To Our Readers:

This is the same site so many viewers visited as wildponytales.com, but now you can get here via a new route. Please let everyone know about this change.

In most ways the new site will be just like the previous one, providing our readers with stories and photographs that bring to life all that is Assateague and Chincoteague, Virginia. Each year these two Islands on the Virginia Eastern Shore attract nearly a million and a half visitors. Whether you come to see the traffic on the Atlantic Flyway, the wildlife that roams the forests of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge or the famous wild ponies who live here you will find your time well spent on these two unique Islands.

The Refuge includes more than 14,000 acres of beach, dunes, marsh and maritime forest. Most of the Refuge is located on the Virginia end of Assateague Island; however, 418 acres are on the Maryland side of the island, and some acreage extends to other nearby islands. The coastal location of Assateague makes it a vital feeding and resting spot for many thousands of migrating birds. If you haven’t heard the roar of 5,000 snow geese taking off at once, you have really missed something.

We have yet to meet a visitor who was not intrigued when we told them about our on-line magazine. With our card in hand, some go home, visit the site and then write to us with their own comments or experiences. We hope to encourage more of this and now can easily publish viewer blogs and comments so we can all share in each other’s discoveries. If you own a Chincoteague pony we have many viewers who would like to hear about your life with the former resident of Assateague Island.

We think the new site is easier to navigate and our photo galleries now appear on the same screen as the stories. You will notice it is easy to add your comments at the end of each story. We welcome your ideas for additional content or story ideas.

Stories that appeared on the previous site have been updated and several new stories have already been added. Other stories are in the writing pipeline, going through rewriting and editing.

One new item we’re excited about is the soon to be attached e-commerce site where you may purchase the photos showcased there or any photo from our galleries. We plan to add books and other items soon. If you have a Chincoteague or Assateague related item you would like us to consider selling in our store, let us know.

As I was pulling up to my laptop to write this welcome, I began to think about what, after nearly five years, we have accomplished besides not yet making any money. After all, a website is just words and pictures on a screen flashed electronically around the world. But it only takes a quick look behind the scenes to find there is so much more.

For our student writers, some who have now moved on, it has meant an opportunity to learn how to use the skills and tools of journalism to tell a story. But it has also been a time to learn about an important part of their own county, Chincoteague Island and the wildlife Refuge, the creatures and ponies who live there and the people who take care of it all. They have explored the exhibits in the information center, seen the films in the auditorium and been out on the tour bus operated by the Chincoteague Natural History Association. They have gotten up early, walked long distances, tried to protect themselves from mosquitoes and biting bugs of all kinds, endured long waits in the hot sun and put up with a sometimes grumbling publisher. They have learned how to use recorders, camera equipment, and how to work together and become friends. I hope they have learned you cannot, as I tell them, cover a good story by sitting on their backsides.

Each story starts with an idea, then a commitment to spend time, and usually money, on it leading to an assignment to a writer. For each story our writers interview one or more sources, often getting a missed detail using e-mail or the phone. On the Islands, some stories simply come from our observation. There is much to see, hear and learn on these two Islands.

There is a saying among reporters that you are only as good as your sources. In my years as a newspaper editor I have found that to be true. Like other publications our real strength is our sources and people who have helped us along the way. We at Wildponytales.info can put together quite a list.

At the top would be Jean and Wayne Bonde, who have welcomed our writers into their home and onto their boat so our staff could get a view of the Islands from the water and see birds, beautiful plants, flowers and wildlife you could not see on land. (Hint – we want to come back) If you want to find true excitement see if you can get on Jean’s e-mail list when the Buy Back girls are getting ready to come to town. No one gets more worked up about these Chincoteague ponies than they do. Few have spent more money buying Chincoteague ponies than they have. Jean’s home is a wall to wall pony gallery and serves as home central during pony week each July.

