Wild horse found wearing a ladder around its neck on Outer Banks, NC photos show

One of the majestic wild horses roaming North Carolina’s Outer Banks was discovered wearing a ladder like a bib and the odd sight got even stranger when people started following her around.

How the ladder got there remains a mystery, but the Corolla Wild Horse Fund learned of the predicament around 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 23, photos show.

“We received a call that there was a horse with a ladder around her neck. Three of our staff were very close by and found her immediately (she was pretty hard to miss), and several residents had also seen her and came to help,” according to Meg Puckett, who manages the herd for the nonprofit fund.

“At first we thought maybe if she dropped her head down the ladder would slide off, but every time it hit the back of her ears she would understandably fling her head back up. Luckily she wasn’t all that bothered by it so at least we didn’t have to worry about her panicking and hurting herself or her foal. One of the characteristics of this breed is that they are very level-headed and not reactionary, and this mare was a good example of that today.”

So how do you get a ladder off a wild mare who is also a defensive new mom?

In this case, the rescuers found success by waiting it out, Puckett said.

“We spent about an hour trying to get her into a position where we could get close enough to pull it off but didn’t have any luck with that plan — she was too fast and there is just too much wide open space (this was one of the few times when that is a bad thing!),” Puckett said.

“But we got lucky when she dropped her head to graze at one point and the ladder slipped down over one ear. We all held our breath and thank goodness it fell the rest of the way off. Everyone in the surrounding houses who had been watching from their decks cheered, and so did we. The ladder was retrieved and both the mare and the foal are just fine.”

As for how the ladder got around her neck, Puckett speculates it was leaning against a house and “she stuck her head through it reaching for grass on the other side.”

Countless people saw the horse’s predicament on social media, igniting concerns and a few jokes that maybe the mare was just accessorizing.

“They are so unlike other horses. She was far more irritated with us chasing her around than she was with the ladder. I think she would have completely adapted to wearing it forever if she had to,” Puckett noted.

There are about 100 wild mustangs in the Corolla herd and they are tended by the nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund which uses donations to protect the horses and tend to their medical needs.

This story was originally published May 24, 2025 at 7:09 AM.