Official proposes rules on Outer Banks horse-watching tours

By: JournalNow Staff | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 05, 2009

COROLLA
There's talk along the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina about starting to regulate tour operators who guide visitors along beaches and back roads to see wild horses.

A Currituck County commissioner wants to meet with tour operators, residents and other officials, the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va. reported Thursday. Commissioner Vance Aydlett said he doesn't want to end the tours, but sees a need for some controls.

"I don't want to see it get to the point where all of a sudden they say, 'OK, let's cut it out entirely,"' said commissioner Vance Aydlett. "But turning people loose to run through those mud holes at 40 miles per hour is not a good thing."

Some ideas that have been proposed include designating specific tour areas and creating an easy system to report violations of whatever rules are created.

At least six companies operate tours to see a wild herd of about 100 horses that roam on about 12,000 acres of the northern Outer Banks. The horses are believed to be descended from Spanish mustangs.

The horses are a major tourist attraction in the summer months. While the organized tours are one way to see the animals, some visitors rent off-road vehicles and go off on their own, sometimes racing along roads instead of looking for horses.

The lack of rules worries one tour operator.

"It's going to get shut down," said Richard Brown, owner of Wild Horse Adventure Tours and supporter of strong rules for tour operators.

"Some of them don't care. They're going out there and make as much money as they can until they get rid of it completely."

Karen McCalpin, director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, said two more companies may seek tour permits this year.

"It's definitely lucrative," she said.

Most of the area is protected and secluded and the herd usually is seen in small groups of horses grazing in a yard or standing along a sandy road.

Tours range from a single vehicle to caravans of SUVs. In some cases, a lead vehicle takes a convoy along the beach through sunbathing tourists and into populated neighborhoods.

"It's a difficult thing to regulate," said Ben Woody, director of the Currituck County planning department.