Then there is Lou Hinds, the Refuge manager, who knows a good story as well as we do, and his staff of biologists and departmental managers and employees. They are the authority when it comes to wildlife in this area, they are the ones who are out in the marshes, waterways and wilderness doing the work it takes to make Assateague a hospitable habitat. Lou has a tag line on his email that I like, “”E-mails provide information, they are not a substitute for communication.” You will find any dealings with Lou to be prompt and helpful. He is just another all around nice person.

Also on our list is Owen Hooks, a Chincoteague pony owner and who, with his wife Kathryn, just bought the Kite Koop,and Bookstore, a bookstore on the Island. Owen is a fountain of helpful information, one of the few people around who has more ideas in 24 hours than I do. There are the Salt Water Cowboys who themselves have more stories to tell than we could ever write. We cannot leave out Kendy Allen, a bundle of unending energy, who runs the Chincoteague Pony Centre, coaches the Chincoteague Pony Drill Team and has a stable full of Misty descendants. She is on our story list.

We include Ted Shockley, the editor of the Eastern Shore News and Chincoteague Beacon, who has published many of our stories. Others who are not only good sources for our reporters but rate among the nicest people you could hope to meet are Lois Szymanski, the children’s book author, who heads up the Feather Fund, and Jessie-Ann Friend, another author and child TV actress who grew up close to Marguerite Henry who wrote “Misty of Chincoteague.”

Much of what we have learned about the Chincoteague ponies has come from Dr. Charlie Cameron of Eastern Shore Animal Hospital, the official pony veterinarian. He is patient with our writers and just full of interesting details about how the ponies are taken care of.

We have also learned a lot about the ponies from Walter and Tyler Marks. Walter is a long-time Cowboy and his son, Tyler, who was in my journalism class, will soon become a rider himself. Tyler is always on the job during pony week, helping care for the ponies after the roundup and as a wrangler during the auction.

We include our web host and hand-holding guide in setting up this site, Alan Snowden of WebsiteManagementServices.com. If you are planning on setting up your own site, Alan is the man to know. I have never met him. His company is in Victor Harbor, Australia. The entire site has been set up using email and a few Skype phone conversations. Using Skype, we can talk over the internet at no charge and his voice is as clear as it would be here next to me. It is unlikely we will ever meet in person but he is professional, prompt and knows how to write without wasting a single word.

As we move through the process of gathering our thoughts to keep this site moving along, no one has played a more important role than my wife, Linda. She is first to hear my thoughts, plans and complaints. She is our proof reader and much more. As a reading and writing teacher she can spot a poorly written sentence a mile away and her suggestions on making changes in our copy and in our overall direction are invaluable. Linda has seen this shoestring venture come along from the beginning and during low moments when I was near giving it all up, she gave me the encouragement to keep going.

As a long-time journalist I know better than to try to draw up a list of names but it’s too late to stop now. There is, however, one name that stands alone and she does not deserve to be last. She is Wilma Young, the only 89 year old who replies to my e-mail. It would be enough to say she is a good writer who cringes at the mere thought of anyone mistreating, she would say, our precious wildlife. She can give you an earful in a minute. But that wouldn’t begin to tell her story. About 12 years ago Wilma was a senior volunteer and intern with the Refuge and she really left her mark here. How Wilma and I met would make an eye-catching lead for a good romance novel, but you can find those details in the bio at the end of her story of the Sika elk. More about Wilma will appear in a forthcoming story by our co-editor, Leslie. Additional writings by Wilma will also find their way to this site.

Along with the people mentioned here, and many more, we get to perform a very special job, to share what we know and what we can continue to learn about these two storied Islands with viewers across the land. We hope you will come back often.

Robert Boswell

Publisher

www.wildponytales.info

 

How The Website Got Started

When we are asked how this website began I cannot say, “It was a smartly designed concept that came forth from our publications board and was approved by the executive committee after being test marketed in five cities” Our beginning was much less formal. 

