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Editor’s note: Jean is the spokesperson and one of the founders of the group of women that has become known as the Buyback Babes. She and her husband, Wayne, are Chincoteague Island residents. Keeping up with the ponies is her passion and her emails go out to the 50 unofficial members of the group. This year for the second time the BBBs paid the highest amount for a pony at the Chincoteague pony auction, an event attended by bidders and visitors from all over the U.S. In addition, the BBBs as individuals bought eight more ponies this year. In all, the BBBs have now purchased 10 buyback ponies. Jean’s account of the 2011 pony week events helps tell the story of this famous event, so we asked if we could include it with our own stories of the swim and auction. The BBBs get to name their buyback foals but they also give names to the other ponies so they can write about them and keep track of them. Also, for those not familiar with the whole pony routine, there are two herds, one that lives on the southern range, usually seen from a distance on the way to the Atlantic beach, and a second that lives on the northern range several miles out in the Assateague wilderness. This herd can only be seen by boat, on the tour bus run by the Chincoteague Natural History Assn., or by hikers. And there are three round ups a year, fall, spring and the July Pony Penning.

 By Jean Bonde

So starting off with the pony roundups.  I was not here for the roundups, first time in 15 years I missed them, but had a party up in Pennsylvania that I couldn’t miss, talk about being torn between the two.

But I was here for the rest of the festivities.  I didn’t hear about anything happening during the roundups, so presume they got thru them OK.  They did miss getting Witch Doctor in during the roundup but that was the best thing to happen as he is getting old and is being picked on by other stallions.  The cowboys missed a set of horses but went back and got them in as there were foals in that group. 

The walk on the beach went well.  It was probably too darn hot for many of the horses to make trouble.  They did take a few horse trouble makers right back up north and all then went pretty smooth.  One troublemaker was the 2007 young buckskin stallion  Little Tornado.  He kept stirring up the pot and causing trouble, so north he went.   I heard one story from the corrals that Surfer Dude (old stallion) was on one side of the corrals and his 2 year old son  Rip Tide was on the other side of the corrals when some of the other stallions started to pick on Rip Tide. I guess Rip Tide  hollered, and Surfer Dude, came running to  protect his son and settled it with all the other stallions.  These horses never cease to amaze me, although Surfer and Rip Tide are vying for the same mare now they are inseparatable..

The swim Wednesday went smooth although the cowboy barge that the cowboys carry their horses over on had sunk on the day they put it in the water but it was repaired in time for the swim.  If not, not sure how the cowboys would have gotten their own horses over, (they do not swim with the ponies). Ken and Ace were the first horses into the carnival grounds  This is the second time for Ace.  He thinks it’s his own show with people yelling and clapping

Thursday, auction day. At this point we really hadn’t totally firmed up on which pony (we would buy) because we usually never know how it is going to go, if our picks will be buybacks, what order they will come out for sale, etc. It all makes a difference, but we were hoping for Freckles foal.

 We asked the Pony Association if they could mark the buy-backs and they did by putting a marker around their necks so at least we knew which ones they had picked . First there were five, then there were six and then there were seven and eight designed as buy-backs. Earlier we had talked over which ones we liked the best and put them in sort of an order by want. 

The one we liked best, Freckles’ baby, was the first buy-back out in the auction and so we bought  her and we were extremely happy, picture of them above is Freckles and baby Splash of Freckles, or may be called Lil/Little Freckles or Dotti. She was the most expensive buy back in the sale, $6,700.  Next expensive foal was the foal belonging to my ET, she went for $6,500 so I will be able to watch her grow up. That was exciting. There were 69 foals sold, eight kept for buy-backs and the rest, 61, go home with hopefully loving parents. The buybacks and the young foals too young to go home, whose owners will return in October to pick them up, are at the fairgrounds. The mares are out relaxing on the refuge peacefully with no foals left to worry about until next year. Total sale for all ponies was $$93,725.

Besides a margarita night at Betsy’s on Sunday afternoon after the north pony roundup, a fantastic dinner on Tuesday night cooked by Kathy Robinson, next was the Lasagna dinner and naming the new baby, which is always our Thursday night project.  About 50 people were here for dinner but only people who put money in the pot to buy get to vote. A great time was had by all anyway. All went well and we all look forward to next year.  A whole new year and a wonder of what it holds for everyone.  

