Stubborn as a mule: Wild horse herd’s ‘Raymond’ causes travel lane trouble

Raymond the mule [Photo courtesy Corolla Wild Horse Fund]

The wild horses of the northern Outer Banks count an old mule among the herd, and last night he showed just how stubborn he can be.

Raymond is at least 20 years old and the product of a wild mare and a donkey loose from a nearby farm. Though he can’t reproduce, he’s legendary for claiming harems and being an all around wild man.

On Saturday night, Corolla Wild Horse Fund herd manager Meg Puckett got a call from the Currituck County Sheriff’s Office about a small horse, possibly a foal, lying down in the middle of the south-bound lane of travel on the beach.

“I said it’s probably Renzi, he likes to do that, and asked if there was a deputy close by who could check it out,” Puckett wrote in a Facebook post.

She hung up and waited anxiously for a call back.

Here’s how the follow up played out:

“Well, it’s not a foal. It’s the…jackass.”

“Oh my god! Is he dead???”

She started laughing. “No, he just won’t get up.”

“Does he seem injured?”

“No, they say he looks fine, just won’t get up.”

After horns, sirens, yelling and a police dog barking at him, “he eventually got up and wandered back across the dunes, completely nonplussed by the commotion, and my nerves,” Puckett wrote.

“Thanks for the reminder to never let the man get you down (or up, I guess), Raymond. That was a good laugh that we all definitely needed.”

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Kari Pugh is digital director for OBXToday.com, Beach 104, 99.1 The Sound, 94.5 WCMS and News Talk 92.3 WZPR. Reach her at kpugh@jammediallc.com