Let me back up a little. I was a newspaperman, as we used to say, for 35 years before becoming a teacher. While teaching at Mary N. Smith, a middle school in Accomack County, Virginia, I began teaching journalism to my 7th grade class. My four other classes were basic computer skills. With these students we started up a school paper, The Trojan Times, which continued to be published for five years. I also started an after-school journalism class, a volunteer venture for me, which met each Thursday and these students, some from my classes, also helped produce the school paper.

The year 2004 was the last for Mary N. Smith, a school with deep roots in the education of Accomack County students, a school that will be in the memories of students and those who worked there all of their lives.

The final year was a big event for everyone there and our school paper could not ignore it. We wound up not only reporting on the construction progress of the new schools but the final activities of Mary N. Smith. The main workload fell upon some talented 6^th graders, Elizabeth Fread, Alisha Gagliari, Shanita Warner, Kristina Ormsby and Morgan Wills. They all agreed to work after school and sometimes we worked into the late evening, leaving when the custodians closed up. The result of all this reporting were the stories we published in the paper and also a 2-set DVD. The DVD included all of the final band and chorus programs, sports, and especially a long, very hot, emotional closing ceremony. How William Oakley, the principal at the time, the long time Smith teachers, parents, and guests made it through that breathless, airless night is a wonder. But all through the speeches and ceremony my student journalists were recording on video tape, taking notes, and gathering material. There was enough to keep everyone busy, but by then they were all familiar with our equipment, thanks to the tutorage of an older student, Nick Von Hollen. Had it not been for Nick’s patient guidance there would have been no video and no DVD. (This project later spread to Parksley Middle School where I also taught. 

 Back to the beginning of Wild Pony Tales: About three months into our 2005 school year I remember saying to Elizabeth, at the time one of my 7th grade journalism students who was in her second year in my classes that I didn’t seem to have any time with her anymore. In getting out our school newspapers in her 6th grade year we had worked elbow to elbow on many stories and projects, along with her close friends who by now were also veterans of school newspaper production and endless lessons in writing and photography. During our time together we had often worked on stories outside of class, planning, discussing, sharing thoughts and making decisions on the fly. But this year those meaningful moments had become a victim of busy schedules; especially mine since I taught journalism at two middle schools in Accomack County, Virginia, publishing papers at each one. This first year in the new schools was just a busy time for everyone.

So the next day, as I recall, Elizabeth came into class with a plan. She was good at that. “Remember how you said we didn’t have any time together. Well, I like to take walks and look at the clouds. Maybe we could take some walks together, maybe take some pictures.” If you knew her well, as I do, you would know this is vintage Elizabeth. 

Well, our first walk took place on Assateague Island, about a 40 minute drive from school, but a place we already knew, or thought we did. The after- school Assateague outings, which continued, became a special time with Elizabeth, who is from a family that I admire and whose next younger sister, Kristen, would also become an editor in my class. Stealing time when we could, our trips to Assateague turned into photo shoots. Elizabeth enjoyed the quiet, the unhurried moments you can find on this Atlantic coastal barrier island. She also enjoyed the classical music channel on our XM radio.

As our work turned more serious, my wife, Linda and I bought a $1000, eight mega pixel Canon digital camera and our photo collection began to build up. Soon we got a 100-400 mm telephoto lens. Elizabeth was in camera heaven. The day the new lens arrived we were tied up on after-school activities until dark. But neither of us wanted the day to end without at least trying it out. So we wound up driving back to the school parking lot, with the lens still in the box. With a lot of fumbling, Elizabeth got the lens on the camera and took a first look through it.

Now anyone who knows about long lenses can tell you two things. This is not a lens you can just pick up and use. And with the widest aperture at 4.5, it is not exactly a low-light piece of equipment. But that December evening, with her fingers freezing, wrapped around this heavy lens to steady it, Elizabeth took photos in the school parking lot – of the lighted doorway, street lights and trees that were beginning to glow from the incoming fog. 

Elizabeth was, as I came to see, a natural with wildlife photography. She was drawn to the complexity of the camera and especially was struck by us coming across different birds and animals each time we went on a shoot. No two trips were ever the same. These were exciting times for me as well. Nearly all of my prior photo experience had been related to covering the news during my career as a newspaper reporter and editor.

