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A Better Life Now for Rescued Chincoteague Ponies

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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.
 





Children, Parents Enjoy International Migratory Bird Day at the Refuge

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By Misty Thornton

Co-Editor, Wild Pony Tales

On an hot early morning on Assateague Island, VA, bird-lovers, park rangers and visitors gathered to enjoy a day full of family learning as well as some games and entertaining exhibits.

As we crossed the Assateague Channel Bridge to the beautiful island of Assateague, the air was moist and the sun was hot, but nothing was going to stop the excitement that was fluttering in the hearts of children and their parents. At the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge parking lots were filling up fast as people from all around came to enjoy themselves at the International Migratory Bird Day Festival.

Tee shirts and carving lessons were available just ouside the refuge information center, along with hotdogs and bottles of water.

Walking through the first set of doors to the information center four exhibits lined the lobby’s walls. Carver Bill Cowen had on display about 20 of his best power carved birds of all shapes and sizes from an arrangement of owls to a bright red cardinal.

Mr. Cowen said one of his birds made second best in the world at a competition.  As a carving teacher of about 30 years he said, “I love carving. It’s just something you can sit back, relax, and not even think about it. It’s like everything around you disappears and only you and your carvings are left.”  Mr. Cowen has a place on the island but mainly lives in New Jersey with his family and his business.

Then, there was an assortment of birds, ducks, and fish carvings on the next table done by Ed Kuhn of Onancock, VA., and there was also an exhibit that had photographs of birds, sunsets and wildlife taken by Robert Wilson.

The next exhibit was by Donnie Thornton. His had bird feathers with hand painted fine art on the front. He’s lived on the island all his life and painting feathers is just what comes natural. He’s been painting island houses, ponies, birds and plants on feathers for 17 years now. “When I’m not painting, I’m playing with my horse, Nugget,” said Mr. Thornton.

Inside the information center there was plenty more for visitors to experience. The conference room was the place for children. There was face painting, woodcarving for kids, experts to talk about birds and fuzzy, live birds that would later get center stage in the Scales and Tales program in the auditorium.

Coming out of the conference room and back into the main center, were two main exhibits. Residents Wayne and JeanBonde had on exhibit a large variety of duck stamps representing each year since 1934.

“The migratory bird stamps have been around since the first one in 1934. We decided to collect them which meant we had to go back and get all the other stamps in the series that we didn’t have from 1934 until 1977, ” said Ms. Bonde. “We went to stamp shows trying to find as inexpensive  used ones as we could fine. It took us a while, maybe about 20 years.”

In the meantime, in 1977, they started buying a migratory bird stamp each year which keeps them up to date. The older used stamps, 1934 up to 1977, are all signed by the hunters using them.  “It is a requirement,” explained Mr. Bonde, “if you are going to hunt waterfowl, that you have one of the migratory bird stamps signed by you in your possession for that year. From 1977 on, all the migratory bird stamps I have are unsigned.

Right now a migratory bird stamp costs $15. “They can also be used to gain entrances onto refuges and state parks,” said Mr. Bonde.

Further along in the information center was an artist, Jenny Somers, who had hand painted over 50 pictures. She lives on Chincoteague. “Every moment of free time I have I’m usually painting the scenery and the world around me. What a better place to do that then right outside of my home.”

There were exhibits of photographs and more paintings. One thing that attracted the most attention wasn’t an exhibit at all. It was the live eagle cam which brings the eagles and on that day just-born eaglets right onto a TV screen in the information center. The actual nest is high in the pines just off the Wildlife Loop. With visitors and Wild Pony Tales cameras looking on the first of two eggs hatched right before our eyes. Visitors were overjoyed to see the mother caring for her baby. The two eggs were special to the refuge staff because the first three eggs had been destroyed in a wind storm.  (See separate story on the site.)

