I few weeks ago I received an email from Fred Hurteau of http://www.ncwildhorses.com/. Several years ago Fred had joined me for a Wild Horse Safari here along the Crystal Coast. We developed a friendship. It seems Fred had a charter credit left-over from a cancelled trip with Capt. Monty Polling of https://www.seavisions.net/. He wondered if I’d like to join him and his wife Millie for a visit with the wild horses. I took a look at my schedule and it worked out that I was available for one of the days they’d be here. That particular day a half-day afternoon trip was planned to visit the wild horses living in the Rachel Carson Reserve. The reserve is directly across from Beaufort, North Carolina, separated from the quaint sea village by Taylor’s Creek.

We met at the Beaufort Yacht basin on a warm, early winter afternoon and loaded our gear aboard the Calico Jack II. I hate to admit it but I hadn’t been over to visit the horses in over a year and a half. My schedule and Capt. Monty’s hadn’t really sync’d anytime during that period and I hadn’t put the kayak in the water for quite some time. It was good to get back over to observe and photograph these magnificent animals.

In the Spring through early Fall it is not unusual to find most of the herd together. During the late Fall and Winter, however, they tend to break out into smaller, “family” groups. This can make it a little more challenging to locate them but with some knowledge of their habits and favorite winter feeding areas it would be a rare to not be able to find at least a few of the horses. Monty and I were in general agreement as to where we should start our search and we were rewarded by finding a few of these lovely equines. As the afternoon progressed we were able to locate three different groups of horses.

If you’d like to visit and photograph the wild ponies living along the Crystal Coast, Captain Monty offers a number of charter options. You can reach him via the website link above. If you’d prefer, it can be arranged to have me come along to help provide a photographer’s perspective to photographing the horses. You can drop me a line via this site’s contact page, or let Capt. Monty you’d like to include me to help guide and provide some input on creating compelling photos of the horses.

Below are a few photos from the recent outing. Let me know what you think and thanks for stopping by.