The Chincoteague Pony
Virginia is composed of one hundred counties. Ninety-eight lie west of the Chesapeake Bay and are know as the Western Shore. Two counties, Northampton and Accomack, are east of the bay and feature the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Accomack is situated between Northampton County on the south and the state of Maryland on the north.
Chincoteague Island, the home of the Chincoteague pony, is a part of Accomack County, from which it is separated by a part of the bay. Chincoteague Island is divided by the [Chincoteague] Bay and the Atlantic Ocean into Chincoteague, Piney and Assateague Islands. The islands are thirty miles long and three miles wide at their longest and widest points. Piney Island is separated from Chincoteague by a very narrow inlet. Assateague lies east of Chincoteague and it is cut off from this island by an arm of the bay and is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.
In the early days of the settlement of the new world, Spain located a colony on the Eastern Shore of what is now Florida. The colony, feeling a great need of horses to make trips into the interior of this country, as well as for cultivating the land in the immediate vicinity of the colony, asked the Spanish government to supply its needs. Upon receiving this word it dispatched a ship load of ponies en route for this colony. The ship sailed from Palos, Spain. All went well with this transport until it was caught in a storm in the Atlantic Ocean off Assateague. The captain, seeking a place of safety, made for Chincoteague harbor. When about one-half mile off the coast, the crew was forced to abandon the ship, leaving the ponies to their fate. Many of the ponies were drowned, but the better swimmers and the more intelligent animals swam to the island. The ponies were pleased with their home in the new world and decided to form a colony on Chincoteague Island.
When once on the island they found themselves surrounded by a natural fence of bay and ocean water. The marsh grass offered plenty of pasture to the newcomers. The ponies were soon acclimated to the conditions of their newly found home.
The ponies are of superior intelligence, indicated by their wise foreheads and intelligent eyes. Their intelligence is much above that of the standard bred horse. In the beginning they were of an undesirable solid color of sorrel. After they were located by the white men, they were bred by better standard males and became more perfect in form and desirable in color.
As their new home was a low, marshy country they early learned that their health depended upon their being most of the time on foot. Other animals, inclined to spend much of their time lying on the damp ground, died, while the pony survived, having this natural instinct of protection. When they landed on the island, they found, when they went for their first drink, that the waters surrounding them were salty. They located early in the hills of Chincoteague pure springs of fresh water. When they became dry, on one of the outlying island, they found an arm of the sea must be crossed for water. Remembering their recent sea experience, they were cautious about going again to sea. The condition suggested their studying the tides. They soon found that the salty water dividing the islands was not always at the same depth. Waiting on the shore of the outlying islands for the tide to reach low water mark they, at the opportune time, waded the shallow water to the springs in the hills. Today when they wish to cross from one island to the other, they have been seen waiting for low tide and their judgment as to its being reached is never in error.
When the sea is running high and the high tides are being forced by the stormy sea upon the island, the ponies will not venture across the channels to the drinking springs. Rather than risk being carried to sea, they have been known to wait for days before they would undertake a trip to the drinking springs. The distance across the channel from Chincoteague to the mainland of Accomack County is about four miles. The ponies have never been known to undertake a trip across this wide and deep channel at either high or low tide.
For hundreds of year they have been interbred, each breeder selecting the better male and female. The effort to cross breed them has always proven a failure. They inherited from their foregoing parents a tendency to lie on the damp ground, from which they contracted rheumatism, which terminated in death, or they lost their ability to judge the tide, undertaking a passage across the channels on high tides, losing their life at sea. When cross-bred their hair is shorter than the native pony, which prevented their standing the cold winter in the open without shelter.
They run wild on the island during the entire year, feeding upon the marsh grass. During the coldest weather they are not driven to shelter nor fed. When the grass is covered with snow the ponies may be seen pawing away the snow and feeding upon the uncovered grass. When the drinking springs are covered with ice, the ponies break it with their front feet and quench their thirst.
In august of each year, a pony penning takes place. All the ponies from the island are rounded up. The unbranded colts are then branded with the initial of the owner by the use of a hot branding iron. This day has been highly advertised and draws a large crowd of sightseers and those interested in the sale and purchase of the Chincoteague ponies. Buyers are present from as far north as Canada and as far south as Florida. The number present at a pony penning ranges from one thousand to three thousand persons. From one hundred to two hundred ponies are sold to the various buyers. The price paid ranges from fifty to a hundred and fifty dollars, depending upon the age, weight and condition of the pony. Crates are constructed on barges and the sold ponies are driven aboard and are pulled by tugboats across the bay to Franklin City, Va. Here the ponies are placed in cars and shipped to their destination. For speed, endurance, longevity of life and beauty in form and color, the Chincoteague pony is beyond compare.