When the excitement died down it was time for the Scales and Tales presentation where Erica Mcgrath and Samantha Ford from the Conservation Corp. in Maryland gave detailed information on their animals they brought with them from Pocomoke River State Park. Their animals all have been wounded at some point in their life and have been taken under the park’s wing. The animals included from owls, turtles, falcons and even an Eastern King Snake. (See a separate story.)

The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and the National Park Service both hold events and programs for families and children throughout the summer.

Joy Turns to Sadness for Eagle Cam Watchers

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By Kate White and Robert Boswell

By now one of the three eaglets in the nest atop the tall loblolly pines on the Wildlife Loop would have used its egg tooth to break through the outer shell, taking a first breath, and soon opening eyes to see the real world it had just entered.

But instead, the eggs, three of them, are somewhere at the bottom of the trees, victims of the 71 mph winds that blew across the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on February 25, knocking part of the nest down and disappointing visitors who had been coming to the refuge visitor center to see nature in real time on the live cam, eagle parents sitting on three eggs, waiting for new life.

The parent eagles, like in years past, had returned to their nest in January, bringing up sticks and branches to make repairs and then, right on schedule lay three eggs. Three eggs that were never to hatch.

The disappointment of the fallen nest hit park ranger Sally Bowden like a brick when she opened the visitor center Saturday morning, February 26. On her way to work, she had gotten a cell phone call from Robert Meehan, a maintenance employee, who comes in early to power up the exhibits including the popular eagle camera where so many visitors had watched the eagles rebuilding, sitting on their eggs and getting ready for parenthood.

“I came into the visitor center around 8:45 Saturday. I walked back here (to the live cam) and about died,” said Ms. Bowden. “When I saw the nest and no eggs, I knew right away what had happened.”

Ms. Bowden said she wrote it the log book, a journal kept by the refuge on a table below the camera where visitors had been recording their comments since the nest rebuilding had begun.  “When I opened the visitor center at 9 a.m. we had 180 folks that Saturday and they were very disappointed, almost in tears. We were handing out Kleenexes.”

Some of the visitors came every weekend and almost every day to check on the progress of the eggs, Ms. Bowden said. “The first one was due to hatch this weekend, March 4-7.

So will the eagles lay more eggs? “The eagles have been observed mating and rebuilding the nest,” said the park ranger, “but it is up to nature whether or not they will lay eggs again. At this point, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.”

In fact, the eagles came back to the nest Saturday morning, after the Friday wind, and brought along a duck to eat, perhaps to have something aboard when the little ones were ready. No one knows, of course, what they felt when they discovered their eggs and part of the nest missing. But the eagles were seen sitting on the nest and rearranging as if the eggs were still there.

It was not the first time nature had dealt a heavy hand to young wildlife on Assateague Island. On July 3, 2008 a biologist discovered a full nest of loggerhead turtle eggs in the sand of Toms Cove Hook. Excitement spread among the refuge staff , only to turn to sadness when a September nor’easter sent waves crashing ashore, saturating the egg chamber and drowning all 166 hatchlings.

The eagle cam has become a very popular attraction in the Bateman Center, the place where many of the 1.4 million visitors to the refuge begin their trip.

When there are eagle babies in the nest visitors can see parents taking turns on the nest and feeding. But the menu will not be like anything a newborn human might eat at home. The eaglets grow strong on a diet of regurgitated fish, rabbit, snake, duck, turtle and perhaps a piece of squirrel.

Questions about the eagles can be directed to the visitor center through email at FW5RW_CNWR@fws.gov and by phone 757-336-6122. Other developments can be found on http://www.fws.gov/northeast/chinco/ Those who want more eagle details can go to www.nationaleaglecenters.org.

The habitat of the wildlife refuge is a wonderful area to have these birds because it has mostly what the eagle considers as food, said Ossana Wolff, another park ranger.  Ms. Wolff  said the waiting time for hatchlings could take 35 days. “Often one or more of the eaglets don’t make it.” The newborn has a furry body with grayish-white skin and a smoky beak. “At this time their only protection is their parents,” said Ms. Wolff. “The offspring that lives are taught how to fly when they are two or three months old.