FROM AN EMAIL TO WILD PONY TALES

Now something that nobody knew was that this little freckled foal was the 4th generation of that linage that BBB’s paid for thru the years.  First buy-back was mare “Carol’s Little Freedom” purchased by BBB, Carol Smith in 1999.  Little Freedom then had buy-back daughter “Marks Island Liberty” paid for by BBB Susan Wilson Sanders in 2002. (Liberty now deceased)  We paid for  buy-back  “Freckles” in 2006, daughter of Marks Island Liberty and now we have paid for buy back “Splash of Freckles,” 2011, daughter of Freckles..How wonderful is that? 

Did you see the water spigots around the southern corrals and the fairgrounds – how wonderful it is,  I was elated to see them.  Thanks Pony Association.  So it was another great Pony Penning.  Here is to many more. 

P.S.  Kelly Lidard just released a new book of all the ponies, pictures of both sides, mares and stallions, names of all the horses that are out on the refuge as of July 2011, some names I didn’t even know about. Its $20 for each.  I will have them for Kelly here at my house so if anyone wants one while they are visiting here on Chincoteague, let me know, 336-1936.  BBB Jean.

See other stories about the BBB’s elsewhere on this website.

This article appeared in the October 18, 2006 edition of the Eastern Shore News and the October 19 edition of the Chincoteague Beacon. Assateague Island is located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on the Atlantic Ocean.

It is quiet Friday afternoon, far out on the range, where the famous Chincoteague ponies of the southern herd were lazing around in the afternoon sun.   Chewing on their favored cord grass, and swatting the remaining flies with their tails, they were probably unaware that carloads of visitors were pulling over to the side of Beach Road, straining to get a look at them, these mystical ponies of Assateague Island that so many come so far to see.

Suddenly, there is the crack of a bullwhip and riders on horseback are coming at them from all sides. Whatever plans the ponies had for the rest of the day are ruined. It is the October roundup, time for the ponies to visit the doctor for a dose of worm medicine and a check to see if they are fit for the coming harsh winter months.

These ponies of the southern herd are headed toward a large holding pen just off the curve of Beach Road, about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean on Assateague Island. Waiting there as darkness grows near is a small crowd of anxious onlookers, standing around the outside of the corral. They have been there for almost two hours.

Among those waiting are a group of ladies who call themselves The Buyback Babes. Coming from various points on the East Coast, they pool their money each year at the July pony auction and buy a pony that is returned to the herd. They are there to see their ponies, about the only time they can.

Without a sound, the first pony appears through the brush, bringing a hush to the crowd. He stops, takes a cautious look and is soon leading the way for the rest of the herd that comes at a run with the riders who interrupted their afternoon not far behind. The ponies trot along side the pen, through the gate, and mill around, checking out their unaccustomed confinement. There they will spend the night.

Early the next morning, one by one, the mares, foals and their stallions will be driven into a stanchion that restricts their movement while they await an unpleasant intrusion from Dr. Charlie Cameron. He is waiting with a squirt gun of liquid medicine on the end of a 10-inch metal tube that will be inserted into the ponies’ throats.  

“The only differences between working with the Chincoteague Ponies and working with domestic ponies is that these ponies are not trained, so their not as disciplined. As far as the health issues they are about the same, but I think the Chincoteague ponies are more hardy and brave. They’re basically survivors, their tough and their dispositions are gentle, that’s why I think they work well as kids’ ponies or horses,” said Dr. Cameron.

Dr. Cameron, employed by the Chincoteague Fire Company that owns the ponies, has been working with these ponies for some 17 years. By the end of Saturday he and his associates will have treated all 150 ponies plus foals that roam the ranges of Assateague Island, first the southern herd, then the much larger northern herd.

Dr. Cameron, who said he was inspired to become a veterinarian by his friend’s father who was also a vet, runs the Eastern Shore Animal Hospital in Painter.  Part of his work there is to treat ponies as well as other animals. People will trailer them in, he said, or he will go to the horse owner’s house.

