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The Assateauge and the Chincoteague are basically the same
pony, found mainly on the island of Assateague, and on the neighboring
island of Chincoteague, which both lie off the coast of Virginia, America.
The ponies live a feral existence, and there is some mystery surrounding how
they came to be on the islands. One interesting theory is that they are the
descendants of horses that survived a shipwreck during the 16th
century and swam ashore to the islands. It is more likely, however,
that they are the result of Spanish and North African horses that escaped,
or were abandoned, in early colonial times, or that they were purposely
taken out to the islands by the colonials after the introduction of
horse taxes on the mainland in 1669.
Although the ponies are
small in stature, standing usually around 12 hh, they do feature some
horse-like characteristics, especially in the head and in the length of the
cannon bone, which indicates that they are descendants of early horses.
Their existence did not become widely known until the 1920s, but now the
ponies fall under the protection of the Chincoteague Fire Department, which
is responsible for managing the islands. They gained popularity in 1947 with
Marguerite Henry's classic children's book Misty of Chincoteague.
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