The journal by now has many messages left by visitors. One child left a drawing of both parent eagles. Another wrote, “Eagles both still building like they have a deadline to meet.” Yet another, “Both eagles are on the nesting spot. The male seems to be calling the shots,” and another wrote, “Both eagles are on the nest. They seem to be having a disagreement about a stick.”

Kate White, a 9th grader at Arcadia High School,  is co-editor and Mr. Boswell is publisher of www.wildponytales.info, a web magazine that covers Chincoteague and Assateague Islands in Virginia.

Voice of Confidence Despite Mountain to Move

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By Windy Mason

After 23 years working in the maintenance department for the Virginia end Assateague Island National, Ish Ennis was promoted to chief of maintenance last September 1; and took over the office at the Maryland Visitor Center, in charge of the entire barrier island seashore. Two and a half months later, the November nor’easter called Ida roared up the Atlantic Ocean and dumped 3 to 4 feet of sand on the beach, burying the parking lots.

Suddenly, Ennis faced the massive job of moving a mountain of sand around and coming up with a plan to restore parking in time for the coming summer beach season, when up to 1,000 visitors a day travel through the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge to the oceanfront.

But Ennis is a voice of confidence. Not a sign of panic anywhere, even though the beach months are fast approaching. That’s because in his time Ennis has seen any number of storms. He had on his desk, with a 8×10 photo on the cover, a whole book on the Hurricane Isabelle recovery project, a storm that hit a few years ago. Bicycle racks and road signs in the photos showed sand levels near where they were after Ida.

But this year due to an unusually harsh winter, the beach parking lot recovery project on the Virginia end of Assateague Island is running about two weeks behind.

“This year we definitely had a rough winter. We’ve had a lot of pounding nor’easters that haven’t given us much relief,” Ennis said. “It’s been nor’easter after nor’easter,” said Casey Custer, the maintenance mechanic for the Virginia Assateague.

During the snowy season, the crew was doing its usual operational duties including snow removal and cleaning decks. In December and into January, plans were being made for the new beach configuration, devised by Ennis, the maintenance staff and Carl Zimmerman of resource management. “This week is the first week we are moving forward with any kind of construction,” Ennis said. “We’ve been excavating all of the old material out of the parking lots. We’ll reuse that material in the new configuration. Then, we’ll cap it all off with a couple inches of shells,” he said.

On Assateague Beach in Virginia, currently you will see high piles that are yellow. They look like sand, but are actually old, road base material. “We recover that road base and reuse it. Some of it has been used several times. It keeps costs down,” said Ennis. Around 9,000 yards of this clay road base will be relocated during the project. Sand will be moved to the east.

The parking lot, which is one foot deep, will be taken up. From this, material will be reused to fill the holes. There will be a one foot slope for drainage purposes. Above the road base material, there will be roughly 10 inches of sand and two inches of shells.  Also, out of this project, 150 to 200 feet of eroded asphalt will be taken up and replaced with shells.

“We’ll start in the turn circle and work south first,” said Ish. This is in contrast to the first plans for the recovery, in which parking lot one on the north was to be repaired first. “The area to the north, parking lot one, has not settled down. We are still getting substantial over wash there, “said Ennis. “By working on the south  lots first, this will provide more parking spaces by the busy season.” There are only 155 parking spaces in parking lot one on the north. There are 961 parking spaces in the southern parking lots. Once the area calms down, parking lot one will be made smaller and moved back according to the new configuration.

As maintenance chief, his new position covers both ends of Assateague Island, making him responsible for recreational beach facilities, producing a budget and acting as project manager in both Maryland and Virginia. Ennis, spends his Saturdays on the Virginia end working with the crew as well as taking the time to check in a couple of times during the week, while also maintaining his duties in Maryland. “The crew down there is flat out incredible,” says Ennis. “They’re working 10 hours a day, six days a week, day in and day out,” he said.

