CURRITUCK, N.C. — Thicket, a 9-year-old Corolla Wild Horse, died Monday after being hit by a vehicle.
The Corolla Wild Horse Fund (CWHF) sent a staff person to check on the horse after receiving a call about him not moving for a while, according to a recent CWHF Facebook post. The staff person found Thicket unable to put any weight on his leg, unwilling to move and near shards of plastic from a vehicle.
The CWHF said they removed Thicket from the wild, sedated him and transferred him back to the CWHF farm on the mainland. Once there, they put him in a comfortable stall and gave him pain medication.
X-rays confirmed that Thicket's elbow was fractured and he had significant cuts on his shoulder and face, according to the CWHF. The height and location of the injuries was consistent with being hit by a vehicle.
The organization decided to euthanize Thicket due to the severity of his injuries and worries about his quality of life, said the CWHF in a Facebook post.
"Thicket was a young stallion in the prime of his life, and in the last year had obtained a harem of four mares," the CWHF said in their Facebook post. "It takes a lot of strength, maturity and good instincts to be a successful harem stallion. Not all of them are capable of it. We were so proud of him, and excited about the prospect of new foals. It’s a devastating loss for the herd, and heartbreaking for those of us who have watched Thicket grow up."
According to the CWHF Incorporated website, the organization's mission is "To protect, conserve, and responsibly manage the herd of Corolla wild horses (Bankers) roaming freely on the northernmost Currituck Outer Banks, and to promote the continued preservation of this land as a permanent sanctuary for horses designated as the State Horse and defined as a cultural treasure by the state of North Carolina."
They remind people on the 4x4 beach to be responsible, respectful and law abiding so no more of the endangered herd are harmed because of human irresponsibility, according to a CWHF Facebook post.
"We will probably never know who hit Thicket, or why they didn’t call 911 to report it so that we could have responded sooner," read the CWHF Facebook post. "We hope that it was truly an accident; that it wasn’t due to alcohol or reckless driving. But to be honest, we keep asking ourselves what kind of person could hurt a horse that badly and then just leave them there to suffer?"