On one shoot along the Wildlife Loop a trio of Sika elk came right up to us. Then one old wild mare came ambling along, not where she was supposed to be. We photographed Canada geese in their mating rituals, the beautiful dancing egrets, muskrats, turtles and of course, the ponies. Then there was her first encounter with a river otter. Linda, who was with us, and I had never seen Elizabeth this excited as she followed the swimming and diving otter who was about 20 yards out in Swan Cove Pool. Those photos appear in our photo gallery with Elizabeth’s write-up.

On our shooting excursions, when the Canon was new to us, it would go like this. Riding over, me driving, Elizabeth with the camera and manual on her lap, me calling out settings, shooting conditions and Elizabeth looking up what to do in the manual that came with the camera. “Ok this is a cloudy day,” I might say. “What ISO are we going to use?” Or, “If you shoot at a 500 shutter speed, are you going to have enough light? We might even need to take it to 1,000. Ok, what about the quality setting, find that section, see what our choices are.” She could take anything I threw at her.

I should mention that the Fread girls, as they are known around school, there are six of them, are all A-plus students. Besides being super brights, as I might call them, they are also the most polite, courteous, helpful and caring young people you could find on this planet. My wife, Linda, assures me that the little brother now in the elementary school where she teaches, is just as wonderful as his sisters, the youngest of which just made it into Accawmacke Elementary where she is the reading specialist.

It wasn’t long before Elizabeth knew more about the camera and lens than I did. I actually never got my hands on the lens during this time. My role became one of driver and spotter. While she would lock in on a bird, crouching in the grasses that grow along the waterways of Assateague, or going flat out on her belly in goose droppings for a low level shot, I would watch the light, or try to spot a better angle, waving her over a few yards, or pointing to something she may not have noticed.

At some point, we cannot remember exactly when, the idea of putting our photos on a web site came up. The idea of writing about Chincoteague and Assateague had actually been around since the end of the 6th grade year for Elizabeth, “Lizzy” we call her, and her close friends, Kristina, Morgan and Alisha. We had even gone to the islands to explore a little at the end of that busy 6th grade year, but we got lazy and wound up at the beach. The project didn’t go anywhere that summer.

But now, here we were in December 2005, with some new ideas floating around. Elizabeth recalls a discussion in the hall outside our classroom, where our idea of a website was presented to her fellow editors to see if they wanted to take part. This was to be a non-school venture. It wound up with Elizabeth and I wanting to move forward with Morgan as a maybe. Also, vital to our project at the time was a former journalism student, Nick Von Hollen, another veteran of our projects and the only one of us who had the technical ability to set up a website. Nick met with us, advised us, and in December, with Elizabeth and I at his side, with a screen full of computer coding we had never seen, set up our site. 

Nick went back to college at Virginia Tech, where he is a computer science major. Although we kept taking photographs, we could get no further without web expertise. 

Elizabeth wanted to photograph the sunrise so we invited three of her friends to go with us on a 5 a.m. trip over to the island, if anyone can believe that four 8th grade girls got up that early on a Saturday. We missed the actual sunrise by five minutes, but the inside the car photos they took of each other are priceless, although not likely to wind up on their MySpace sites. Then came spring break. Lizzy and Morgan stayed on Chincoteague overnight in a hotel room next to Mrs. B and I. Another early morning attempt and this time we got the sunrise, followed by a freezing boat trip to photograph the ponies of Assateague’s northern herd. You can see many of these in the gallery section of this site. 

While editor, Elizabeth wrote the copy for our business card that after four years has not been changed, she has now moved on from the website, and is a senior at Nandua High School in Onley, Virginia.