There are two loaders and one 25-ton off-road truck in use in the recovery effort now. More equipment has been ordered and will be in use during the peak of the construction throughout the month of April. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service crews are working together.  Jack Williams, heavy equipment operator, is acting supervisor on the project. Casey Custer, maintenance mechanic, and John Watson, are also acting as equipment operators. Jeffrey Oshaben, motor vehicle operator, is also on the project. Fish and Wildlife people involved in the project are Charlene Swartz, Jeff Marshall and Grover “Drizzle” Wilgus.

While providing an honorable mention for all of this crew, Ennis said,  “They go.”

“It’s a rush and it wears people down, There’s no doubt about that,” Ennis said. “The crew works because they know the impact they have if they don’t get it done. They’re motivated. They’re hearts are in it and they lose sleep over it,” he said.

The estimate for the project is still at $600,000 for the Virginia end of the island. Parking lots usually run $100,000 to 125,000 annually for general repairs after nor’easters and other storms, if none have to be moved. “This year, we’re going to move them back. The funding is being done by ERFO, Emergency Relief for Federal Owned Roads, under the Federal Highway Administration. This ERFO money comes through the National Park Service, which manages that fund,” explains Ennis.

The only ERFO funding is in Virginia. The money that goes into Maryland is not from ERFO.  It’s money coming from the regional office budget. After this year, there may be no funding to cover parking lot recovery. The ERFO funding is for roads. “They have been nice enough to give us that money even though it doesn’t provide for parking. They have said that after this year, we won’t get anymore money for parking. We’ll get it for roads,” said Ennis. “ERFO has been generous to us. They realize just how important the beach is economically to the area,” he said.

In comparison of the Maryland and Virginia ends of Assateague Island, Ennis said, “We have a lot more land base in Maryland. It’s not as impacted by high tides as Virginia. The Maryland district of Assateague  is not as vulnerable as the Virginia district. However, that’s not saying that we don’t have the same issues that we are going to have to address in the near future. It’s just we’re not as vulnerable at this time.” Just two years ago, there was a major move of a parking lot in Maryland.

The storm did hit the Maryland end of  the island pretty substantially as well. The estimate for the recovery process in Maryland is non-ERFO money and is $298,000, from which some will also go to Virginia. It’s not coming from the ERFO fund and will be divided up between Maryland and Virginia. “All of this money will have to cover the work being done, the shells for covering the relocated parking lots, and overtime for the work crew,” explains Ennis. Virginia was actually estimated at $549,000 for ERFO money.

“We will have some parking by April 4. We’ll make a point to open up something. Wherever we are, we will shell and open up, just like we have done in the past,” Ennis said.

                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

 

 

 

Bus Tour, Great Way to Learn About the Wonders of Assateague

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Questions about the tours can be directed to the visitor center through email at FW5RW_CNWR@fws.gov and by phone 757-336-6122. Other information can be found on at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/chinco.

Admission for the tours is $12.00 for adults and $6.00 for children 12 and under. Tickets are sold at the Bateman Educational Center and visitors should board the bus at that location.

The following article was written by a student staff member, her assignment after riding out on the bus in the fall of 2010.

By Brianna Bowden

First Posted on January 21, 2010 by Admin

I have lived near Assateague Island in Virginia all my life. Most of my ancestors were born nearby, on Chincoteague Island and many have lived there for years. I have visited them often over the years and have been to the beautiful Assateague Beach many times.

But today I got to see a part of Assateague that was new to me. I got to ride 7 ½ miles into a wilderness seen only by a few of the 1.5 million visitors that come each year not only from all over the U.S. , but all over the world.

Along the way, as part of a group on a small tour bus that leaves from the information center, I learned a lot. The driver, Mrs. Joanne Lapole, carefully told us about everything that crossed our path including a snapping turtle, a Sika elk, the glossy ibis, which is a long-beaked wading bird; the nesting boxes of the endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel, Canada geese and the snowy egret. She didn’t mind stopping, or even backing up, for us to get a clearer view.

