The Outer Banks are the islands off the coast of North Carolina, separated from the mainland by the Atlantic Ocean. The open beaches, state parks, and lighthouses make the Outer Banks a famous vacation destination. Today I am going to share my wild horse adventure tour in Corolla, NC.

If you google for a wild horse tour, you may find so many tours. But who is the best? Compared with the reviews and their website, I decided to go with Wild Horse Adventure tours. I have 3 reasons for choosing this tour company. First, they offer an open-air tour in a customized hummer. This 13 passengers open-air hummer give you more leg room, comfortable seats(the rear seats, not the bench seats) with the seat belt on(no safety concerns), and a better view for everybody. Second, I like their website, and I found all the information I need for the tour and all my questions had answers on the FAQ’s page. Last reason was their caring attitude for the wild horses. I read the Wild Horse History on their website. I could feel their passion for the wild horses, and they worked so hard to try to keep the horses free and safe in this area. OK, let’s take a look at my adventure.

Our tour time was 3:00 pm on Wednesday, Jun 11th, 2018. We checked in 30 minutes ahead the starting time, and went to sit in the Hummer 10 minutes before 3:00, then waiting for our tour guide to come. We were so excited about the adventure, so nobody noticed the time went by until the other Hummer started to take off, our driver still wasn’t here. 5 minutes later, a lady who was in the check-in office came to us, announced that our driver had a traffic problem on the road, she would be here a little bit late. She offered us snack bars and cold bottled water because it was getting hot outside. Finally, she showed up 10 minutes later and apologized about her later. I was surprised nobody complains at all. When we were on the road, she told us her name was Kelly, she came here after her college, and she had been doing the tour for four years now. When she asked where us from, my son said “Minnesota”.

“No way! You guys must be kidding me. I am from Minnesota too!” She was so excited and explained.

“Which part of Minnesota you from?” my husband asked.

“Mankato. You guys?”

“Rochester. We are not far away.” my son answered.

What a small world!

It took us about 15 minutes to get on the beach. We were so lucky to see four horses standing by the wave line. I was wondering why the horses not moving, Kelly explained that the horsed were sleeping. They loved the breeze from the ocean, so they liked to sleep by the water. She also told us that it was forbidden to feed and touch the wild horse, and people should stay away from the horses at least 50 feet away. While we were talking, the horses started to marching along the water line, toward the three people sitting in the beach chairs. Those three had to jump up to stay away from the horses because they seemed to like their beach chairs. They stopped few minutes, didn’t find anything interested them and walked away.

Kelly took us off the waterside to find more horses in the area where around people’s houses. Kelly told us the horses liked to hang around where people living because they could stay under the shadows when it was hot outside. She told us a funny story about a resident who found a wild horse standing in the shadow of his driveway in the morning on the way to work. He could do nothing by waiting for the horse left by its own. He had to call his boss for the absent of the work that day because nobody knew when the horse would leave. She also told us there was a baby horse that was born in April. If we were lucky we may see the baby horse. Here we go, the baby! Do you see the difference except for the size? The baby horse’s tail was much shorter than the adult horse. He was there with his mother.

While we were searching for the horses, we met other tour companies trucks. When I saw them sitting on the bench seats around the top of the truck, I told my husband I was so glad I chose the Hummer. Kelly drove us around the area, we saw few of the horses hiding in the shade of the bushes. Then she took us off the residents’ area, went to a wild area. That was the property of their company. The owner purchased the land to make it a protecting area for the wild horses. Then kept planting trees and bushes in there to keep it secure for the horses to live. Kelly also told us the half of the adventure tickets money went to support this private land. They were planning to purchase more space for the horsed in the future. I knew my feeling was right. These guys were doing this for their passion. They truly loved the wild horses and cared about them.

On the way back, Kelly took us back to a little pond one more time to see if the horses came out for a drink, and we saw so many wild horses in the pond, drinking and playing so peacefully.

What a beautiful ending of our adventure!