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The Assateague and the Chincoteague are
basically the same pony, found mainly on the Island of
Assateague
and on the neighboring island of Chincoteague, which is off the
coast of Virginia, America. The Chincoteague pony is a registered
breed that descended from the "wild" horses of Assateague Island, a 37
mile long island off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. The ponies are actually
feral animals, meaning they are only semi-wild.
The tale of the
Chincoteague pony is of the horses swimming to Assateague Island from a
shipwrecked Spanish galleon. However, the more plausible explanation is that
they descended from horses that were brought to Assateague during the 17th
century by mainland owners in order to avoid fencing laws and livestock taxes.
Today the horses are actually the size of ponies, most likely due to their poor
diet and harsh living environment.
Some of them,
removed from Assateague as foals and fed a high protein diet, grow to horse
size. On the islands, however, 80 percent of their diet is coarse saltmarsh
cordgrass, and American beachgrass. They also eat various types of grass,
bayberry twigs, rose hips, seaweed, and poison ivy. The high salt concentration
in their diets causes them to drink almost twice as much fresh water as
domesticated horses. This is why they tend to have a bloated appearance. Despite
the abundance of salt water around them, they very rarely drink it.
The ponies are split
into two main herds, one of the Virginia end of the island and the other on the
Maryland end. There is a fence on the state line that separates the herds. The
population is controlled, keeping around 150 ponies in order to lessen their
impact on the island's ecology. The herds have divided themselves into bands of
two to twelve ponies. Each herd occupies a home range. The National Park Service
owns and manages the Maryland herds, while the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire
Department owns and manages the Virginia herds. The herds are kept to about 150
animals in order to protect the existence of other natural resources in the
wildlife refuge.
The Virginia herd is
the herd commonly known as the "Chincoteague" pony, due to the fact that they
graze on land owned by the Chincoteague Wildlife Reserve. Horse management
programs have been instituted, even going so far as to give the horses shots
that prevent pregnancy by increasing the amount of antibodies in the horse's
immune system. The annual Pony Penning Day is a big thing that attracts people
to Assateague Island to see the Chincoteague ponies swim across the channel.
What an awesome site....young and old alike forging the channel to solid ground.
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Pony Breeds Page
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