my hand, and you know, Frank was snapping some pictures and we're watching us, and now one of the mares comes over and joins. So now I'm backed up against this tree by a stallion and a mare, and you know, you can feel the hot breath and and you can smell the horses, and they're they're literally touching you and licking you and mouthing you. And while I'm trying to respect the rules, in case anybody from the uh Corolla Wildlife or Wild Horse Foundation is watching, there's nothing I can do once I'm backed up against that tree, except frankly enjoy it, uh, which is what I did. And I just had the most spectacular time. And uh, and then Frank got to enjoy that as well, uh, which was really, really pretty cool. Now, the one thing you do get in the summer that you don't get other times of year is loggerhead sea turtles. You've got to be careful, they mark them off. You know, it's a dangerous thing to have people around the eggs and stuff. Um, but nonetheless, uh that is an advantage of being there in the summer. And of course, you don't get as many storms and it doesn't get quite as cold. You can get some pretty good storms in the outer banks in the winter. Um, but it is worth it. In my opinion, it's worth it. Now, a couple other things. If you're there, only about an hour away is the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Nothing to do with the wild Mustangs, but it is the best place on the East Coast to see black bears, and you can see them year-round. More in June than any other month, but you can see them year-round. It's the only place in the country, the only place in the world, I believe, that still has red wolves. There are about 25 or 30 that live in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. We've seen them. Matter of fact, Frank and I saw them on this trip, and um that's a spectacular thing. There are a handful of alligators there. There's a number of birds. Uh, you can see barred owls during the day. Uh, there are river otters. So that is a really neat trip to add in if you're going to go up to Corolla and you're going to go see these Spanish Mustangs. Now, just last week, I was out in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona working on a couple chapters for that book I mentioned called American Safaris. And one of the chapters I was working on was wild mustangs. Now, these Mustangs are different than the colonial Spanish Mustangs. These Mustangs are Old West Mustangs, if you will. Again, they might be kissing cousins. Um, you know, they're doing DNA tests and whatnot to find out exactly who's related to you. Um, but they are out there and they're in some pretty large numbers. I found in my experience and my trips out there that the best place to see them is a place called Washoe Lake State Park in Nevada, which is just outside of Reno, maybe a half hour outside of Reno. And if you get there at dawn and you go to the south part of the state park, or you go to the, they've got uh an area out there that's marshland preservation, but there are trails that you can walk through. And um I went three mornings in a row last week, and each morning there were 40 or 50 Mustangs out there, and they're just beautiful. And and I will tell you, um, you know, I saw the colonial Spanish Mustangs, I watched as they were um, you know, kicking up and running around a little bit. But these wild mustangs out in the open prairies and stuff on the west to watch them run around is is a pretty cool thing. But back to ours with our with our legends and our myths and our beliefs and these horses, as you've seen with the pictures, um, they are just beautiful, beautiful animals. They are protected in all ways possible. Um, you are asked to stay a distance away from them. You're asked to never feed them. There's an instinct in humans, I guess, to feed uh deer and different ungulates, to feed them apples and carrots. Uh, this is not good for their digestive tract. They're not used to it. Obviously, some people do, or those two wouldn't have pinned me against a tree. Um, clearly somebody was feeding them. Um, but you do want to you do want to make sure to to take care to stay away from them as far as you can and to not feed them anything. But you can get relatively close. You can get 50 feet, 75 feet away and you can enjoy them. And there is just something about it. I've been asked a number of times of the things I've seen in nature, uh, what my favorite things are, and that's hard. It changes. It's like what's your favorite band, or you know, who's your favorite artist? Um, that changes. But if I was forced to answer today, I would tell you that the three most spectacular things that I have seen in nature are humpback whale breaching in Monterey Bay in California or in Alaska. There's just something about that that is awe-inspiring and reminds us how tiny we actually are. Um, and I absolutely love that. Watching bison in the winter in Yellowstone in the snow is something that just fills my soul. Um, and actually, you know what? Frank and I did that a year and a half ago. Um, and so we were able to share that. And we'll be doing a show about that too. Um, but there's something. And then the other is this is the colonial Spanish Mustangs, the half millennium surviving from Spanish galleons in the last 110 purebred survivors to watch them on the beach in the surf with the sun rising. There is just something about that uh that you need to get out and see. You need to get out and do. And in the end, if eventually science proves that they've got cousins and that they actually came up from Florida and not off Spanish galleons and that they're not the last surviving uh purebreds, or maybe they're not purebreds at all, I don't think it really matters. I think it's a neat thing to believe, and these animals are beautiful and regal enough that it it helps with those beliefs. It certainly helps me. If you've got questions about any of this, I'm gonna throw my email up on the screen. But my email is scott at naturaliscott.com. I would love to hear from you. Share experiences that you've had with these horses or others, or just other wildlife stories that you think maybe I should cover or get out and do. I would love to. If you are watching on YouTube, do me a favor and hit subscribe. Every time you do, YouTube sends these videos out uh to more and more people. And the more people that see them, I think the better it is for conservation and nature and awareness. And I love doing that. You want to drop a comment or hit like, so much the better. And as I say every time, get outside. Get outside as often as you can. Your back porch, your front yard, your local park, the town of Corolla in the northern uh in the outer banks of northern North Carolina, whatever it is you're doing. And every time you do, when you're outside, I ask two things of you. Number one, stay safe and stay curious. Thank you so much for watching today. I hope you enjoyed the show. I hope you get an opportunity one day to see these amazing animals. And either way, I'd love to hear from you. I'd love your thoughts on what we're doing and what else you think we should be doing. Thanks so much. Have a great day. I'm Scott Harris. This is Naturally Scott, special edition Naturally Scott Adventures.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

You've been listening to Naturally Scott with Scott Harris. Naturally Scott is hosted by Scott Harris, produced by Justin Harris, directed and edited by Frank Sierra. Follow us on our YouTube channel at Naturally Scott and Instagram at Naturally Scott Harris. If this conversation resonated with you, please follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Naturally Scott thanks you for viewing and listening to this podcast.