The End Of The Beginning

Several years ago it sunk in to me that the long term chances of survival of the Colonial Spanish mustangs of the Outer Banks of North Carolina were quite bleak. Not long after that an old stallion at Corolla was captured because he was in poor condition and was getting out into the highway.

It took quite a while to get him healthy but it took no time to get him gentle. I named him Croatoan, for one of the tribes/villages near the Lost Colony.

Of course, everyone knows that a teenage wild stallion could never be tamed or trained, especially not well enough for children to ride. But on the other hand look at those pictures of Croatoan. (I don't know how to work photo shop.)

He was the first stallion in the Corolla off site breeding program and he produced, Mokete the first foal born to that program. Over the years he remained sound and I retired him to a pasture with Hickory Wind to produce another foal for the program.

He was kind,regal,gentle and incredibly smooth to ride.

He was also old. And Monday night he moved on. I have his daughter and another one of his daughters is just up the road. Though he is dead his lineage will continue to run through the offsite breeding program.

Kay Kerr's children's book about him will be out this spring. She was working on the illustrations when he died Monday night. 

I do not know if our program would have gotten off of the ground without him but I do know that one of you reading this post will be the 150,000 view of this blog.

Maybe one of you will end up owning some of his progeny.

Maybe one of you will become a satellite breeding operation for the effort to prevent the extinction of these horses.