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By Robert Boswell
Publisher, Wild Pony Tales

The three Chincoteague ponies who were rescued by Debbie Ober and her husband, Tom, from an auction barn in Pennsylvania in September are nearly back to full health. As a result of our stories some donations have come in and so have requests for adoption.

More donations are needed though. See the information at the end of the story.

The moment the three Chincoteague ponies she had rescued from near slaughter came out of the trailer Debbie had sent to get them is not a time she will ever forget. She still can’t talk about it without her voice breaking up.

Saturday, November 5, with our writer/photographers Misty Thornton and Kate White, we traveled the two hours from near Chincoteague to the Ober’s Hawkeye Stables in Ridgely, Maryland. There was more to the story, we knew, of what goes on at the Ober horse farm where Debbie cares for 20 ponies. Some of them are Misty of Chincoteague descendants and most are closely connected to the famous Chincoteague wild ponies.
The three rescues were all bought at the 2001 Chincoteague pony auction but little is known about where they spent their years until now. All three are registered Chincoteague ponies, sired by island stallions.

Debbie had earlier described what confronted her when the rescued ponies arrived at her place. There was Clipper, a small bay gelding, who had no hair from under his jaw to his chin with pus oozing from a dozen sores. When he came out of the trailer he laid down, unable to get up.

Ginger, a big chestnut mare, was very thin and weak from starvation and parasites. And Captain, a bay pinto gelding, was very thin too. He had the worst parasite problem of the three, so bad he had stopped eating.

From communicating with Debbie, we knew they were much better but we didn’t really know what to expect. Because they had all come down with strangles, a pneumonia-like illness the rescue ponies had been quarantined in their own pasture and shelter.

Upon arrival we followed Debbie from the barn area to the rescues’ pasture with her pulling a small wagon with hay, grain buckets, brushes and, if needed, halters.

As we neared the fence she asked, “Are you ready?” In a minute we had climbed through the fence and set up cameras. The ponies, however, were nowhere in sight. But with a call from Debbie, three specks in a distance, actually three pastures away, began moving toward us at a gallop. It was the three rescues, who did not slow up until they reached us.

Two things were obvious. They were ready to eat and they were glad to see Debbie.

Debbie spends several hours each day hugging and caring for her horses. She is devoted to them, spending more time with them than she does with people, more time outside with them, she says, than inside her house.

She has a routine.

“I check all of them daily from head to tail. Making sure there are no kicks, cuts, etc. Also, I make sure they eat their grain in a reasonable time. If they don’t eat, I know I have a problem. I always check noses, especially this time of year. The foals tend to get a runny nose, but unless they run a fever, my vet suggests that I let it run its course without interference to build immunity. I always check halters on the young stock. They can be fine one day and too tight the next as they seem to grow in spurts.”

Imagine this and she left out mucking stalls, driving two hours for hay every few weeks, and of course her house work.

When Captain, Ginger and Clipper arrived they were in poor shape. Debbie spent most of the next three nights with these Chincoteagues, making a bed for herself under the shelter and wrapping up in a horse blanket to stay warm. Debbie changed her clothes several times a day to keep strangles from spreading to her other horses.

Who knows what the three ponies think has happened to them, but they have to know someone now cares. Since coming to the Ober home they have not been a day without proper food, medications, and lots of hugs and kindness. They can thank Debbie and Tom, but also others who helped put up money for their rescue, including Debbie Elliott-Fisk and other members of the Buyback Babes, friends and family.

While our time with the rescues has its special memories, they were not the only ones we brought back from the Ober farm.

One pony rehabilitated by Debbie is the majestic Tornado which has sired many foals born on Assateague Island. Tornado is the sire of Prince, bought by the Buyback Babes in 2007 for $17,500, the most ever paid for a pony at the Chincoteague auction.

In 2008 Tornado was injured while on the Assateague range and the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, which owns the Virginia herd, decided to remove him from the herd and arranged with the Obers to care for him the rest of his life. In an article that ran in the Caroline Review in July 2010 the Obers wrote, “Though he inhabited the sandy beaches of Assateague made famous by “Misty of Chincoteague” Tornado became a legend of his own. He is one of the most photographed stallions on the island.”

Tornado is a buckskin pinto stallion born in 1988. He might have been a wild stallion for 20 years, but around us he was just another friendly head to pat, nose to rub. Or maybe he just wanted Kate to take his picture again. She was clearly his favorite visitor on this day.

The other memory we will have forever was provided by Tornado’s newest offspring, one of four now with the Obers. She is a nine day old filly Debbie calls Freckles due to her red leopard coloring. We have video of this baby making her second trip outside her stall, trying to make up her mind how far to venture. It is precious and we will share it with you soon.

Meanwhile, Debbie is in need of financial help for these rescues and future ones. “We would be grateful for donations to go toward feed and care,” Debbie said. She said if anyone knows of a Chincoteague pony in need, she can be reached at hawkeye@goeaston.net. Her cell is 410-829-3026 and messages may be left on her Facebook page. The mailing address is P.O. Box 125, Ridgely, MD 21660.

The Obers are looking for personal and corporate sponsorships for the ponies and the rescue organization. Corporate sponsors will be listed on the horse trailer and elsewhere, she said. A new website will be chincoteagueponyrescue.org and it is expected to be up and running soon.

The writer is publisher of www.wildponytales.info, a web magazine that covers Chincoteague and Assateague Islands in Virginia. 

Editor’s note: A photo gallery and video clips will be posted with this story soon.
 

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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