By Misty Thornton
Each year thousands of pony lovers arrive on the island of Chincoteague, Virginia the last week in July just to wrap their eyes around the famous Chincoteague ponies, many for a whole week full of fun and sight-seeing.
The Saltwater Cowboys, almost as famous as the Chincoteague ponies, begin their work on Saturday, the week before Pony Penning, with the roundup of the southern herd. Then, on Sunday they move to the northern range at the tip of the Virginia side of the island to round up the larger herd of around 100 ponies plus foals. Where the land is so much bigger than the southern range, it takes longer to round the ponies up and put them into their corra l. The northern herd is less seen by the public because the access road, which runs 7.5 miles into the wilderness, is only open to hikers.
Both the southern and northern ranges are part of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. The ponies are owned by the Chincotegue Volunteer Fire Company.
The swim which takes place on Wednesday of “Pony Week” is the event that brings 30,000 to 40,000 visitors to this small island off the Virginia coast, but on the last Monday in July what’s known as the Beach Run has become its own attraction. More than 3,000 visitors made up of vacationers, pony-lovers and pony bidders line the Assateague beach early in the morning to see the northern herd escorted along the Atlantic Ocean to the southern corral on Beach Road. This day is just the start of the Pony Penning, a weeklong event.
This year’s beach run started off with traffic backed up just as visitors arrived on the bridge to Assateague Island before 6 a.m. because only one toll booth was open and collecting money. So everyone had to wait in a very impatient line to enter the island. When we finally got onto Assateague, the parking lot for the beach was packed.
Walking north from the parking lot, we joined the crowd in search of the perfect viewing spot. As we walked along the beach we saw family after family with their beach equipment, towels, water, binoculars, sunscreen, chairs and anything else they could carry to help them pass the hour-plus wait as the sun rose over the Atlantic. Everyone was settling down in what they hoped would be just the right spot to catch an early morning glimpse of the Chincoteague wild ponies.
One of these early morning families was from Maryland. Their family car wasn’t the regular car with the total of five seats in all. It was a strtch limo, with enough seats for the parents to carry all 10 of their children. “We always thought it would be nice to bring the kids here, and we’ve been coming for a couple years now,” said Tammy, the mother.
The wait was on but it wasn’t so bad. As the sun started to rise, the ripples in the water made it look like the horizon of orange and yellow was exploding into waves that crashed along the island sand. Children played in the ripples with their bathing suits on, and little ones dug holes into the sand to try and build some small sand castles.
After a wait of nearly two hours, at 7:30 a.m. the ponies appeared in a distance through light fog, all encouraged along by the Cowboys in a tight formation. As they passed, spectators cheered, most getting their first up-close look at a Chincoteague pony.
Except for a few “buybacks” the foals, even those just born, would not return to Assateague. Most would be taken to new homes by owners who cast the highest bids at the upcoming auction on Thursday. Buybacks are a few chosen ponies that are auctioned off but returned to the herd.
The end of their trip on this Monday were the big corrals on the Beach Road curve, where all ponies from both herds and all their foals would spend the night.
Nestled by their mothers, the foals slept and nursed while the parents ate and drank the fresh water that was awaiting them when they entered the corral to join the southern ponies. Groups of ponies played and pranced about sometimes accidentally bumping into their mothers. Life in the corral would only last until early Wednesday morning, known as swim day, when the ponies would either swim or go by trailer lighting up the eyes of thousands who had come from across the nation to see them.