In June came the end of school with all kinds of plans to get this site up and running this summer. Instead, we hit a low point. I got busy with family travel and projects at home. Elizabeth faded away to babysitting work, camp and responsibilities at home, which she always takes seriously and for which I admire her. We had time for only one photo shoot, our great times together just a memory. My anxiety level was rising. We were at a standstill and feeling alone, I was on the brink of giving up. I might have had it not been for Linda, who has been through projects with me before during our 35 years of marriage, some good ones and some failed, none that made any money. She reminded me that we had put a lot into this and encouraged me to find a way to keep going. But how?

The answer came from my relationship with another student editor. Back during the school year, when we were searching for help with the technical design side of the site, one of my 7th grade editors, Megan Paulus, showed me her own website one day in class, a very nice job. She told me her Mom had helped her and her Mom had her own online store and we looked at that site. So when I asked how much her Mom knew about website design, she put me in touch with her and there began a new experience for me. By then young people were using instant messages, email and MySpace relationships all over the place with people they never met. Today it is Facebook; and yes, I am setting up a page, and Wild Pony Tales even has a page.

And so Megan’s Mom, Dana Thornton, and I struck up an email getting-to-know you. It was some time before we ever met; but by then we knew a lot about each other, our interests and plans for www.wildponytales.com. If ever anyone came along just in time, it was Megan and Dana. It was all the pick-me-up I needed. Elizabeth resurfaced and we began to pull the site together.

Dana built and maintained the first site. Later she moved away and we changed to a new host and way of getting our material posted online. The new host is Alan Snowden of Website Management Services and he has been by our side now for two years. That he is located in Australia makes no difference in this day of email and Skype phones. By using WordPress which he got us into, we can post to the site and manage it all from my laptop or any other PC anywhere.

Since those early days a number of young people have written stories, learning how to track down information by observing and interviewing. I have been proud of their work and proud that the writing and photography of these students from the Eastern Shore of Virginia is seen around the nation, even around the world.

Our two present editors, Misty Thornton, a 10^th grader, and Kate White, an 8th grade student, are by now experienced reporters, able to handle interviews and equipment on their own. Kate is taking over some web posting duties and by summer both will be able to post stories, galleries and advertisements on the site. They are talented, helpful and willing to take on any assignment.

I have taken every student who worked on the site, around 25 in all, to every Pony Penning event for four years, getting up as early as 4 a.m. during Pony week. For nearly all of them, it was their first time to see this famous event, even though it is right here at home. Our young writers have been in the field with biologists and other helpful staff members from the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. They are required to see the films at the Bateman information center, go out on the wonderful two hour bus tour sponsored by the Chincoteague Natural History Association and read any number of books.

Over a year ago, at age 71, I knew I needed to bring in more adult help. That person turned out to be an excellent writer, Tammy Rickman, another teacher and mother who moved her family to Chincoteague because it was just where she wanted to live. (Her story appears on the site.)

More recently another adult, Windy Mason, has joined our operation and become a writer as well as general manager. Having Windy with us has allowed us to go after more daytime stories, and to begin to work on money-making projects, a necessity if we are to keep going. She is a strong partner and each day a new talent comes out of hiding. Her experience with the social websites has led to the introduction of a wider audience to Wild Pony Tales. She is leading our way into setting up our own ecommerce site on Wild Pony Tales and a separate T-Shirt site to be online soon.

One of our most important contributors is not a student, not a resident, and she just celebrated her 90^th year. She is Wilma Young, who was a senior volunteer and intern at the Refuge in the early 80’s. While here she wrote trail guides, researched, and wrote more. She made all of her work available to us and while several of her articles are on the site, there is more to come. As I have said, she is the only 90-year-old that I email and if one of us has a question about a bird or animal, she is the likely person we turn to.

While she was the editor, Elizabeth wrote: The website wasn’t a project we did without thought, and now, looking back I realize we all have ties to the island and its creatures. No matter how many times we go back to Assateague, its mystery never seems to fade. We seem to find new things to photograph every time we go. It is not something you pick up and get bored with, it’s something that reels you in like a fish on a hook. Because of the time we have spent and the feelings we share for what is Assateague, this site is going to be one our viewers can learn from and look forward to visiting again and again.

- Robert Boswell, Publisher