Goofy wild horse on NC coast is a prankster that enjoys playing dead, video shows

The coastal wild horses of North Carolina are known for being majestic and occasionally violent, but at least one has a bit of prankster in its mysterious DNA.

Little Star, as the “banker” horse is known, has a mischievous habit of appearing to be dead.

The Corolla Wild Horse Fund learned this the hard way, after repeatedly finding the horse laid out in a pasture.

A video catching the horse in the act was posted Dec. 20 on Facebook, where it has been viewed thousands of times.

“She’s always done it but it’s still completely disconcerting every time we see her like this,” the fund wrote in the post.

“All winter long you’ll hear us randomly hollering ‘Star!’ just to make sure we still get an ear twitch or an annoyed glance in our direction.”

This is apparently the way Little Star prefers to sleep, according to Meg Puckett, manager of the fund’s herd of 100-plus wild mustangs.

Horses of all breeds “have a ligament in their hind legs that locks,” allowing them to nap while standing, she says. And they’ll gracefully recline if deeper sleep is required.

But Little Star is different.

“Little Star ... enjoys sleeping like a beached whale in the sun during the winter,” Puckett says. “We are glad Little Star feels comfortable enough with us to sleep like this every day, even if it does routinely give us a heart attack.”

Little Star lives at a coastal farm operated by the fund that tends to horses removed from the wild for health or safety reasons. She was taken there in 2017 with a small group removed from Dews Island in the Currituck Sound, Puckett says.

The Outer Banks horses are believed to be descended from mustangs brought to North America 400 years ago by early colonists. The Corolla Wild Horse Fund tends to horses that roam the northern end of the island chain and is taking DNA samples to unravel their mysterious lineage.

Much about the horses’ survival techniques remains a mystery, including the places mares disappear to when giving birth.

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This story was originally published December 22, 2023 at 8:09 AM with the headline "Goofy wild horse on NC coast is a prankster that enjoys playing dead, video shows."