The pen, where he treats the Chincoteague ponies, is divided in half by a fence. This separates the ponies that have been treated from those that haven’t. There is space to move around that keeps the ponies comfortable until Dr. Cameron is ready to give them their worm medicine.

The worm pump is a long metal tool, called a liquid drench. This tool has a larger tube in the middle where the medicine is held until he injects it. He will inject the medicine by pushing a handle into the larger tube holding the medicine, pumping it into the pony’s mouth.

While Dr. Cameron is getting ready, various helpers chase the ponies into the other half of the pen. One by one the ponies are run through a chute, and then into a wooden stanchion that allows for little movement. Once in the stanchion, an assistant to Dr. Cameron will take a wand and wave it around on the left side of the pony’s neck. The wand actually reads a micro chip put in their neck so Dr. Cameron will be able to identify which pony they are working on.

When they find the micro chip, numbers and letters will appear on the screen. Dr. Cameron will then, with the help of an associate, open the pony’s mouth and place the metal tube at the back of the throat where there is a place with no teeth. When the pony has swallowed the medicine the assistant will open the front of the stanchion that leads to the other side of the pen. They will repeat this procedure until every pony has had its medicine.

Dr. Cameron finishes his work on the southern herd by 9:15 a.m. Then it is time to load up and move much further into the wilderness of Assateague to the pen that would later that morning hold the northern herd and three bands of the southern herd that had escaped the cowboys on Friday.

With the southern ponies released back to the wild, the cowboys begin to round up the northern herd, numbering 50 to 60 ponies more than the southern group. They do not bring this group of ponies to the same pen; the northern herd’s pen is located out in an isolated area of the island. The only way to get out there is to walk, unless you are part of the veterinarian’s crew or one of the cowboys. Then it is accessible by vehicle or horseback.

The northern herd is not seen by most of the visitors to the island. Access to these ponies is only by taking one of the charter boats that cruise the shoreline, go out on the tour bus that is operated by the Chincoteague Natural History Association, or you can walk. But this walk is for those with hiking experience, as far as 7 ½ miles out, where in warm weather the flies, mosquitoes and poison ivy are plentiful. And bring along your camping skills. There are no bathrooms.

The northern pen is about four miles out, and the area where the northern ponies roam has a seven mile range. As a result of this, it takes the cowboys much more time to round up the northern herd. The northern ponies also have a sense of what to do when round up time comes, and some bands even start moving before the cowboys round them up.

The Salt Water Cowboys, as they are known, are nearly as famous as the ponies. They come not only from Chincoteague but from nearby communities. The roundups mean early days for these men who begin loading their own horse trailers and moving to their meeting point in darkness.

There are four pathways for the northern ponies to get to the pen; they could come from down the road, along one of the fences, from between the trees, or from cross the water. When all the ponies are in the pen, there will be conflicts, even fighting between the stallions. When they fight they will kick and bite each other for control, they do this so they won’t lose any mares. The stallions make sounds that tell their mares to come to them even if they get mixed up with the other mares.

The northern herd is wilder then the southern herd so it’s harder to give them the medicine. When the cowboys get the ponies into the stanchion and Dr. Cameron tries to open their mouth they will kick the back of the stanchion and try to put their heads out of reach of the assistant’s hands. Not only is it dangerous for the people inside the pen that are helping get the ponies into the chute, but it’s also dangerous for Dr. Cameron and his assistant. If the ponies get really riled up, they will turn around and charge at the people. Dr. Cameron has been bitten and kicked in his years of working with the ponies.

Sometimes when a stallion has been given his medicine and has been moved to the other side, he will stand and wait for his mares to come out. He will count them making sure that each and every one has returned to where they need to be, with him.

The Chincoteague round up is traditionally held three times a year. The cowboys will ride again in April, up bright and early, old friends out on the range taking care of the wild ponies of Assateague.

Harley Gooldrup is a staff writer and Elizabeth Fread is editor in chief of this website www.wildponytales.com. Harley is also an editor of The Nandua News, the Nandua Middle School newspaper. Elizabeth was editor of the paper last year.

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