A North Carolina rider recently gave everyone a bad name when he hit a horse in the Outer Banks. He was arrested after fleeing the scene, but the animal had to be euthanized due to its injuries.
The rider, 57-year-old Porter Williamson from Virginia, was charged with resisting and obstructing and is being held on a $10,000 bond. The other passenger involved, Rhonda Williamson, is looking at similar charges and a $5,000 secured bond.
The horse was a 10-year-old stallion named Bullwinkle. Meg Puckett, herd manager at the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, said, “It’s tragic but sometimes accidents happen. When it’s things that could be prevented, especially when it’s caused by reckless driving or people not following the laws or whatever it is, it just makes it so much worse.”
Puckett’s concern is that the horse’s death could impact the herd for years to come. “If you think about the number of foals he could’ve eventually sired, and then the number of foals and then on and on and on, you’re talking generations and generations of loss,” they said. The beach-combing horses are considered an endangered breed, with only around 200 left between two Outer Banks locations.
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