Our guide told us about the history of the Chincoteague Lighthouse which is a favorite stop for visitors. She said that at the bottom of the lighthouse there was a village, the families that lived there had to change the candles that provided lights for the ships and boats that came along.

Joanne has two other jobs. She is a county school bus driver and is a teaching assistant at Kegotank Elementary here in Accomack County. “I love my job as a tour guide,” she said, and my other jobs.”She is the mother of two daughters, 21 and 24.

The wildlife tours are not without some amusing incidents. “When grown men ask me to stop the bus so they can go to the bathroom,” she said, they had better hope she stops near a large tree because, other than the woods, there are no bathrooms. All of the birds and animals we saw share this wilderness in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, with some pretty famous four-legged residents, the Chincoteague ponies. And boy did we see ponies.

There were newborn foals, some sleeping and others bouncing along after their mothers. The older ponies were grazing and being themselves, only a few feet from us. Passengers are not allowed to get off the bus, but the bus has large windows that give everyone a great view. We learned from Joanne that the pony mares live in bands of six or seven that belong to a stallion who keeps a watchful eye on them.

One colt came right up to us trying to figure out who these intruders were, looking at him through the bus windows. As we took photos he seemed to say, “Hey, what are you guys doing out here?”
This colt and most of the others don’t have much time left to enjoy their freedom in the wilderness where they were born. On July 22 he will be rounded up with all the others and run into a large corral, where the next morning they will be escorted by the world famous Salt Water Cowboys along the sand of the Atlantic Ocean in front of several thousand anxious spectators. (See story, the Beach Run, on the story menu.)

They will be moved into the corral on Beach Road to await the big day when they will swim Assateague Channel in front 30 to 40 thousand people. The foals, except for a few holdbacks and buybacks, will never return to their homeland, but will move on to new homes after being sold one by one to the highest bidders at the auction on July 26. Money from the auction, with some ponies going for $7,000 or more, supports the Chincoteague Fire Company.

The ponies of the Virginia northern herd, not seen by most visitors to the islands, share a vast wilderness with other wildlife, including snapping turtles, Sika elk, white tailed deer, wild turkeys, the Delmarva Fox Squirrel and birds of all kinds.   On our way back we got to see a lone elk just springing across the shallow water of Chincoteague Bay near the shoreline. He went a long way before finally coming onto land just a little ways from us. There is just something about seeing an animal completely free in their natural surroundings that is hard to describe. These little elk are hunted, though, in the fall to keep their population under control.

This was my first time on a tour, which is sponsored by the Chincoteague Natural History Association. This is a large organization mostly of volunteers that supports the educational goals of the agencies that run the national park.

I had a great time with my friends on this trip, which took two hours, but it was not just a pleasure outing. I am one of the newest writers for this on-line magazine. So along with me were two other writers, Harley Gooldrup and Misty Thornton, and Robert Boswell, the publisher of www.wildponytales.info and our journalism teacher. Harley is a rising 8th grader at Nandua Middle School here in Accomack County on the Eastern Shore.  Misty and I are both students at Arcadia Middle School where she is going into the 8th grade and I am going into 7th.

For us it was a learning day, as Mr. Boswell calls it, with us taking notes and learning to use the cameras, especially the one with the 100-400 mm lens. As he tells us, we get to share what we see and hear with our viewers around the world. It is a good feeling to be able to do this, to tell people who may never come here, about this place so close to my home.

If there is one more thing I want to say, it would be that if you are coming to Chincoteague, take this inexpensive bus tour, only $10 for adults and $5.00 for children. (The prices are now $12 and $6.)  It is almost the only way you are likely to see the ponies up close in their natural, wild habitat. There are commercial boat tours that take visitors up to the shoreline where the ponies roam and sometimes you can see ponies from the southern herd up close, but not often. These tour buses are air conditioned, comfortable with big windows and the tour guides are the best.

Just remember, use the restroom before you board the bus, two hours can be a long time.

Since this story was written, the students mentioned including the writer have all moved on to high school. Misty Thornton, now in the 11th grade, is a co-editor of the publication.